Mulllhausen's Secure Links lets you control the users who can download secure files from your site. Each user sees a different download URL, which is an encrypted combination of the user's ID and the file name. If one user copies their download URL and sends it to another user then this other user will not be able to access the secure file.
Initial Setup
When you first install this plugin you should go to the admin panel page (under the tools menu) and make sure that everything is securely configured.
Usage
Once you have securely configured everything then the following shortcode becomes available:
[mulll0 allowed_users="alice anderson,bob brown,charlie clarke"]filename.pdf[/mulll0]
This will allow alice, bob and charlie to acces file
filename.pdf. Each will have a different URL link to the same file. But if any of them try to copy their URL link and give it to denis then denis will not be able to access file
filename.pdf.
- Usernames that contain the comma (
,) symbol will not work, since the comma is used as a separator between usernames.
- Full usernames must be used - partial usernames are not recognized. Usernames can be found in the WordPress Admin under "Users > All Users".
- Make sure to type shortcodes in wordpress text-mode, not visual-mode, to avoid unwanted html entering the shortcode text and breaking it.
- This plugin only enables secure downloads for files placed in the secure-downloads directory. If you like you can use another plugin (eg WP Easy Uploader) to upload files directly to this location through your web-browser.
- File paths should not be included within the shortcode - only the file name (basename) is necessary.
- Usernames listed within the
allowed_users attribute of the shortcode are case insensitive.
- Administrator level users are able to download all links by default.
- Make sure not to upload files that have spaces at the start or end of the filename since this plugin strips whitespace from the filename specified in the shortcode.