how to make images not accessible by browser

TheIceman5

client has requested that when he updates his site via CMS and uploads images that they are not available to search engines or via a browser until the date specified by him for public viewing of the news article which he neters when adding the news article.
how would one go about this? change the CHMOD of the file or copy to another inaccessible directory and when time comes to show article it copies it back automatically to public directory?

Weedpacket

Search engines won't see them unless there are links to them that their spiders can follow. People using browsers won't see them unless they find links to them or they're able to guess the filenames and request them directly, or the server is (erroneously) set up to allow browsing of directory listings.

So ... don't make any links to the new files. Wait until the news article is netered (whatever that means).

TheIceman5

ok, heres another scenerio. a new article is entered with pdf files uploaded and images put on the page. the page is visible to the public. the company then thinks, poop, we cant let this info out so early we will get into trouble. they then uncheck the publish box so that the news article and files are still on the server but not visible to the public.
the public have links to the pdf file now, the company doesnt want this, how do you make the file not available to the public without deleting it or renaming it?? CHMOD it? or what?

wilku

I'm not sure how about performance, but you could serve your files with another script. For example, when uploading, you assign some id to pdf file. In your article, instead of giving direct link to pdf, you put something like:

<a href="download_pdf.php?id=some_id">Here's a pdf to download</a>

And in download_pdf.php:

//check if $_GET['id'] exist and is published
//if not send 404 error

//if all's well send headers for pdf
header(...);

//serve file
$file_name = GetPdfNameForThisID($_GET['id']);
readfile($file_name);

Weedpacket

TheIceman5 wrote:
the public have links to the pdf file now,

So what happens when you "uncheck the publish box"?

but not visible to the public

So how do the public still have the links if they're not visible?

TheIceman5

Weedpacket wrote:
So what happens when you "uncheck the publish box"?

the page is no longer visible to public but still in database.

Weedpacket wrote:
So how do the public still have the links if they're not visible?

could have bookmarked them when the page was visible to public.

Weedpacket

TheIceman5 wrote:
could have bookmarked them when the page was visible to public.

People usually don't bookmark PDF's, they usually save them. But whether they do or not, the public (and search engines) have already seen them. So chances are good that copies are already in circulation.

Most effective solution to prevent staff from seeing uploaded material: don't upload material. Have a sensible protocol in place and stick to it.

Of course, even staff members are dumb, and will ignore anything that inconveniences them even if it's there to stop them getting into trouble. Go back to wilku's post.

Or just move the file. Out of the document root if you can, or just somewhere other than where the link points to if you can't. Move it back again later when you want to. Remember where it is so that you can find it again, or delete it if it's decided that it shouldn't be there at all.

TheIceman5

hmmmm, clients suck is all i have to say.