allow access to certain folder/files only for some users

.htaccess, apache, permissions, php, web

Solution

Taken and translated from this link (but is only available in the WaybackMachine).

Personalised output with the help of mod_rewrite

With the help of the function `wCheckPermissionViewFile` php files can be personalized. It is sufficient to perform the permission check in the header of a file to suppress the output. If other file types should be personalised (e.g. ZIP, PDF, ...), `wPermission.cgi` or a custom php file can be used.

To save the editor some work for writing `wPermission.cgi` before every personalised link to a binary file, instead the Apache module `mod_rewrite` can be used. With this it is possible to convert every accessed link before execution. For example you could define that `wPermission.cgi` is in front of each webserver call. The direct execution could also be redirected with the help of a php file (no `wPermission.cgi` necessary).

Example of a `.htaccess` file via check from Perl (`wPermission.cgi`)

#Alle Dateien mit angegebener Endung über wPermission.cgi aufrufen.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .pdf$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .doc$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .xls$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .ppt$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .pps$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .zip$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .jpg$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .jpeg$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .png$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .gif$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) /cgi-bin/wPermission.cgi?file=/de/dokumente/$1

Example of a `.htacces` file via check from PHP (e.g. download.php, see below)

#Alle Dateien mit angegebener Endung über die angegebene PHP-Datei aufrufen.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .pdf$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .doc$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .xls$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .ppt$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .pps$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .zip$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .jpg$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .jpeg$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .png$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .gif$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) /de/download.php?path=/de/dokumente/$1

Explanation

If you would like to personalise all PDF and ZIP files within the directory `/de/dokumente` without changing the links, you could put a `.htaccess` file into that directory. In this file the redirect rules are defined.

The rules can be extended with arbitrary file extensions, `NC` stands for non case sensitive. Be aware that the rules are also inherited onto sub directories.

The binary files itself have to be checked in and provided with the according personalisation.

If you would like to check if the file is in a valid publishing time period (e.g. online or offline), then do the check before the permission check via PHP API `wIsOnline`.

Example: download.php for the implementation "`.htacces` file via check from PHP (e.g. download.php)"

<?php

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Dieses Skript erzwingt den Download von Dokumenten. PDF, DOC, XLS und PPT Dokumente werden je nach Browser angezeigt.
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// Einlesen der Weblication(r) 4.x API:
require_once ($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]."/weblication/lib/WAPI/WAPI.inc");

$filenameRel = str_replace("..", "", $_GET['path']);
$filename    = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$filenameRel;

if(preg_match("/\.\w+$/", $filename) && !preg_match("/\.(php|php5|php4|xml|xsl|cgi|pl)$/", $filename) && !preg_match("/\/weblication\//", $filename) &&  file_exists( $filename ) ){
  if(wCheckPermissionViewFile($filenameRel) == 1){
    header("Pragma: no-cache");
    header("Expires: 0");
    header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
    header("Cache-Control: private", false);
    if(preg_match("/\.pdf/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: application/pdf");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.doc/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: application/msword");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.xls/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: application/msexcel");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.ppt/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: application/mspowerpoint");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.pps/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: application/mspowerpoint");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.jpg/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: image/jpg");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.jpeg/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: image/jpeg");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.png/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: image/png");
    }
    else if(preg_match("/\.gif/i", $filenameRel)){
      header("Content-Type: image/gif");
    }
    else{
      header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
      header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".basename($filename)."\";" );
      header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary");
      header("Content-Length: ".filesize($filename));
    }
    readfile($filename);
  }
  else{
    print "Permission Denied!";
  }
}
else {
  print 'Sorry, wrong path or file does not exist on the server!';
  print '<br/><a href="javascript:history.back();">back</a>';
}
exit;

?> 

For newer versions of `Weblication` this link could help. It is in German, because the manufacturers main language is German.

Problem

Original source