only allow downloading files for users who pay

[hassank1]

Hi

I am creating an e-commerce website, where users who pay with their credit card are able to download pdf books.

how can I make a PDF file only accessible for those users (who pay and validate their credit card) and not for everyone ?

 

I want to know the main idea about securing these files.

 

[joel24]

have a database with the file locations, store the files in a folder with permissions restricting public access.. then retrieve the file with PHP (after fetching the location from the mysql database)

                header("Content-type: application/force-download");
                header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary");
                header("Content-length: ".filesize($file));
                header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename=".basename($file));
                readfile("$file"); 

[jcbones]

store the files in a folder with permissions restricting public access..

 

or, above the public directory.

[hassank1]

that's what I was looking for , thanks.