The Download Link Protection plugin provides a very simple but practical way to hide the real URLs for files from being displayed and accessed directly. The real URLs are replaced with incomprehensible URLs that do not reveal anything about the file to be downloaded. So the user will never find the real URL of the downloaded file.

The operation of the protected links is limited only to the users that can click to them through the website. The protected links don't work outside the website. If a person give the protected URL (through an email or forum or anything else) to another person, the link will not work. Furthermore the protected URL will work only as long as the session of the first person is alive. After the person has left the website, the protected links stop to work. He has to visit the website again and click to a new protected link that will download the same file again.

The protected URLs are consisted of the URL to the homepage of the website and a random number as parameter. If the protected URL is accessed by a person outside the website, then he ends up to the homepage of the website.

What this plugin can do:

• Hides the real URLs for files with protected URLs.
• Does not reveal the real URL of the downloaded file in any way.
• Limits the protected URLs to be working only for the person who is able to click to them through the website.
• Does not allow the protected URLs to work anywhere else outside the website.
• Creates different protected URLS for each user and in different visits of the same user.
• Displays a special message if the file does not exist.

Change log:

2.0.2:
- Handle of rare crash.
2.0.1:
- Compatible with Joomla 5.
- The new "Font Awesome 6" font family is used for the lock icon in Joomla 5.
2.0.0:
- Compatible with Joomla 4 and Joomla 3.10.x.
- New PHP DOM parser.
- Fix on full URLs and absolute paths.
- The new "Font Awesome 5" font family is used for the lock icon in Joomla 4.
1.0.5:
- Option to open the common files in the browser.
- More file types added in order to be downloaded.
1.0.4:
- Elements using the 'src' attribute are also included.
1.0.3:
- File names with empty spaces are supported.
1.0.2:
- More security. The files to be downloaded are copied to the 'tmp' folder of Joomla with a unique name in order to be downloaded from there and then deleted automatically.
1.0.1:
- Fix of deprecated method.
1.0.0:
- First release of the Download Link Protection extension.: