By TrinitySEM on

I'm looking for screencast advice from those of you Drupalers.

I am putting together a 5.9 site with a subscriber section with screencasts. Questions I have are:

1. How to prevent non-subcribers from accessing screencasts if, for example, a subscriber posts a public link directly to the video file defeating the security of the password-protected node. In other words, a link to the video rather than the node, thereby making a private video public.

2. Camtasia comes highly rated and I'm considering using it for this site. The files will be on our CentOS LAMP box (again, to keep them private). What would be the best file type and method for incorporating them into their respective nodes?

Thanks, I appreciate your input.

-Greg

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

for #1: take a look at http://drupal.org/project/downld and http://drupal.org/project/private_upload

for #2: i used flv files with flowplayer, embedded with their flashembed.js script.

===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Just change the Download method setting on /admin/settings/file-system to Private. Make sure your files are outsite the document root in order to prevent direct access.
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Joep
CompuBase, Drupal, websites and webdesign

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

keep in mind though, setting the file system to private has other, usually unwanted, side-effects.

===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz

TrinitySEM’s picture

TrinitySEM commented

Thank you both for your tips. WorldFallz, I'll give your suggestion a shot. I had hoped to find a module to provide this functionality but after countless hours of investigation, testing, etc, I think the most direct route may be the least hassle.

If anyone has additional suggestions i'd love to hear them.

Thanks again.

-Greg

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

you're welcome. And there are all sorts of modules for video/flash handling-- i tried them all. but for various reasons none of them worked out for me so I came up with my manual method. doesn't mean the wont work for you-- you might want to give 'em a try (check the media category of the modules page).

===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz

TrinitySEM’s picture

TrinitySEM commented

I tested the recommendations that were made and the solutions were very helpful and appreciated but did not fulfill all of my requirements. They did get me thinking and moving in the right direction.

Here were my objectives:
1. Add publicly or privately viewable media to the site (access by role)
2. Restrict public access to sections of the site (menu items and nodes available only to select roles)
3. Prevent public from viewing certain "member" role media
4. Prevent public and members from downloading certain media

Here's what I ended up doing:

1. Nodeaccess module restricts the public from viewing "member" nodes and menu items.
2. Asset module permits upload (from admin or orther) of media (in this case screencasts) to site and generates inline link to video or embeds it (works with YouTube too). You can set the folder and/or file as "public" or "private". If private, visitor regardless of role may not download the video (just what the doctor ordered) and nodeaccess restricts node access to the role designated.
3. Submenu Tree module enables the addition of "member" accessible items to menus.

It took some time to come to this solution but it works like a charm.

I hope this helps others.

-Greg

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Thanks for posting your solution back. One question though, are the "private" files actually private? Node access restrictions are one thing, but truly private file access is something else entirely. Even with drupal's file system set to "private", anyone with the url can access the file unless the files directory is protected by apache or moved out of the public_html structure. How does asset handle this?

===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz

TrinitySEM’s picture

TrinitySEM commented

Sorry for the delay. I haven't figured out how to get pinged when a response is made.

To answer your question, nodeaccess locks-down the node. Asset locks down the media file (with .htaccess). Once you set it to private, even with the URL, you should not be able to access (outside of Drupal mind you) or download the file. That has been the case on the dev site I'm constructing. So far, it seems to work like a charm. And it's super easy to set up.

TrinitySEM’s picture

TrinitySEM commented

If anyone comes along and views this thread you may want to be careful regarding the selection of the directory you choose to place Asset Module assets in. If you make "private" a directory required by the rest of your your Drupal installation you may be in trouble. You'll need to remove the .htaccess file in order to remove the restrictions (which exposes your private files again). If you don't have sufficient access, removing the .htaccess file could be challenging. FWIW.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I thought.

As for getting pinged-- you have to check your tracker there is no ping capability afaik (though lets hope the d.o. redesign fixes that).

===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz