protect external file URL

Hi @ramin009,

When files are hosted externally it is not possible for EDD to restrict the files. The reason for this is simple: the files are not on the server that EDD is on and so it cannot hide them. All EDD can do is send customers to that file’s location to download it.

The only way to protect externally hosted files is to use a service like Amazon S3 that we integrate with through a developer API they offer to generate one-time, secure download links. See our extension for a good option: https://easydigitaldownloads.com/downloads/amazon-s3/

I’ve looked into the source code for WooCommerce and they handle remote files the same way we do. Here’s the code that is used for remotely hosted files in WooCommerce:

/**
 * Redirect to a file to start the download.
 *
 * @param string $file_path File path.
 * @param string $filename  File name.
 */
public static function download_file_redirect( $file_path, $filename = '' ) {
	header( 'Location: ' . $file_path );
	exit;
}

That code instructs the browser to redirect to the $file_path (the URL of the file). That’s the same behavior EDD uses.

It’s possible there’s an additional configuration for WooCommerce that handles remote files differently but I’m not seeing it. Do you happen to have that set up somewhere such that you could show me?