Allow viewer access to download certain photos 
Author: Denzel G.
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I have protected my website to prevent my content from mass downloading. However, I would like to share certain photos with viewers, how can I allow them the access to download certain photos, or a particular page. Many thanks!
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Hello Denzel,
In order to be able to advise on this it would be necessary to know the method which you have employed to 'protect' the photos.
However, be aware that it is relatively easy to overcome most image protection mechanisms. The most effective method would almost certainly be to deny access to the pages by default, using PHP to lock the pages. Then require user registration to view the locked pages.
WebSite X5 can do this using Access Management:
WebSite X5 - Access Management
Kind regards,
Paul
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Hi Denzel,
the easiest solution would surely be to create a locked page only the registered users can have access to where you can place the images you want to make downloadable. You can use this Object:
https://market.websitex5.com/en/objects/live-preview/ca0b2570-2b30-4351-a139-337898ed2e
Thanks! Kind regards.
Author
After enabling the "Enable HTML Code Protection" under the "Privacy & Security" of X5, all the photos on my website are then prevented from being right click - download.
I would like to allow, say, the following photos (attached file) to be able to be right clicked and downloaded. Elisa's suggestion seem to only work for a single document, which is set on a single page, right? Whereas Paul's Access Management solution seems to a bit cumbersome as I need to allow access each time I receive a request?
Not sure whether is there any way going around this.
Thank you.
Be aware that using 'Enable HTML Code Protection' does not prevent images from being downloaded: it merely stops them being downloaded via the right-click context menu.
Any client side solution (such as the above) will be weak and able to be bypassed or defeated within seconds.
The only secure solutions are server-side methods, such as employing PHP protection via locked pages (Elisa and I proposed the same method... Access Management is WebSite X5's term for locked pages).
If you are really serious about protecting your images then don't put them on the public web at all. Send them via email instead, for example. Any image on a public server can be downloaded and saved to a user's computer.
Or, as an alternative, you could consider watermarking low-resolution images on your server, and offering high-quality originals by another method to interested parties.
Hello Denzel
You could save your images in separate folders. And then via .htacces you can have certain folders only accesible by inputting a code. This is the only way to protect images from download.
You can then have pages where you show low-resolution images ( eventually with watermarks ) that is shown for all. As Paul already told - if something is to be seen or heard on the net, it can be copied.
You could then make a link on the images for download. The "public" images in a non-secured folder - the "non-public" images in a secured folder. Another possibility is to have the images you don't want to be public as zip-files with a codeword. Then they can download the image - but must have the codeword to unzip.
Doing it in one of these ways, will make it possible for users to see all images, but only use the "non-public" images if they know a codeword.
Remember : if you use the solution with the secured pages, you only restrict users to see some images - the images can still be downloaded if the user can find them. And some users are able to find them. Also Googles crawler can find them.
If you protect either a folder or the single file with a codeword, then they are "protected". The downloaded and/or unzipped file is of course no longer protected.
There is also software ( for photo albums ) available that can handle this. some versions is for free.