[Transmogrify]

Hey guys,

Am working on a project and am using SWFObject to play a Flash movie, which in turn plays a .flv file. The Flash movie is stored within the web root folder, however I would like the .flv file to be contained outside this directory so it can't be downloaded directly. Is this possible? Within the Flash movie file, I assume we can point the relative or actual path of the .flv file to be anywhere on the server, or is this not the case?

Cheers in advance!

[roto]

Ewwwww...you have to work with htdocs, too? Such a mess...

I'd assume there's a bit of programming you could put in place to use either path to the .flv. Some of the programming nerds should be able to come up with something.

[Larixk]

flash works client-side so I think hiding it outside public_html won't work.

[dan]

Originally Posted by Transmogrify

Hey guys,
I assume we can point the relative or actual path of the .flv file to be anywhere on the server, or is this not the case?

Yes that's true. Are you using the FLVPlayback component, if so you can use,

FLVPlayback.load();

To specify your URL.

However (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) as far as I understand it, even if you place the flv is outside of the htdocs folder the user is still going to be able to access it, as the location/file will have to be made accessable to the public for it to work with your site. I've seen many similar discussions about "hiding" MP3 files, there are ways to make it more difficult but they seem quite involved and require certain server permissions that I know I don't have access to on many of the servers I work on.

If you're using progressive download the user is always going to have access to the file no matter how you cut it as it is essentially downloaded to their system. The only true way around it is to use streaming servers.

If you do find a way around it let me know, could come in very useful.

[proc355]

apache : Flash streaming with mod flvx - www.mosalov.com
lighttpd : ~jk flv streaming (good lightweight option if you can install daemons)

[Transmogrify]

Thanks for the tips all, it doesn't matter 100% of where the flv file lives but it'd be marginally easier if it could sit outside the web root directory as the flv file plus a load of quicktime movies are generated using final cut server. No problems but will check out the links!

[dan]

Originally Posted by proc355

apache : Flash streaming with mod flvx - www.mosalov.com
lighttpd : ~jk flv streaming (good lightweight option if you can install daemons)

Interesting. Will have to have a play with those.

[proc355]

Originally Posted by dan

Interesting. Will have to have a play with those.

you may also want to have a look @ nginx if you're ok with partial documentation (it's getting better); it's a great low footprint server that also has a flv module

apache may be ubiquitous but it's a fat bastard