Password Protect Files

The shopping cart is created in a way that will allow you to sell downloadable products (ebooks, instructional files, mp3 files, and other digital goods).

There are several steps you need to take in order to setup your website to sell downloads. First, in the configuration area, you will need to go to the link called Download. It will look like this:

If you sell digital products, you will need to change the 'Enable download' option to true. The rest is up to you, but I recommend leaving them as they are.

After you have setup the configuration for the downloads, go to Products Attributes. For 'Option Name' enter the word 'download' and for 'Option Value' enter the word 'yes'

If you are adding the products download from the Products Attributes screen, select the appropriate product from the drop down box. Make sure that 'download' and 'yes' are selected. Then, enter the filename for your digital product. When entering the filename for the product, it should just be the filename and the extention, nothing else. So, you would, for example, type in: ebook.zip

Files for digital products must be placed inside the 'download' folder inside your website. This can be done from the File Manager area of your admin found under the Design category. The main area you will be in will have several folders and files. The top will say: File Manager /home/user/public_html/. Note: If the first folder you see is not home, you may have to back up to get to this area. To do this, click on the folder image with the up arrow on it.

To get to the Download folder inside of your file manager, click on the folder icon next to the word Download. Then, use the upload button to upload the file to your website.

You should always double check to make sure that everything is running correctly. You can do this by creating a customer account for yourself and purchasing some products.

If you need any help or further explanation, let me know.

Oh, I see... outside the cart.

There isn't a way to protect a file, but you can protect a folder. Here is what I would do. In your cPanel, create a new folder. Name it whatever you want and then go to the Password Protect Directories area. Navigate over to the folder you created and click on the folder name.

Click on the box: Password protect this directory and then click save. Then, go back and scroll down to the bottom to create the username and the password. You can have multiple logins for the folder if you need them. Also, it may be a good idea to change the names/passwords every so often.

It works :) It asks me to log in. Of course, once you start adding files, the links will be
www.aleinoodleknits.com/Noodle_Pants/file.zip or whatever you have. I would suggest putting an index page within that folder as well. Without an index page, it would list all the files in that folder to anyone with the login who tries to go to just the www.aleinoodleknits.com/Noodle_Pants. It can be a blank index page.

Also, try to make the file names a little creative so that people can't guess them just by knowing the product name.