How do I provide streaming video to non-members?

  • Resolved mrmacscience

    (@mrmacscience)


    10 years, 11 months ago

    I’ve been using S2Member and Amazon Cloudfront for a couple of years to stream video to members with no problem, using JWPlayer. But I’d like to make trailers of my videos available to web site visitors who are NOT members. How do I do this?

    Here’s the code I’m using, which works fine if you’re already logged in. But if you’re not, it generates the “not found/no access” error:

    Trailer, flv with
HTML5 Fallback:
</*Preview trailer*/>
Here's a short Preview of the lesson.
[jwplayer config="myplayer" file="https://rockitscience.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/accesspublic/Previews/BalloonRockets/balloonrocketstrailer.flv" image="https://rockitscience.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/accesspublic/Previews/BalloonRockets/balloonrocketstrailer.jpg" html5_file="https://rockitscience.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/accesspublic/Previews/BalloonRockets/balloonrocketstrailer.mp4"]

    You can see the page here (it’s published as private), using the pwd “testing”:
    https://rockitscience.com/wordpress/zztest16videononmember/

    If you want to see what a logged-in member would see, here’s a temporary login you can use:
    [email protected]
    pwd:s2member

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/s2member/

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • You’re over-thinking this. If you put anything in the s2member-files directory, it can only be accessed by someone who is logged in.

    What you want is to store the trailers in the ordinary media folder, and then put links to them on posts, pages, or widgets that are outside s2member protection.

    Thread Starter mrmacscience

    (@mrmacscience)

    KTS915, Thanks for your reply. So does this mean I can’t use Amazon Cloudfront to stream the trailers? My Cloudfront files were set up through S2Member.

    In my Amazon S3 Management Console, the location of this test page is:
    All Buckets/rockitscience/accesspublic

    My S2Member files are in folders like this:
    All Buckets/rockitscience/access-s2member-level0

    Just to clarify, this test page has no member restrictions on it.

    Well, you could still use Cloudfront and the JWPlayer. But the purpose of s2member is to keep files from general access, and that’s not what you’re trying to do here, so you don’t need s2member for this task.

    Actually, I can see a way you might be able to get what you want, though it’s really a hack that exploits a security hole that you will be deliberately leaving open. If you just put the direct hyperlinks to these trailers on an openly-accessible page or widget (i.e. without using a shortcode), you might find that they can be played. I say “might be able” for two reasons.

    1. It will depend on what Alternative View Protections you have set up in s2member (since these are designed to prevent precisely this sort of thing).

    2. Because I haven’t tried this, I don’t know whether the protections you have for the general s2member-files directory will override what you will be trying to do in the access-s2member-level0 directory.

    Thread Starter mrmacscience

    (@mrmacscience)

    Thanks, KTS915. You’ve told me what I need to know to make a decision. I appreciate your quick response.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • The topic ‘How do I provide streaming video to non-members?’ is closed to new replies.