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Groups File Access
File downloads for authorized users
Groups File Access is a WordPress plugin that allows to provide file download links for authorized users. Access to files is restricted to users by their group membership.
- Provide file downloads for Premium Members.
- Allow registered users to download files from your site.
Features
- Restrict access to downloads to authorized user groups
- Full multisite support (WordPress network installations)
- File management area
- Upload files via FTP and bulk import
- File access notifications (customizable)
- Flexible shortcodes: [groups_can_access_file], [groups_can_not_access_file], [groups_file_info], [groups_file_url], [groups_file_link], [groups_file_visibility], [groups_file_access_service_key]
- Limited or unlimited number of downloads per user
- Key authentication file access
Access to files is restricted by group membership. To be able to download a file, a user must be a member of a group that is assigned to the file. If an access limit has been set for the file, the user must also have accessed (downloaded) the file fewer times than the file’s access limit.
If you want to restrict access to a file to users that belong to a certain group, create the group, add the desired users to the group and assign the group to the files that the group should be able to access. More than one group can be assigned to a file.
Shortcodes are used on posts or pages to render links to files, provide information about files and conditionally show content to users depending on whether they are allowed to access a file.
For example, the [groups_file_link group="Premium"] shortcode renders links to files that members of the Premium group can click to download the files.
Downloads
See the Groups File Access product page.
The GFA PDF Viewer is a free integration with PDF Viewer.
Documentation
See the Groups File Access documentation pages.
Demo
Please visit the Demo site.
access access-control capabilities capability content demo download downloads file file access file access control files group groups member members membership permission permissions
Comments
823 responses to “Groups File Access”
Hello guys,
I’m actually in deep shit… and probably it’s just something simple:– I want some visitors of my site to have the possibility to register for a user account
– with this user account, the just need to have access to PDF’s documents listed on the site.
– they don’t need access to the WP backend, not even the simplest, but I want them being straight directed to the website after login so that they can download their PDF.Is that possible? And if so, how?
Thanks!
NathanHi Nathan,
You can use Peter’s Login Redirect plugin, to redirect the users to a custom page instead of the backend.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi I purchased the plugin and it works great! The only problem i got is how can i reset the max download number of one user in one file?
Hi Tristan,
If you want to do it, you need to change the value directly from the database, table PREFIX_groups_file_access.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.
Hello,
I have installed the plugin yesterday.
However, when I want to test to see if it effectively works for registered users, and try to login with a user account, then my login screen turns white and does not let me either login or logout.
Can you help me out please? I can send you the login info in PM.
ThanksHi Nathan,
Do you solve this problem? The plugin should not interfere with the login page.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi,
I purchased groups-file-access recently and everything seemed to work quite nice until I tried to serve some “larger” files (e.g. 20mb):
Everything seems to be ok (I can upload files succesfully via ftp or backend, the files show up inside the backend, I can set the restriction / description…), but when I hit the link to download the file, the browser throws an “ERR_INVALID_RESPONSE” error.
As recommended by the documentation, the php.ini has been changed accordingly (256MB limit).
Cheers
Hi Kira,
If you are using Chrome, please try with IE or Firefox. It doesn’t seem to be a problem with the plugin.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.Hi antonio,
I also tried using IE… doesn’t work either. IE tells “HTTP 500” error. It seems like the links generated by the plugin doesn’t have any destination 🙁
Best regards,
KiraHi Kira,
if you want, you can send me dashboard credentials to antonio at itthinx dot com and I’ll have a look at your settings (please indicate this comment and the file name that generate the error, in the email)
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.Hi Antonio,
I sent you an email with dashboard access a few days ago. Did you found time to have a look at the problem?
Best regards,
KiraThanks Kira,
please enable your debug, maybe there is a problem with memory.
You can have a look at this comment about how to enable the debug.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.Okay, I enabled DEBUG mode: the wp-content/debug.log file has been created and is accessible to public…
It would be nice, if you could have a quick look, since this page is a ‘live page’ and I would like to switch debug mode off as fast as possible 🙂
Thanks in advance,
KiraThanks Kira,
It’s a problem with memory, please check the debug.log file. I have tried to download the big file at 9:41, and I get the error:
[02-Feb-2016 09:41:20 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted ....
You can disable the debug mode, Thanks.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi, we are use your plugin groups file acces.
We made several groups and file lists and all works well.Now the client want a group files to have acces to not logged in users… is there a workaround for this.
preferable we don’t want to transfer all files to the media library.tnx in advance.
Hi Bas,
I understand that it makes a good case to have all files managed through GFA when you offer them as downloads, so you can use the shortcodes and other features. The problem with this request is that the plugin can’t currently handle it, I’d have to check how we could add this possibility but can’t promise an ETA for it and if it would really be feasible. Do you have the possibility to ask users to be at least registered in order to acces those files? If yes, then the easy solution would be to assign those files to the Registered group to which anyone belongs.
Cheers
Hello,
nice plugin but It generates a huge error log…2mb on each page refresh O.OYou can downoad it here: http://trisrotondo.ch/wp-errors.zip
If the plugin is deactivated there aren’t errors, but with it…wow…the last erorr_log I deleted was about 2gb 😀
Hi Moise,
Thanks for the details from the log, I’ve checked it and it may be because cron isn’t working on your site. Can you please check using e.g. WP Crontrol?
Cheers
You were right, my Cron was disabled, but why the plugin need so many crons??
It doesn’t, they were just not handled and thus the amount of notices.
I noticed that you can restrict files in the Media Library to users with particular rights. I created a specific right, but when I go to the Media Library and click the file that I want to protect, I don’t get my custom right as an option in the restrictions bar. I only get groups_read_posts. Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?
Hi Indira,
You probably haven’t enabled the capability for access restriction – see Options in the documentation for details please.
Cheers
I have added my custom right to the access restriction area in Options. I indeed get it as an option now when I open a file in the Media Library. However, after setting the restriction on a file, I can still access the file when I am not a logged in user!
Ok I see, there’s a difference in files that you store in the Media library. The attachment post type is protected by Groups itself (not Groups File Access) so that when someone tries to access the attachment page, it will deny access. But that does not protect the file itself from direct access. That’s why Groups File Access provides its own protection method for files and these are not handled through the Media library but through Groups > Files. Do you understand the difference?
Hi. I need to update GFA and read that I need the Itthinx Updates plugin to do so. Got it, then read I need an Itthinx User Account for it to work (I got a service key on the CodeCanyon page). But can’t find how to get an Itthinx account.
Hi Charles,
Groups File Access is a plugin allocated in codecanyon, so you don’t need itthinx Updates. You can get the last version in your codecanyon’s downloads page.
Kinf Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi,
WordPress v. 4.3.1
Groups File Access v. 1.5.4
PHP V. 5.5.23
I have a problem uploading pdf files. When I download them, the files inside the archive are corrupted : « Unable to open document PDF. document is damaged »Have you got any suggestion?
Thanks.
Hi Mauricio,
sorry for the delay. Please try this:
– check the file before to upload it.
– Upload the file.
– Download the file using the plugin and check it.
– Download the file using your ftp account and check it.
if the origin file is correct and both downloaded files are corrupted, probably there is a problem with the plugin.
Please give us feedback about this test.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.Hi,
I checked the file, its OK, i uploaded it and i downloaded this with the plugin and i have an error message : « PDF document is damaged ».
In the other case when i download the file via ftp and open it, the file open normally.Thanks.
Hi,
Same thing here, can you provide a copy of the damaged PDF to see what’s inside?
Cheers
Hi,
I’m using 1.5.4 version and I noted that it saves in db full files paths. I think this is not a good idea, wouldn’t be better save the path relative to the wp installation path? I discovered it because my hosting changed the document root without notify me and the site broke down.
EduardoHi Eduardo,
Please see the instructions under the heading Moving to another Server for this. I’ll also consider your suggestion to make it relative, maybe we can provide an option to do so in a future release.
Cheers
I am using this player http://codecanyon.net/item/mp3-sticky-player-wordpress-plugin/7930491 on this page http://preachnet.com/freeindeed/partner-player/
I have GFA installed and it works great, except the player won’t play tracks uploaded through GFA, even if I am logged in as a user wiht access to the fie.
They player can create playlists from a variety of sources. Once is simply by entering file paths. For this test, I used the audio file at http://preachnet.com/freeindeed?gfid=3 but this causes and error in the player. The player’s developer said it needs a full path ending in .mp3. So I found this path for the same file: http://preachnet.com/wp-content/uploads/groups-file-access/Circle-Maker-PrayHard.lite.mp3
But the player will not play the file file with that path either.
Another way for the plugin to generate a playlist is by placing the audio files inside of a particular directory inside of the plugin on the server. Of course GFA does not upload files there.
So my questions are:
1. Is it that GFA files simply cannot be played through a third party media player?
2. Can the file uploaded through GFA be placed into custom directory (the one which the player uses)?Thanks,
RobHi Robert,
I don’t think that the player should insist on the filename ending in mp3, that’s rather bad practice as what is decisive is the MIME type of the file that the player should reproduce. Maybe another player would be a better option. There’s for example https://wordpress.org/plugins/mp3-jplayer/ and https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-miniaudioplayer/ but ideally we would be able to provide the file URL with session access – the problem with this is that normally you can’t use a shortcode as another shortcode’s attribute (WordPress doesn’t allow it) but there is a way I am thinking of which would make it possible. I’ll need to look further into this and let you know as soon as I find out.
Cheers
Thanks. I’ll definitely check out those players. The player I was using was the only one that had a sticky feature where the control bar could stay fixed and the list of all the items in the playlist would scroll below it. But I haven’t seen the players you referred to. Maybe one of them will also have that feature.
In my case the whole player will go on a groups restricted page, but I still want the individual files to be protected.
I am using max CDN with http refer, but I’ve found that using GFA adds another layer of protection because with http refer alone through the CDN, while the url of the files are changed, the origin url can still be easily guessed and accessed by anyone. With GFA, the url is changed so much that no one could guess the original url. And the GFA file is protected.
My site is a membership site using woocommerce, and I also found that GFA urls can be used for downloadable product file urls, which is awesome!
Also please let me know what else you find out about the issue, since you said you are further investigating.
Hi Robert,
I’ve been looking into this further and the issue is that we can’t provide shortcodes to attributes in other shortcodes (WordPress 4.4) unless in some very specific cases which are very unlikely to be available currently (I’ll spare you the details but it’s related to the possibility of filtering shortcode attributes).
What I’ve done is to create a pseudo-shortcode which is documented in the Shortcodes section. You can use [groups_file_access_process] to wrap a section of content and it will allow to indicate e.g. [groups_file_url ...] within the attribute of another shortcode. That works, but I haven’t found a single playlist shortcode that would allow you to simply indicate the track URLs and work (I’ve looked at quite a few).
If you find a player that will take several URLs and is able to recognize e.g. an mp3 by the file type itself (and not by its extension), please share your results here.
Cheers
Hi,
WordPress v. 4.3.1
Groups File Access v. 1.5.4
PHP V. 5.5.23I have a problem uploading pdf files. When I download them, the files inside the archive are corrupted : « Unable to open document PDF. document is damaged »
Have you got any suggestion?
Thanks.
Hi Mauricio,
sorry for the delay. Please try this:
– check the file before to upload it.
– Upload the file.
– Download the file using the plugin and check it.
– Download the file using your ftp account and check it.
if the origin file is correct and both downloaded files are corrupted, probably there is a problem/conflict with the plugin.
Please give us feedback about this test.
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.I have the same issue with zip-files.
I did install the latest update. Didnt fix that issue.
when i download the file via ftp everything is fine, when downloadiing it via WP-/groups-files then download is corrupted.I did enable/disable “Use specific MIME types”. Didnt change anything.
When i upload and download the file via WP media library it is not corrupted.
please helpHi Finn,
This is probably due to errors which might be caused by a conflict (setup, memory limits, other plugins …) – can you provide a copy of the corrupted file to see what’s inside please?
Cheers
This seems to be related to wordprress version update. with 4.2 it seems to run without problems, with 4.4 there are issues with all binary formats.
http://codecanyon.net/item/groups-file-access-wordpress-plugin/2228793/comments?page=7&filter=all#comment_11780603I would like to provide login details, but i am not able to login here?
Hi Finn,
Thanks for the details, I’m just posting to follow up here, too after what we discussed today via email. Let’s post any findings that could be helpful here later on.
Cheers
I’ve been having some seriously long loading times with both this plugin and the Groups plugin. Here is the P3 analysis by plugin:
https://db.tt/aUdIgAVyWP 4.3.1
PHP 5.4.22As you can see, they make up a huge portion of an already very long load time. I have WP Super Cache running as well as a few others, but nothing out of the ordinary. Any idea what might be causing these extremely long loading time? I saw another post from 7 months ago that had gone unresolved (https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-groups-groups-making-thousands-of-queries-per-page-view?replies=3), and am wondering if my problem might be related.
I’ve also experimented with the Plugin Profiler, which allows you to control which plugins load. Whenever I set all Groups-related plugins to OFF, the pages load almost instantly. Turn them on again, back 7-8 second load times. I’ve tried disabling a combination of different plugins, but nothing seems to fix the problem. It hasn’t always been an issue, but I can’t continue to use a plugin that has people tapping their toes as my site loads.
Thanks!
Hi Bryan,
It can be related to caching but I’d need to know details about the test run for which you have provided the screenshot. What pages have you visited during the P3 profiling?
Cheers
Hi,
We’ve been using Groups File Access for a while now without issues. All of a sudden, though, it looks like the file links are no longer generated. Instead, all I see is the actual shortcode instead of the file url.
The only thing that changed is we updated to latest WordPress version (4.3.1). Could this be the reason or is there anything else that could cause the shortcode to not be processed?
Thanks.
Hi Andrei,
You probably need to upgrade to the latest version, please download the latest version and install it.
Cheers
Using the Groups File Access plugin, every file I download has a new line at the beginning of the file. For binary files (png, zip, exe…) this gives an OS warning that the file is corrupted when I try to use the file. If I edit the file and remove the extra newline, things are fine. Is there a fix for this?
This sounds very much like a plugin conflict or an issue with the setup. Can you provide details on the environment you’re running this on please? Please also forward admin access to the site to support at itthinx dot com with a link to this conversation.
I’m loving the Groups File Access plugin. Great plugin!
The docs show that you can list multiple groups separated commas. I’ve tried something like this:
[groups_file_link group="blue,square"]
This returns anything in the “blue” group OR anything in the “square” group. Is there a way to return only the “blue” “squares”?
Hi Mike,
You could use the following solution – install this https://github.com/itthinx/groups-cmember which provides an additional shortcode to show content enclosed only if the viewer belongs to all groups:
[groups_cmember group=”blue,square”][groups_file_link group="blue,square"][/groups_cmember]
I hope that helps, please don’t forget to rate the GFA plugin, thanks!
Cheers
Thanks for the reply. I may be able to use that one too. (groups-cmember restricts content for users that are part of both groups.)
However, I would like to restrict the *list of files* to those in both “blue” and “squares” groups.
Hi Mike,
For this case you would have to create a separate group as the shortcode doesn’t support the logic. I can consider adding it though, but meanwhile you would have to create a group that covers files that are both in “blue” and “squares”.
Cheers
Hello,
i dont find the appropriate support forum for this groups plugin, i bought it 8 months ago.
Since last wordpress update [groups_file_link file_id="3"] does not render the file anymore but throws a notice:do_shortcode_tag wurde fehlerhaft aufgerufen. Es wurde versucht, einen Shortcode ohne gültigen Callback zu parsen: groups_file_link
Sorry for german. I think you can understand what this means,
Hi Fido,
please be sure you have the last version (you can get it in your codecanyon downloads page).
Kind Regards,
Antonio B.Thx for the reminder.
I thought i had it, but i forgot to upload the new version. stupid me.Perfect 😉
1 API
I didn’t find any API available to upload files.
I desire to upload files through a WP REST interface or any other PHP interface.
Do you think is possible?2 File limits
What is the file number limits that you suggest to be able to maintain an acceptable speed? I’m worried about the single directory. 1.000 new files every year with something like 100 users/group. Do you think this numbers are too big for this kind of solution?Hi Giorgio,
#1 Currently it doesn’t provide any REST interface for that.
#2 It doesn’t present an issue by itself, the limits depend entirely on the filesystem used. Here’s an interesting entry with references.Cheers
1 – no rest ok but what about PHP? We can write the REST part if some useful PHP API are available to insert new files in the repository.
2 – ok, i know, no directory limits but what about speed and memory requirements? It depends on your implementation. Are filenames cached? Do you scan the directory or Are they readed from DB? What’s the biggest repo you are working on? I was asking for your point of view with respect to the plugin implementation and the numbers i provider.
Thanks in advance.Hi Giorgio,
I don’t think that this plugin would be suitable in your case. You’d have to derive the functions from the plugin’s code to create your own and then I would assume that there are other plugins out there that might already provide it and you could spare yourself the work. Regarding performance, it depends on the filesystem, the plugin holds its own database entries for files and is quick in retrieving the related information.
My recommendation in this case would be to look for a solution that is closer to what you’re trying to achieve, it can spare you a lot of implementation.
Cheers
Files in admin panel not shown.
Hi, I’m already downloaded and installed the latest Version, but this didn’t fixed the problem:
After a ftp file upload – Scan for files – Import files there is a success message. But if I switch to ‘Files’, nothing is shown on the page. Even the help tab doesn’t respond.
It seems anything causes the plugin to choke on large files (>100Mb). Is there any Workaround for that?Regards
Hi Gert,
See the section Serving large files on this page please File Access. You most probably need to adjust your PHP limits.
Cheers
According to the descriptions I placed a php.ini in the wp-admin directory. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cures the problem.
I don’t believe it is a php problem for the file scanning and import process works well.
Any further suggestions?Thanks
Hi Gert,
Please check that the limits are actually working. For example with https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-memory-usage/
Also please enable debugging, to enable debugging, add the following lines to the
wp-config.phpfile:define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);Once you have made sure that the limits are working, try to operate with the files and check if there’s anything coming up in
wp-content/debug.log. Please let me know if you see anything in there.Cheers
Thanks, I read it but it doesn’t helps.
Also the solution described there
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/changing-file-upload-limits
leads no further.
And yes, it is a Multi-Site.
Any suggestions are welcome.
After trying what I’ve suggested a moment ago, if it still doesn’t work you should get in touch with your hosting provider.
Thank you.
Actually there is a hard php memory limit set by my host.Just to improve my knowledge a little bit:
The memory limit causes my problem with the plugin, means, when the php script scans a file for its size, the script consumes a memory amount as big as the file size, right?
If not, what is the problem when sanning big files (resulting in there is an entry with the file Name but no ID in the file import text file)?Thanks for any Information.
Hi Gert,
If your host doesn’t allow you to upload files as large as you require, then you will have to switch to another service which allows it. This is not dependent on this plugin, if your host imposes any upload limits and does not offer you an option to override these, then there are plenty of hosting providers out there which will happily allow you to do that and I would certainly recommend to switch to one who does.
Cheers
Thanks for your latest reply.
Please tell me how to manage to see it here in the comment page to reply directly – the link shown in the notification e-mail doesn’t work:
http://www.itthinx.com/plugins/groups-file-access/comment-page-3/#comment-690560However, the problem is not to upload big files – it works. The question is, why the file import script doesn’t create a valid entry (there is no ID in the text file created).
It looks like the plugin can’t write the file size into the data base if the size is large. The .mp4 file can be accessed if it is uploaded intoa different directory.Regards
Hi Gert,
Regarding this: “It looks like the plugin can’t write the file size into the data base if the size is large…” – I don’t really know what makes you think that but it’s not the case. Also you mentioned initially “It seems anything causes the plugin to choke on large files (>100Mb). Is there any Workaround for that?” and later “Actually there is a hard php memory limit set by my host.” but now you say “the problem is not to upload big files” … and you say you can upload files into a different directory. Using what? FTP? That’s not related at all to the problem we are discussing. As I’ve already pointed out before, you should work with your hosting provider to make it possible to upload files via PHP scripts supporting the file sizes you need. If that can’t be done, then you will need to look for another host.
I hope that helps to clarify, sorry but if the limits are correctly set there should not be any issue at all.
Cheers
Was just notified of the plugin update. Installed it and everything is functioning correctly now. Thank you.
Hi gillico,
It was a problem with the 4.3.0 wordpress version. Fixed in the latest version.
Thanks for the feedback.
Kind regards,
Antonio B.
In regards to my previous post, it seems that new new release of WordPress could be the the issue- does this plugin rely on php4 style constructors? 4.3 deprecates them. https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/07/02/deprecating-php4-style-constructors-in-wordpress-4-3/
After upgrading to WordPress 4.3 the groups_file_link shortcode stopped rendering (the shortcode simply display as-is on the page). Downgrading to 4.2.4 restores functionality. Is this a known issue and is there any expected resolution? Thank you.
Hi Kevin,
please download the latest version from Codecanyon.
Thanks,
Antonio B.
Hello,
on our Downloads site, the GFA shortcodes for files like [groups_file_link file_id="78"] working fine until ‘yesterday’ don’t work anymore.
The issue seems to has appeared with the last WordPress update (?).
For the shortcode [groups_can_access_file file_id="3"] This is shown if the user can access the file.[/groups_can_access_file] is still working, I’m pretty sure there is nothing wrong with the files or the group permissions or the site processing.
Any idea, please?
Gert T.
Hi Gert,
please downlaod the latest version from Codecanyon.
Thanks
On this page and others, the shortcodes for file access are being rendered on the page as the shortcodes (i.e. [groups_file_link file_id="222"]) not the expanded file name with links. Not sure what caused this to change, as it was working properly before. Please advise
Help! Shortcodes are suddenly broken — they were working fine yesterday. I think the problem is probably due to the WP 4.3 upgrade.
But all my pages now simply displaying the shortcode, so my users seeing pages with entries like this:
[groups_file_link group="13"]
rather than lists of documents.
This is very important to fix ASAP. Any ideas?
Follow up — I’ve tested — it is only the [groups_file_link] and [groups_file_url] short codes that are broken.
I have tested this on my staging site and the same problem is there as well.
WordPress documentation says that they have made some changes that impact Shortcodes used in conjuction with HTML — so that could be part of the problem, as these shortcodes call up HTML embedded links.
However, the problem only showed up with the most recent upgrade to 4.3 — I am absolutely sure that there was no problem yesterday because I batch uploaded and tested a bunch of files then. WordPress documentation says that the change to their shortcode API took place with 4.2.3 — see https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/07/23/changes-to-the-shortcode-api/
Anyway – PLEASE check this, high priority — because my users depend on this function.
OK — I fixed it– I’m right about the upgrade — but my fix is a hack that won’t hold long. But it will help you figure out what you need to do.
Here’s what I did -I downloaded WP 4.2.4 and replaced the shortcode.php file in the new 4.3 version with the older 4.2.4 version.
Everything now seems to look fine — so I’m correct, the problem is a change in coding that particular file. So I think you are going to need to push out an upgrade that fixes whatever 4.3 broke.
I’m hoping it’s no too complicated a task. I ran a comparison between the two shortcode.php files and can see several changes, but I don’t have a clue as to what it all means. But at least my support request can be downgraded from “urgent” to “as soon as convenient”….. (and I can get some sleep.)
Hi Abimar,
It was a problem with the 4.3.0 wordpress version. Fixed in the latest version, please download it from Codecanyon.
Thanks for the feedback.
Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi, please don’t reply to my previous question. The solution has already been given, I didn’t see it. I hope it will be fixed in next updates. Best regards
Hi,
I’ve bought GFA and it worked great until today. It systematically causes the following error on all pages (front and back) :WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away] UPDATE `wp_options` SET `option_value` = ‘a:6284:{i:1437003606;a:3:{s:16:\”wp_version_check\”;[…………………] WHERE `option_name` = ‘cron’
I didn’t copy all the sql request because it’s absolutely huge (1MO of text) !!! I think it’s growing over ! So mysql server can’t handle this.
When I comment this line : Groups_File_Access_Session::init(); in class-groups-file-access-session the error desappears and the plugin works.
Is the sql request normal ? Any idea about what’s wrong ? Thanks !
Hi Sylvain,
Groups File Access doesn’t add an option called ‘cron’. Probably is a problem with your cron system. Groups File Access uses the wordpress cron system. So if you comment the Groups_File_Access_Session::init(); line, the error disapears.
Please be sure you have the lastest WordPress and plugins versions. If the problem persist and you have another plugins that uses the cron system, you can try to disable them.
Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi,
I’ve bought GFA and I would like to use pdf.js (https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/) for viewing my protected PDF files.I get this error “Message: Unexpected server response (0) while retrieving PDF “https://myserver/?gfid=1″”. I think “pdf.js” does not find my pdf file… however I can download this pdf file from https://myserver/?gfid=1 (in both scenarios I’m logged in my WP site)
Please, any idea about this problem?
Thanks,
Antonio.Hi Antonio,
I’m preparing a small plugin based on PDF Viewer which allows to use a shortcode that uses GFA’s session access and the rendering facilities of pdf.js through that plugin. I’ll post a follow-up shortly with a link to the helper plugin.
Cheers
Following up, please download GFA PDF Viewer and use it with PDF Viewer. When activated, you can simply indicate the file ID using this shortcode to display the file:
[gfapdfviewer file_id="1" session_access="yes"]Hi,
thanks so much! It works! 🙂Just a suggestion (maybe you have a quick solution)… I have a list of documents and I don’t want “open” them until the user click on one of them for opening the PDF file in a new window using this viewer. Now, I’m thinking of developing a simple function to pass the ID to a general page to retrieve and display the document. My suggestion is that in the shortcode you can set if the document is opened by default or the user has to click to open in a new window.
Thanks and regards!
Hi Antonio,
I think that would have to be an option of the viewer. If the viewer has an option to open the document or open it directly. Although another option which you could consider is to have a link to the page where the document is displayed and then it would only open if the user clicks the link to that page.
Cheers
Hi there,
I just got into it. You have that neat checkbox with the basic Groups plugin => Groups => Options “Adminstrator role can circumvent the rights management”. So what about this for the Files extension plugin? Am I blind? I think the use of it should be obvious. Why dont you have it, yet?Awaiting an update 😉
Hi,
This works in general, there is no need to have such an option for the GFA extension. Also note that you can use groups with appropriate capabilities added to construct specific capability sets and assign the users accordingly so that the override isn’t needed.
Cheers
Thanks for coming back on me.
>This works in general, there is no need to have such an option for the GFA extension
Do I get you right? No need to have such option in GFA, because the basic groups plugins setting is also valid for GFA? That I cannot confirm. The are no file links anymore as soon as I open a restricted page as administrator with all groups removed.You are right with the notion to use groups attached to the administrator…. I did that.
Another thing: At the end of our project we had to install some image galleries. Which again hat to be protected from public access. We could not do this with GFA. If we would have bulk imported the images, then what? The shortcodes can only deliver some file links. There is no way to get this along with some gallery code. .. So if you know something about that, let me know. Perhaps there may be some solution to run accessing pictures through some rights managed folder. ?
Regards
Hi,
Regarding the rights, if you don’t see the links as admin it’s because your admin is not in a group that grants access to those files. You need to add your admin to the appropriate groups.
For image galleries, you could use the [groups_member] shortcode to enclose them.
Cheers
Something has happened to our groups file access installation. It’s been working for over a year, and now none of the links will open. All pdfs. If I click on the link in the ‘files’ list in wordpress admin Groups -> Files, none of the links work. We did update all our plugins and WordPress recently, and we also moved to a new server. Are there any server config settings that could cause the link to hang?
Hi Clayton,
As you mention that you have moxed to another server, I assume that the file paths need to be updated. Please refer to the section “Moving to another Server” on the File Access documentation page. You can alternatively use the File Import facilities to do this although updating the file paths as described at the end of the File Access page is quicker and simpler.
Cheers
Hi there – I’m working with WP developer and looking for a solution to do the following. Will the “Groups” plug-in support the following? The one thing I haven’t seen is any file size limitations.
1) Must allow users to register themselves
2) Must collect and verify user’s e-mail address
3) Users must be “approved” by an administrator
4) Access control must be supported on an individual user and groups of users basis, using arbitrary groups (number of groups and membership of groups)
5) Users must be able to be members of multiple groups
6) Access control must be supported on individual files and groups of files basis (i.e. individual files as well as entire directories)
7) Access control must include options for read-only control, as well as completely hidden (i.e. no indication that a file exists, not just denying access to read the file)
8) A maximum individual file size of at least 20MB. If your server implements a PHP timeout limit, it must be long enough to allow a 20MB file to be uploaded via a typical ADSL line (i.e. 768kbps upload)Optional features:
1) Per-user ‘private’ areas (i.e. “home directory” or similar concept)
2) Allow uploads by users into designated areas, restrictable via access controlThanks so much!
Hi Justine,
Your first two points are covered by WordPress itself. User approval is not handled by Groups and access control is based on group memberships, not on an individual user basis. #5 is inherent. These points are not related to GFA, only to WordPress and/or group memberships.
#6 GFA doesn’t support folder structures.
#7 it prodeces 404’s by default.
#8 depends on your PHP limits, not on GFA.#1b again Groups is designed for memberships and works on a per group basis, not per user.
#2b is not supportedCheers
Automatic updates for Groups File Access?
I see that there is new update (1.53) available for download. Is there a way to arrange automatic updates or do all updates need to be installed manually?
If it must be manual installation, what is the best way to to do this?
Hi Abimar,
right now automatic updates are not available. In the plugin you have a readme.txt file with instructions.
3) Update
==============================================================================
If you have received or downloaded an updated version of the Groups File Access plugin, follow these instructions to update it:
1) Backup
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back up your WordPress installation files and database.
2) Upgrade to the new release
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Upgrading requires to replace the plugin.
IMPORTANT!
Make sure that none of the data deletion options are checked on the "Groups > File Access" page:
- DO NOT CHECK "Delete plugin data when the plugin is deleted?"
- DO NOT CHECK "Delete all Groups File Access plugin data when the plugin is deactivated?"
To update, the plugin must be deactivated, deleted and the new release uploaded and activated. These are the steps involved:
1. Go to "Plugins > Installed Plugins", click "Deactivate" on the "Groups File Access" plugin, then click "Delete" to remove it.
2. Go to "Plugins > Add New > Upload" and click the "Browse..." button to select the new release's zip file, and click on the "Install Now" button. After it has been installed, activate the plugin.
Regards,
Antonio B.
Hello,
It is possible to allow to a group of users the possibility to upload files but without the administer management ?
Thank you.
Hi Jérem,
with the plugin you can not do it (it’s not the purpose of the plugin).
Maybe Frontend Uploader plugin can help you.
Regards,
Antonio B.
Hello,
I would like to know how to create files that may be showed by all people (also not connected users) ?Thank you so much,
JéremHi Jérem,
you could use the wordpress media system, using the “Add Media” button above the text editor in posts/pages.
Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi, I’d like to show all file a user can download, regardless of the groups. Something like:
[groups_non_member]
Login form
[/groups_non_member]
[groups_member]
All files you can download:
[groups_file_link]
[/groups_member]
Never mind, I found out: I’ll use Registered as “all files” group.
Perfect 😉
Hi, I bought Groups File Access, it’s exactly what I needed. I’d like to integrate some download links inside my template code. I read about shortcodes and they are great for pages and posts content, but what about php code? I’m a designer, not a programmer, but understand a little. Could you please tell me what should I write to make a list appear only for the users from a given group? Thank you so much!
Hi Mirko,
Thanks for using the plugin, the easiest would be to use the shortcodes and an approach based on do_shortcode, there was a similar question here a few days ago.
Cheers
Hi, I am going to buy this plugin, it looks really great for my project. Before I get it, I’d like to understand how it exactly works. When a new user sign into my WP site, I don’t want him to immediately get access to the files. I’d want him to register by himself, just that, then I’ll give him access to one o more groups and notify him he’s been authorized.
Is this how it works or could I get it working like that? Thank you so much!Hi Mirko,
I would recommend you to install Groups first before you decide. Set up a test group and try to execute the use case you have in mind – from what you say, this should be easy as you let them register and assign to a group manually. I’m suggesting this so you get an idea of how Groups itself works. If that is suitable, you can use GFA to upload files which the users in a specific group are allowed to access. As your process seems to be manual, you wouldn’t need anything else to cover this requirement.
I hope that helps but please let me know if you have further questions. Oh also have a look at the documentation pages if you haven’t already, that is Groups and Groups File Access.
Cheers
Hello,
I just bought group file access plugin to allow specific user to download report directly from our blog.
I don’t know how to use it, documentation is really poor.
There is not any tutoriel to help me to setup the plugin.
I’ve already setup a lot of different plugins and I never had to ask for some support.
If someone from the itthinx team could get in touch with me to understand how it works, it would be great.Thanks
Hi Julien,
There is in fact plenty of detailed information in the documentation, you must have looked at the wrong place. See http://docs.itthinx.com/document/groups-file-access/ and let us know if you have any particular doubt or question you need help with please.
Cheers
Hello
I agree with Julien: even though I have read the documentation you’ve mentioned above, I still have no idea about how to use the plugin. I would appreciate either a video tutorial or a step-by-step description.
We’re not all programmers, so it would be great if the documentation was written in a clear, understandable language, from the user’s perspective.
Thx!Hi Nathan,
The steps you are asking for are available in the Files section of the documentation. If you have any specific question regarding how to set things up, don’t hesitate to ask.
Cheers
Is it possible to open the document (PDF) when i clik ON the file ?
Presently the document is DOWNLOAD in the bottom left like a download file.
My client would like to open directly to the screen ?
Thanks
Hi,
That depends entirely upon how the client has configured her or his browser, as this is a preference of the viewer and is normally determined by the settings used for the MIME type in the user’s browser.
Cheers
the link you generate is : http://www.simplicitesisimple.com/fr/?gfid=2 (not know by all mime type)
Is it possible to give me some information where in the php code you start or call download with this link. I will check for open pdf link in a new window at the place of the link you generated !
What do you think about this approch ?
My client want automatic pdf open for the member users !!!
yannick
Hi,
It doesn’t matter what the URL looks like, the MIME type is provided in the header of the response to the request if it’s recognized. Anyhow, if you want the link to open in a new window, you can use the shortcode like this
[groups_file_link file_id="123" target="_blank"]see http://docs.itthinx.com/document/groups-file-access/shortcodes/Cheers
Hi Kento, I’m not able to get the files from the group file link to open in the browser preview window.
I have checked the browser MIME type preferences and can confirm the default for opening pdf files is set to the browser preview and it works fine on any pdf document that has been added outside of group file access i.e. Media library. And have tested this with Google and Firefox
So I would have expected that when a user is logged in and has permission to access a file they would be able to view the pdf file controlled by group file access and not to have to download it to view it.
Please can you advise as to why pdf files added by group file access won’t open with the browser preview, but pdf added using WordPress Media library do?Thanks Greg, I’ll review the conditions for that.
Hi,
I wrote to you previously about the issue with plugin that caused the cron field in wp_options to be gigantic, causing a major site slowdown (with a major client).
I can confirm now that this is indeed the case, and I believe to have also fixed it.
The issue lies in class-groups-file-access-session.php, line 147. The check for whether a schedule exists already is bad. The function wp_get_schedule() returns false if no schedule or a string if a schedule exists. Thus, the check basically says “if !(false)” which equals true… so the line after will run basically every time.
I have modified to be: if ( wp_get_schedule( ‘groups_file_access_session_delete_transients’ )!= false ) {
This seems to solve it.
For now, I have modified the plugin myself, but I’d like it to be included officially, so that I don’t have to worry about losing this fix with future plugin updates.
Thanks.
Many thanks Andrei, that seems to make a lot of sense – I’ll run some tests with your modification and add it. Great work figuring that out! 🙂
Hi Kento,
Regarding this old issue I wrote about before with the site slowdown caused by unnecessary repeated entries of cron events for Groups File Access (as per my original post).
I noticed you corrected in the latest version of the plugin, however the issue is still present, as it started manifesting itself again, causing site slowdowns, after I updated the plugin to the latest version. It took me a while to investigate but I think I figured it out. Let me see if I can explain:
The problem as I described before was that the function wp_get_schedule() returns false if no schedule. The fix that I provided was actually incorrect, but it did prevent the adding of repeated entries.
The thing is, in this particular case, wp_get_schedule() will ALWAYS return false. The reason is that you are scheduling a single event which doesn’t actually have a schedule.
A schedule, as per the way WP Cron works, is a recurrence (hourly, daily, etc.). Since you are scheduling a single event, there is no reccurence – the function wp_schedule_single_event() does not allow passing a $recurrence as parameter the same way the function wp_schedule_event() does.
As such, when you schedule a single event without recurrence (without an actual schedule), wp_get_schedule() is unable to see it (because it checks for the recurrence value which doesn’t exist) and will always return false. So when you check for if (!wp_get_schedule()), this will always be true because wp_get_schedule() will always be false, and the next line of wp_schedule_single_event() will always trigger.
The question then becomes if wp_get_schedule doesn’t return what you want, how do you go about checking if a single event is scheduled for a one time trigger?
Well, there is another function for that: wp_next_scheduled() (https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_next_scheduled)
This is the function that should be used to check for the presence of a scheduled single event instead of wp_get_schedule().
Thus, the correction is simple on line 149 of lib/core/class-groups-file-access-session.php in the 1.5.4 version of Groups File Access plugin:
if ( !wp_next_scheduled( ‘groups_file_access_session_delete_transients’ )) {
Hope this sheds some light on this issue.
For those that have been having issues with site slowdowns, the fix consists of two steps.
Step 1: First, you must apply the correction as I described above, by changing the line of code that has the bad check.
Step 2: Then, you must delete a field in the database (which by now has grown so large it may freeze your browser). You can connect to your database via something like phpmyadmin, then go to the wp_options table of your database and locate the row that has a option_name of “cron”. this is the field that contains unnecessary repeated entries of {s:44:”groups_file_access_session_delete_transients.
You can simply delete the row (instead of trying to edit it and clear it). It will get recreated automatically by WordPress.
Once you’ve done that, you can monitor the existing scheduled cron events from the WordPress admin by installing the WP Crontrol plugin and then going to Tools/Cron Events. If you try to view the Cron events in this fashion before deleting the bad database field, it will probably crash the site/admin page because the field is too large to fetch and it will time out with a 500 error.
Hi Andrei,
Thank you very much for the details, I’ll check this and let you know.
Cheers
Hi Kento,
Any word on an update regarding the issues I mentioned in my previous post?
I just checked version 1.6.0 of the plugin and it looks like the code was not corrected. As such, I am afraid of updating to the latest version as I believe the slowdowns will appear again.
Please advise.
Hi Andrei,
Many thanks for the reminder, in fact this still hasn’t been taken care of and after checking again it seems that you’re right. This should be fixed! I’ll need to review it again a bit further and will let you know as soon as possible.
Cheers
Hi,
Just to let you know that the latest version of the plugin is about to be released where the cron issue has been fixed along with other improvements. Many thanks for your detailed input and help to identify the issue!
Cheers
Hi,
I have lately run into an issue with the site using this plugin, that caused a major slowdown of the site not long after it was launched. It took quite a while to investigate the reason of the slowdown and the source was a field in the wp_options table of the database named “cron”.
The contents of the field was really gigantic and what was particular about it is that most of the values were related to the Groups File Access plugin. The values contained.. that seemed to be repeated thousands of times were similar to: “a:1:{s:44:”groups_file_access_session_delete_transients”.
I had suspected this plugin to be the cause of the slowdown earlier, but it wasn’t clear in what fashion it was affecting the site.
To fix it, I simply deleted the “cron” field in wp_options table, but I would really like to know the reason for which this happened and how to go about preventing it.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Hi Andrei,
This sounds like cron isn’t working on your site but also thanks for mentioning it because if it isn’t, the plugin shouldn’t be adding more and more jobs (although it already checks before adding them). In any case, I’ll re-check to see if anything needs to be done about that.
Cheers
hello
i need for some more details for this addon. ; how it works?
for example i need to limit my users download count individually:
x user: can download 30 files at all
y user: can download 5 files per daycan this addon do what i want?
Hi,
with the plugin you can restrict the access to files by groups, and limit by users.
But you can not limit by time and by total count. So you can not use this for your specifications.
Regards,
Antonio B.
Hi,
I’m looking into buying this plugin, and just have a quick question. Do you guys have a email functionality where you can send updates to your groups?
Thanks,
HenryHi Henry,
Not directly through this plugin, but you can distribute news to groups through Groups Newsletters.
Cheers
Is there any changelog? Which changes were implemented in this last version?
Thanks!Hi,
you have available a changelog.txt file in the plugin zip file.
This is:
* 1.5.2
- adjusted the filetype recognition to be less strict in favor of allowing file types to be recognized
RegardsOk! Thanks
Hi,
I have a problem uploading zip and rar files… when I download them the files inside the archive are corrupted and don’t work anymore.
Have you got any suggestion?
Thanks in advance.
Best regardsHi,
Can you please provide access to check that? Please send admin credentials to support at itthinx dot com and include a link to your comment here.
Cheers
Hi,
are there any news about the problem?
CheersYes I can confirm that this is an issue on your setup but it’s not an issue with the plugin. This might be due to a conflict with another plugin (the zip file downloaded seems to have one character prefixed at the beginning of the file). I would recommend to set up a test environment where you disable all other plugins and make sure that it works correctly with a minimum configuration.
Is there a way to allow user to search documents by title?
Basically I would like to give our users the ability to do a keyword search for file names or descriptions– ideally with the search results only producing files available to the user’s groups.
Thanks for asking, this is not available but it’s a good suggestion, if you have many files it would really be useful.
Hey,
I’ve just bought your plugin to use in my website.
I want ti use wp-login.php like you you did in your Live Preview but when use try to connect, he arrive each time on his profil page and not to the link I’ve send him.
Is there a way to prevent it?
My idea is : send a link a link to specific page. I’ve put script to detect group of the user. If it’s ok, he can see link, else he must login or register. If registered, he must login. When it’s done I want my user arrive on the download page, not on his account page. You see ?
Thanks for your help.Can you explain more about ‘groups_file_info’ filter? Could this be used to ‘filter’ a list of download links to only show those that have a specific word in the name or description?
We have a large number of file downloads and I’m trying to find a way to organize them for the user. All of the questions I’m asking have to do with solving this problem.
1) Can there be subfolders on the FTP server?
2) Can Categories or Tags be assigned to each file?
3) Can ‘groups_file_info’ filter be used to show a filtered list based on a word in name or description?If the answer to all of the above is ‘no’, then the only other questions I have are…
4) Can another download manager plugin be used with ‘Groups’?
5) Can I get a refund for my purchase of ‘Groups File Access’?Thanks for your time.
Hi,
Regarding your questions:
#1 No, the files are handled from the single folder
#2 No, you would use groups to distinguish between sets of files
#3 No, this filter is not related to the files handled by GFA
#4 Yes if it is properly integrated with Groups’ API
#5 Please get in touch with Envato for that as they handle salesCheers
Another question about Groups File Access. Can there subfolders in the ‘groups-file-access’ folder on the FTP server?
Is there at least an ability to assign Categories or Tags to each file?
The categorization is supposed to be handled through the group assignments with this plugin. Could you please explain why you would want to assign the files to categories and/or tags, too? Maybe it’s something worth considering to add.
Sure thing. Thanks for responding Kento. We are not using the File Access for any sort of paid download or membership activity. We are using this with an internal website for our franchise community. We have a relatively large number of file downloads (100-200) that are largely marketing and artwork files for our franchisees. The current ‘Groups File Access’ plugin does not allow for any organizing of the file download list on the visitor page side. We don’t want to use the ‘group assignments’ to provide file organization because we need that for access restrictions for the different types of franchisees that login.
Without FTP subfolders, Categories/Tags or some type of ‘groups filter’, there is no way to make this large list of downloads more user friendly for our users to search and browse.
I ended up going with WP Download Manager Pro (wpdownloadmanager.com) instead, which thankfully seems to work fine with the ‘Groups’ access restrictions. I think you’ve done a great job on the backend of the Groups plugins. The frontend user experience seems to be missing though.
Thanks for your response and all of your hard work.
Thanks for your feedback on that, also good to know that it works with that plugin which could be an alternative for others with a similar requirement. One note though, the group assignments also allow to categorize the files, here’s a simple example:
– Assume a group “Downloads” that grants access to all files intended for members of the “Downloads” group.
– Assume a group “Documents” that is used to classify files as documents. This group does not have any members, it is used to classify the files only.
– Assume a group “Audio” that is used to classify audio files. No group members required here either.Now you can list files in the “Documents” group using
[groups_file_link group="Documents"]and list files in the “Audio” set using[groups_file_link group="Audio"].The files are still restricted to members of the “Downloads” group if they are properly assigned, but the listings are showing files as per their classification.
Thanks for asking, subfolders aren’t supported.
I just purchased Groups File Access. I’m wondering if there is a way to assign a graphic icon to specific file types? For example, all PDF files could have a specific PDF icon for each download link. Is this possible?
Thanks for the suggestion, the file type isn’t taken into account in the markup generated but it’s a good idea to include that. Please see shortcodes for a styling example and options.
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