Downloads

Not all products are tangible. Sometimes you’ll want to sell something downloadable, like software or ebooks. Bison can help you here too.

Product field

First, add a field to your product that contains the path to the file for download.

I’d suggest something like /_downloads/my-product.zip so you can keep everything organized, and protected.

download_path: "/_downloads/my-product.zip"

If you’re using the control panel, just add a file field to your fieldset.

fields:
  download_path:
    type: file
    destination: _downloads/
    max_files: 1

Protecting your files

You don’t want people to be able to just type in the URL of your files to download them directly.

To protect the _downloads folder from being directly accessed, you should update your .htaccess file. You’ll see a bunch of lines regarding protecting system files if you’re using the included htaccess from Statamic. Just add a line that points to your downloads folder.

# Protect your system files from prying eyes
RewriteRule ^(_app) - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^(_config) - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^(_content) - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^(_downloads) - [F,L]

Now if someone enters the URL of the file, they’ll get a 403 forbidden error.

Serving the file

To allow someone to download the file, there are a couple of tags to help you out.

You’ll need to use bison:file_download_link to create a secure link, and bison:download to read and process the download.

Creating the download URL

First, create a template and a route that you’ll use to trigger the downloads themselves.

In _config/routes.yaml, you could create a /download-file URL.

routes:
  /download-file: download-file

This means whenever you visit mysite.com/download-file, it’ll use the download-file.html template. In that file, you should add this:

{{ bison:download }}

That’s it. What that does is read an encrypted path from the URL, and force a download of that file. Your user will never even reach the /download-file page.

Now you’ll need to create the encrypted link to this page.

Creating an encrypted link

Once your user has checked out, you can create a download link for them. You could do this on an order details page, or a dedicated download page. Whatever suits your project.

You can create this link using the bison:file_download_link tag.

{{ get_content from="/products/my-product" }}
  <a href="{{ bison:file_download_link url='/download-file' file='{ download_path }' member='{ current_member:username }' }}"
{{ /get_content }}

This will generate a link to the download route you created earlier, with an encrypted value tacked on the end of it. By specifying the member, it’ll create a link that only works if you are logged in as that member, so it can’t be shared.

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