topic Re: how to prevent document from download ? in Alfresco Archive

how to prevent document from download ?

stc_mis — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 05:50:04 GMT

what should be modified to prevent documents from downloaded by unauthorized users but allow reading those documents on-line.

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

winston — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:40:28 GMT

Hi man,

hmm, I think if the user has access to read the document, then he will have access to download the document. I could be very wrong though :lol:

What kind of documents will it be? pdf, doc?
Otherwise I would just use html forms and display the data in html or text?

I also know that you can add a workflow to convert .doc files into pdf files.

wins

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

stc_mis — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:52:05 GMT

some ISO documents (maybe also for some technical documents) must be prevented from download , you can only read them in-line , can not edit , copy or download them for spread.
most of these documents are pdf files.

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

winston — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:17:06 GMT

OK,

have you got to the point where you can read those pdf docs in-line?
I would imagine you are using some pdf -> html tool,
But, if the person reads the doc, can he then not just copy the text and paste,
won't that be the same as download?

i think if i didnt want people to download documents, i won't show it to them :lol:
but that's just me,

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

stc_mis — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:57:57 GMT

some CMS packages provide the function that you can view pdf file in-line ,
but you cannot save them to your local disk. This function is useful for some technical documents those are forbidden from distributing to some competitor.
if alfresco provide some parameters setting in file converting process to create a pdf file , and save function in the pdf file be disabled , that will be perfect!

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

jey — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:39:55 GMT

Alfresco does not provide any inline reader for documents…

It relies on your local reader. SO when users have the right to read documents, they can download, and will, download it on their local hard disk!

If you open a .doc or a .pdf file, it is download in the temp folder of your browser and then open with Ms word or Adobe Acrobat Reader !!!

I know that many others ECM provide inline reader, avoiding the download of files! Which is very useful in certain domain, such as bank, but Alfresco does not!

It is probably too strong, but i would say that in those cases Alfresco is maybe not the right solution, or need a very hight customization!!! (If you have a good development tool such a behavior could be build on top of Alfresco). This is not a criticism of Alfresco, I think this tool is great, but it can't cover evry possible needs!!!

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

mikeh — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 08:22:46 GMT

some CMS packages provide the function that you can view pdf file in-line ,
but you cannot save them to your local disk.

I know that many others ECM provide inline reader, avoiding the download of files! Which is very useful in certain domain, such as bank, but Alfresco does not!

An inline reader still has to present the content to the browser, so I don't really see how this prevents getting a copy onto your local disk. Even if the PDF is converted to an image, OCR software will easily convert it back. Incidentally, I couldn't immediately find any CMS that allowed this - which ones were you thinking of?

In order to view native PDFs, you need to locally launch the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The reader has to download the PDF to your local cache in order to render it in the web browser. Therefore an advanced user will always be able to get a local copy. What you probably want is to activate PDF security. I'm no expert on Acrobat, but from these posts it looks like you can add passwords to stop printing, saving, etc.
Adobe security forum
Adobe forum post 1
Adobe forum post 2

Thanks,
Mike

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

stc_mis — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:14:07 GMT

I couldn't immediately find any CMS that allowed this - which ones were you thinking of?
–> http://www.newtype.com.tw/
they provide a package with this function

it looks like you can add passwords to stop printing, saving, etc.
–> yes , Acrobat 8 Professional can do so. but if Alfresco can equipped with this function while converting other types of file to pdf files , that will be better.

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

mikeh — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:43:00 GMT

yes , Acrobat 8 Professional can do so. but if Alfresco can equipped with this function while converting other types of file to pdf files , that will be better.

We use OpenOffice to convert documents to PDF which unfortunately doesn't seem to support this function. Besides, the original documents wouldn't have the same level of security.

Your best option is to run the PDFs you want protecting through Acrobat so you can be 100% sure the correct level of security is applied before importing into Alfresco.

Thanks,
Mike

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

kwantm — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:42:22 GMT

Hi,

This is impossible in any system that uses the browser to display the content. Yes you can prevent someone from saving the original file by inlining it (even then the file might be in your cache on the client system), but everything displayed in the browser can be screen captured (I have one that creates a nice long page with all content in 1 image).
This can then be OCR'ed to text. It is a myth that you can protect content while displying it in the browser.

Kind regards,

Marc
http://www.wowww.nl

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

othni — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:35:08 GMT

But what if I have a plugin to view TIF files within my web browser? Should Alfresco bypass it just because is is Opening/downloading it?

I need the ability to OPEN (download) the file BUT view it within the web browser with my plugin.

It is forcing me to open the file win the registered windows application.

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

kwantm — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:58:47 GMT

Hi,

First of all I am assuming that you mean TIFF file. If this is true then removing the association between the TIFF and the application in your browser/explorer should be enough.

My guess is that this is a windows issue and not an Alfresco issue.

Kind regards,

Marc
http://www.wowww.nl

Re: how to prevent document from download ?

krisapong — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:24:44 GMT

hi,

one of our clients also need these solution, so we develop the module call Universal Viewer, which could control and decrypt the document such as word, excel, pdf, tif, image, VDO, voice file.

the architecture are

all the document need to encrypt before send to the web users, and the Universal viewer will decrypt it in the temp folder or in the memory. It could also control the Save and print in this Universal Viewer module.

the thing we are concerned right now are the Universal viewer need to install at the first time. Actually, we need the do as the Active X or Flash plugin, but not in that stage. please kindly see the demo in

http://www.qdoclive.com

and share your idea with us

Thank you

Krisapong S.