Protect PDF Thumbnail Images with PDA Gold

PDA plugins restrict access to all files, including PDF thumbnails, under the _pda folder by default. By rights, PDF thumbnails should follow the PDF files’ access permission.

Since complex checking leads to slower performance, i.e. image loading, we have not included that in our plugin’s features yet. That’s why PDF thumbnails are not accessible and display blank.

There are 2 options for you to choose:

• Show PDF thumbnails to Authorized Users
• Exclude PDF thumbnails from protection

Show PDF thumbnails to Authorized Users

In order for the thumbnails to be shown once the PDF files are protected, simply put this code under your (child) theme’s functions.php file.

Requirements:

• Prevent Direct Access Lite version 2.7.5 or greater
• (and/or) Prevent Direct Access Gold version 3.2.0 or greater

add_filter( 'pda_handle_attachment_id', 'pda_get_attachment_id', 10, 3 );

function pda_get_attachment_id( $attachment_id, $file_path, $mime ) {
   if ( $attachment_id ) {
      return $attachment_id;
   }

   // Only allow image file type.
   if ( false === $mime['type'] || false === strpos( $mime['type'], 'image' ) ) {
      return $attachment_id;
   }

   global $wpdb;
   $basename = wp_basename( $file_path );

   $query    = $wpdb->prepare(
      "SELECT post_id FROM {$wpdb->postmeta} WHERE meta_key = %s AND meta_value LIKE %s",
      '_wp_attachment_metadata',
      "%$basename%"
   );
   $metadata = $wpdb->get_row( $query );

   if ( empty( $metadata ) ) {
      return $attachment_id;
   }

   return (int) $metadata->post_id;
}

Now all the PDF thumbnails will be accessible to anyone with access permission.

Exclude PDF Thumbnails from Protection to Avoid Performance Issues

If your site has thousands of PDF files, protecting PDF thumbnails might cause performance issues, especially in the Media Library Grid View. In that case, you should not protect PDF thumbnails.

Requirements:

• Prevent Direct Access Gold version 3.3.0 or greater

For default PDF thumbnails generated by WordPress whose format looks like the following, i.e. your-pdf-filename-pdf-sizexsize.jpg/png,

http://yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/_pda/2021/05/your-pdf-filename-pdf-116x150.jpg

Simply add the following code snippet to your (child) theme’s functions.php file to exclude these thumbnails from protection.

add_filter('pda_original_rules', 'pda_allow_pdf', 10, 1);
add_filter('pda_folder_htaccess_rules', 'pda_allow_pdf', 10, 1);
function pda_allow_pdf($rules)
{
	$ignore_pdf_thumb_rule = 'RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^.*/.*-pdf-\d+x\d+.(jpg|png)$ [NC]';
	array_unshift($rules, $ignore_pdf_thumb_rule);
	return $rules;
}

Otherwise, you may want to exclude these PDF individually or altogether from our rewrite rules

// htaccess rule to exclude all jpg & png files from our PDA Gold Protection
RewriteRule ^/wp-content/uploads(/_pda/.*\.((?!jpg|png).)*)$ index.php?pda_v3_pf=$1

Last but not least, don’t forget to save our settings page for the rule to be implemented.