PDA Gold Glossary

PDA Gold Glossary

Prevent Direct Access File URLs

Original Links refer to the File URL of any media files uploaded to your WordPress website.

https://pda.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sample-document.pdf

We call them "Unprotected Links" as they can be accessed directly by anyone as well as indexed by Google and other search engines.

Protected Links (or PDA Links) refer to the file URL of protected media files by our Prevent Direct Access Gold. Only those with permission can access these protected links. 
https://pda.com/wp-content/uploads/_pda/2018/12/sample-document.pdf
File Access Permission

File Access Permission (FAP) determines which user roles can access your protected media files, i.e. through their protected links, directly.

  • The global FAP on our PDA Gold settings page applies the permission to all files by default
  • You can also set a different FAP on each individual file:

Please refer to our File Access Permission priority for more information.

Private Download Links, or Download Links, are generated by our PDA plugin providing you with an alternative way to access your protected files. While they aren't indexed by Google and other search engines, anyone with the private links will be able to access your protected files.

You can prevent others from sharing your private links by setting an expiration date or download (click) limit, That's why we also call them Expiring Download Links.

Shared Private Link is also a private link but has file access permission. In other words, while Private Links that can be accessed by anyone, Shared Private Links, only by specific user roles.
Magic Links are a type of private links created by Private Magic Links extension for protected files embedded on your content. There is only one magic link for each file at a particular time. Magic Links are only valid for a preset time and will be automatically replaced with a new one after expiry.

Raw Links are the actual URLs that our PDA Gold handles both original and private links. Although they look raw and ugly, Raw Links work on almost all hosting servers and platforms including Nginx and WordPress.org as they don't require server redirect.

Raw Protected File URL

Protected File URL: https://pda.com/wp-content/uploads/_pda/2018/12/sample-document.pdf vs
Raw version: https://pda.com/index.php?pda_v3_pf=/_pda/2018/12/sample-document.pdf

Raw Private URL

Private URL: https://pda.com/private/protected-file vs
Raw version: https://pda.com/index.php?pda_v3_pf=protected-file&pdav3_rexypo=ymerexy

These files are private, and so, not meant for SEO purposes. So Raw Links are a good fallback especially when your server doesn't allow rewrite rules modification.

As a matter of fact, using Raw Links actually speeds up the process of serving file (and file protection) as the file requests don't have to go through server rewrite rules (htaccess or Nginx redirects).

PDA Gold Glossary: File URL
PDA Gold Glossary: File URL