We have developed some flash content (.swf)for users.They ll be able to see those lessons . But the contents are easily downloaded by download managers installed in their system and they were able to reuse it in their sites . How to give security so that it cant be downloaded by download managers by moodle ? plz help
Using flash files related
Number of replies: 5Re: Using flash files related
Hi suneeta,
Honestly, there's no way to prevent anyone from downloading anything that you can view in a web browser. This is because the files must be downloaded into the browser cache before they can be viewed. There are various techniques to make it more difficult but those come at the cost of excluding some users. Media companies are in a constant battle with download manager developers to come up with new ways to prevent users from saving downloads. If their best and brightest are having a difficult time, how well do you think your department would do?
Following best practices, i.e. keeping presentation and content separate (SWF + XML + images, text, audio, video and/or animations), rather than combining them in a single binary file (single SWF file), will make it more difficult for others to reuse your content.
Just my €0.02!
Re: Using flash files related
Thanks a lot Matt . As browser is responsible to download by download manager ,is it possible to create any app over moodle with adobe air or any other technology so that when user click on that link, the app opens and send request to server and made the content to run? please suggest some alternate technology
Re: Using flash files related
An option is to include code in the SWFs that checks for their location. If they're not where they're supposed to be, e.g. on a web page in your Moodle, they don't run and/or they display an error message.
Of course there's nothing to stop someone from decompiling (reverse engineer) your SWFs, changing the code and then recompiling them. However, not many people know how to do that or that it can be done.
You can see this technique in action on my R&D Moodle on this course: http://moodle.matbury.com/course/view.php?id=17 Download any of the Flash apps (except for "Concept map" and "Wordsearch") and try to run them from your desktop or upload and run them on your Moodle.
Re: Using flash files related
Again Thanks a lot Matt for your valuable inputs . How secure if we make an app with adobe flex and made it to integeradte with moodle? means the user has to download that app and have to install in his machine and when ever user requests for a video it has to be open with that app only kind of stuff..... Is AMFPHP frame work will be helpful for our requirments ?
Re: Using flash files related
There are some Flex/Flash "front end" projects for Moodle. I don't know of any that are finished though. I think there's also some Moodle app projects underway.
AMFPHP is basically a translator between AS3 and PHP5, and it uses the same protocol as video. It's possible to add encryption to AMF3 streams but, at the end of the day, the downloaded files still have to be cached somewhere and a tech-savvy user will know how to get at them.
The internet was designed for sharing and it does it very well. While you can make it more difficult to take and re-use content, you can't stop it all together, and in trying to do so you may end up losing more, i.e. clients and/or students who won't or can't install software to view your content, than you gain, i.e. less loss of revenue from re-use without permission. There's also the added cost of developing the security measures and providing support for legitimate users who get stuck with your extra-complicated, locked-down system.