Seek for restricted pdf viewing advice

Questions about Thunkable
1

Hi,

I want to make a pdf available in thunkable.
I know about the pdfviewer. Viewing a publicly available pdf is easy.
However, I want to show a restricted pdf. Meaning that the pdf can only be opened by the thunkable app.
I also do not want the pdf to be found by a robot/crawler.

I though of these methods:

  1. store the pdf somewhere online with a non guessable link. Restrict crawlers…but it will be found eventually
  2. secure folder with htaccess. But how to enter user and pass automatically?
  3. ?
2

You could try setting the screen with a password/phrase where a user can only see the screen if they enter a password. You could do this easily with a conditional. If password is correct, navigate to screen with PDF, if not, show an error or navigate to a different page.

3

Hi Matt,
Thanks for your reaction.

Once the user is in the app they are allowed to see everything. The app has a login function.
The problem is that I do not want the pdf “in the open” on the internet.
So people should not be able to open the pdf by navigating to the pdf URL.

I now managed to show the pdf in a google doc viewer but then it is not zoomable.

4

Do you have the ability to save the PDF as a variable locally in the app? That would solve all of this.

5

That would mean I have to update the app as soon as the manual (pdf) changes.
Not a preferred solution.

7

For it to not be searched then by a crawler is a bit beyond anything you could do with Thunkable then. The site hosting the pdf would need to implement some kind of CAPTCHA or you could update some information in the header of the site if you have access to that.

8

If thunkable could somehow login an htaccess protected folders and transfer user and pass it could be done.
Or of thunkable pdf viewer could handle a file stored on google drive, onedrive etc. it could also be done. But the links to those files do not end with .pdf which is a requirement for the pdf viewer to work

Thanks for pointing out the CAPTCHA I will try that idea.

9

I don’t believe this is possible but you could Google htaccess thunkable and see what comes up.

Unfortunately, the way the PDF Reader component works with a URL, that URL must end in .pdf to be read correctly.

10

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