[Rails] Serving lots of images to only registred users

[Tarmo Tänav]

You could use lighttpd mod_secdownload[1], this way all authentication
would only be done for the page itself and the page will decide
if it will generate you working links for images. Ofcourse that means
that the images have to be directly accessable from /public, but
noone without access to the pages that show the images would be
able to link to the images.

[1] http://www.lighttpd.net/documentation/secdownload.html

On T, 2006-01-10 at 14:32 +0100, Gokhan Arli wrote:
> Hello guys,
> 
> I am building a photo website and I have some questions before I really 
> start programming the site.
> 
> My system will be Debian + lighttpd + mysql +fastcgi + ImageMagick
> 
> I plan to use file_column for image handling/verification and thumbnail 
> creation.
> 
> My question is;
> 
> I need to store images in a place outside of webroot so only registered 
> members can see them. To serve them secure way I was planning to use 
> send_data to show pictures but
> 
> In thumbnails section I will be showing  20 images per page and lets 
> assume their url will be
> 
> domain.com/browse/image/111
> 
> it means image action in browse controller will be called 20 times = 
> lots of sql query to run especially for each image action I have to 
> check if user is logged in user. It can be pretty heavy.
> 
> Anybody has better idea? Or anybody worked on such a project and what 
> kind of solution you followed?
> 
> Thanks all
> 
> Regards
> Gokhan
> 
> 
>