Question

I have player.php file which calls the video player to play a certain video. How can i block certain sites from accessing this file and using it to embed videos on there site. In other words What code can i use inside player.php to block certain sites from accessing this file only.

Answer 1

You can do this on three levels.

1) Web server

For instance, using .htaccess file if you’re on an Apache server.
This could be done with a rewrite that pushes them to some dummy file or 404 or whatever you like. For example:

RewriteEngine on
# Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} badsite\.com [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

This is really the ideal way because it precludes the need to interpret PHP.

2) PHP

In your page, use the $_SERVER[‘HTTP_REFERER’] (which may not be set if there is no referrer) and search for the domain in question in the string.

This is second best, and may be your only option if you can’t alter the Apache configuration.

3) Javascript

Doesn’t really prevent access to anything, because the check happens client-side (they’ve downloaded player.php and the Javascript itself prior to running it). If they went directly to the video or whatever, it wouldn’t stop them from getting the file. You would use the document.referrer and search for the domain as with the PHP example.