Download button won't work with S3

Does Sermon Speak create the download links differently for audio files hosted on the server than for audio files hosted on Amazon?

For example, if we upload an .mp3 file to Sermon Speaker through the front-end, users can download it using the download link. If we upload the same file to Amazon the browser (Firefox) plays it and does not let the user download the file (even with a right-click to save it). Using S3 means that users cannot download the file AT ALL.

If they are treated differently, do they have to be? Has anyone found a work-around to this problem? We want our users to be able to manually download whatever file they want.

Thanks for any feedback!

Yep, as soon as a file is stored outside the Joomla root directory, the download link will be a simple link to the audiofile. It's then up to the browser what options a user will have.

If the file is stored locally, the download link will force a download of the file. This is basically done by reading the file and dynamically offering it to the browser. The browser is then forced to download it first instead of directly playing it like it usually does with audiofiles.

I'm not sure however why Firefox doesn't let you save a file from S3. It should be possible for sure. At least it's not something SermonSpeaker prevents.

Reason for this behaviour is that php usually can only access files on the same server. In the case of SermonSpeaker I use the Joomla file functions which are restricted to files inside the Joomla directories.
There are ways around it with CURL and such things, but those bring their own problems with them, thus I avoided it so far to keep things as simple as possible.

Probably best for me to stop using S3 and stay within the bounds of my host. Thanks!

If you have enough webspace on your host, it sure is the best to have the files on the same server. AmazonS3 is a good way if you have only limited space on your webserver.

Also Flash can have issues with accessing files on different servers, which can cause the player to fail.

Thomas Hunziker wrote: Yep, as soon as a file is stored outside the Joomla root directory, the download link will be a simple link to the audiofile. It's then up to the browser what options a user will have.

Hi Thomas,

First of all let me say thanks for all your work on this module, I really appreciate it.

I was wondering, it seems like the problem here for Firefox users is that there is not a regular link that they can right click on to then "save link as" for the sermon files hosted on S3. Is there any way we could add a link in place of or in addition to the download button (which is currently not right clickable)? I think this could potentially solve the issue.

Thanks,

Andrew

Can you check if it works with the icon layout?
I think the issue is with the way the download button is built. Since it's a input button with a javascript onclick event that points to the download the browser probably acts different. The icon layout has a straight link to the download function, which should allow the rightclick.

Can you test that and see if it works together with AmazonS3?