views:

122

answers:

1

Is there a way to control number of downloads of digital content on Amazon S3 or via some middle man software that talks to S3? I already use their timed links, but I would like to control number of downloads also. Any ideas of how to accomplish this using S3 or suggestions about alternative services that could? Thanks!

+2  A: 

couple solutions:

  • Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery system that has an api and integrates with Amazon's other web services. that's probably what you want.

  • fetchapp is another service that is very nice... they actually use S3 on the back-end...

you could roll your own digital download protector pretty easily with a script as well...

jspcal
Thanks jspcal. I'd vote you up, but I don't have the rep yet. I was wondering about Cloudfront. This is for integration with an ecommerce store, so perhaps Cloudfront will provide the programmatic ability to control number of downloads and not just time limit like S3. I had looked at Cloudfront but thought it was just a CDN for caching. Does it provide the api to control number of downloads?
m7d
yeah cloudfront gives you access to the # of dl's. it's pretty advanced, fetchapp is probably easier to get started with
jspcal
Thanks for the info, Cloudfront needs a better marketing page that lists that as that is a clear shortcoming of S3. Glad you answered. I had written them off and I didn't know about fetchapp at all.
m7d