«Restrict Files» plugin. Sell a digital content on your Discourse forum! (version 1.2.1, 2015-07-19)

[dmitry_fedyuk (Dmitrii Fediuk)]

Live example here: http://discourse.pro/t/33

The «Restrict Files» plugin allows you to restrict access to downloads (attached files) so only users of permitted groups can download files from your Discourse forum.
So you can sell digital content through your Discourse forum.
To receive payments from your customers you can use my another Discourse plugin «PayPal Buy Now».
Also you can offer your digital content for free, but only to members of permitted groups / trust levels.
So you can motivate your forum members to achieve the specified trust level to gain access to the downloads.

Version history

2015-06-08 Version 1.0
2015-06-29 Version 1.1
2015-07-02 Version 1.2
2015-07-19 Version 1.2.1

See also my other plugins:

• «Paid Membership» plugin with PayPal integration!
• PayPal «Buy Now» plugin: monetize your Discourse forum
• Image Gallery plugin: working and supported!
• «Real Name» plugin
• Table plugin: insert tables to the Discourse posts

The full plugin list is always here: https://discourse.pro/c/plugins

How it works (some screenshots)

1. A case with an anonymous visitor

2. A case with a registered but not willing to pay forum member

3. A case with a paid forum member

How to setup

Create a group

… or use an automatic group for a trust level

Add the paid customers to the group with download access

… either from the group page

… or from a customer page

Adjust the «Restrict Files» plugin settings

[dev221117 (Dev Jyothichand)]

It looks like a neat plugin for forums selling stuff, but try using less images to get your point across.

[dmitry_fedyuk (Dmitrii Fediuk)]

Version 1.1 is out!
Admin interface has been improved.
Now, the access control list suggests user groups automatically:

[dmitry_fedyuk (Dmitrii Fediuk)]

Version 1.2 is out!
Admin interface has been improved.
Now, the messages for unauthenticated and unauthorized users can be edited in WYSIWYG editor with support for HTML tags, BBCodes and Markdown:

[dmitry_fedyuk (Dmitrii Fediuk)]

Version 1.2.1 is out.
The plugin has been updated to be compatible with the upload changes introduced in Discourse v1.4.0.beta5 and v1.4.0.beta6.

[dmitry_fedyuk (Dmitrii Fediuk)]

Version 2.0 is out!
Now, the plugin logs all the download events for the restricted files.
The report is avaliable for forum administrators with information about download events:

• time
• file
• customer
• forum topic