The Download ID plugin

Shown in the plugin manager as: Content - Download ID

If you want to provide updates to registered users / subscribers you will find out that the download URL in the XML and INI update streams results in a 403 Forbidden error. This is normal. These downloads are only available to registered users, but accessing the URL directly, from Joomla!'s perspective, is a guest (non logged in) visitor trying to access the URL. This of course results in a 403 Forbidden error and begs the question: how do you authenticate users?

The answer to that question is the Download ID. The Download ID is a unique, random hash which uniquely identifies the user to ARS. Appending the download URL with the dlid=download_id query string parameter will allow ARS to authenticate the user and, if they have access to the download, proceed with the download.

You need to be able to communicate this Download ID to your users. This is where this plugin comes in use. Just enter {dlid} anywhere in an article, Custom HTML module or anywhere else where content plugins are supported. It will be replaced with the download ID of the current user, e.g. abcdef01234567890abcdef01234567890, or a blank string if the user is a guest.

Important

Just because a Download ID is displayed for a user it doesn't mean that the user has access to any downloads. The Download ID is a user identifier, not a license key.

This plugin only displays the Main Download ID of a user. A user may create and manage several Add-on Download IDs. It's recommended that you create a menu item for this feature and provide a link to the users to it whenever you're displaying the Download ID.

Finally, do note that the Download ID for a user is created at random the very first time it is requested — either by this plugin or by visiting the Add-on Download IDs page. It can optionally be reset to a new, random string from the Add-on Download IDs page. In the very old and long ago made obsolete versions 1 and 2 of Akeeba Release System the Download ID was calculated by the user ID and the (hashed) user password. This is no longer the case since this behaviour would cause the Download ID to change unexpectedly when the user tried to reset their password, even if their “new” password was the same as the old one!