Restrict web page to be viewed once?

Question

I'm trying to set up a webpage (using wordpress) to display a video that can only be viewed once. After some research it seems that my best option would be to restrict page views via cookies?

For example i have found this code which I feel might do the trick:

if(!isset($_SESSION['mypage_view'])
{
     $_SESSION['mypage_view'] = 1;   
} else {
     //check if this is not the first time the page has been viewed
     if(isset($_SESSION['mypage_view'])) {
      //not first time redirect
      header('location: google.com');
      session_write_close();
      exit();
     }
} 

(Source: how do I show a php page just once only per user )

How would this be applied within wordpress? or does anyone have any better solutions to achieve this?

Thanks for your time!

Answer 1

If this is something where people will actively trying to defeat your security, this won't work. But if people want to view this multiple times, they'll find a way to do it regardless of what you do. Grab the IP Address

$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']

Toss it into a file, database, whatever floats your boat

Start the page with

$viewedonce = array(); // populate this however you've stored the data
if (in_array ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], $viewedonce)) 
{
header("location: http://redirect.com");
   exit();
}

If you would like to combine cookies and IPs, go to town.

Edit:

If all you are after is "AS SOON AS THIS PICTURE IS VIEWED ONCE, BY ANYONE, NO ONE ELSE CAN VIEW IT"

just serve the file, and then delete it

unlink($theFile);

you can also rename the file and delete it...

rename('theFile.jpg', 'derp/theFile.jpg');

or copy the file and delete it...

copy('theFile.jpg', 'derp/thefile.jpg');

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to do.