Is there a way to share a specific page on webflow that is only viewable to people who only have a link. Kind of similar of how Google shares their files with people who have a link only.
A client is thinking about sharing a page to customers that has downloadable PDFs. They want to share that link through an email. Only people with that email are able to see that page with those downloadable PDFs. They do not want a login for there clients with a link. As ik webflow has the login thing. But they don’t want that.
Is there something built in of webflow that will do this. Otherwise is there an integration or any type of third party or custom code that can do this.
Here is an Update on what the client said
“We just need a folder we can drop the PDF’s into and customers can click the link in their email and open the file.
We would also need to be able to delete the PDF’s in the future, or replace them in the event we discover a typo or mistake.
We don’t need a page, just a place to put the PDF so the email link will work.
We don’t want people to be able to browse the folder.
We currently have a few PDF on our old server, so I would just want to move a few of the more recent ones to the new server”
So with this It’s not just a page. But a link that views the pdf file only. Is there anyway to embed an API with Google drive or sheets that will upload the file from webflow CMS and then present the link or something? They already have this thing on there server but want to use it on Webflow CMS. So there must be a way to do it somehow?
If a page that has links to PDF’s you uploaded to assets, is not in the site search index, and it is not linked from any pages on the site, you could just share that. If you add an exclusion in robots.txt good bots will ignore it, bad bots maybe not.
PDF’s uploaded to assets can’t be “updated”. Only new files can be uploaded and deleting does not mean they are deleted immediately with Webflow.
I would have the PDF’s under the CMS and that is how it would update, or would that not work? Like I said earlier. Is there a way to make this more secure with an api? or zapier with google somehow?
Well can’t anyone just go to the website with that link and open it? I guess if you make it uncrawlable it would be just as secure as the link for google docs?
Yep, but to have the link it mean they got it in your email, or someone shared it, or you linked to the page on your site (you shouldn’t). Telling robots not to index a page does not mean uncrawlable. Robots get links from other sites, other pages, etc. If there are no links there is nothing to crawl. If you require access control then you need to use another platform for files.
So a question stemming from this again. Is there a way to send that link out and every time it would open straight to the pdf. Instead of going to a page then clicking on the link.
The customer would click on the link in the email. Then it would go directly to the pdf link.
The Client would then be able to update the CMS with an updated PDF, but the link would stay the same regardless of the PDF.
You mentioned updating a SRC value after uploading an asset. Is this a way to accomplish what I stated above? If it is I don’t understand what you mean about updating a SRC value if this would work. Keep in mind I want all this to be a simple as possible for my client.
A <link> to a PDF will usually trigger the default behavior for that document type on the OS. When an asset is added to the Webflow CDN it gets a unique file name and the file can’t be updated or replaced, only new assets uploaded.
When you place a HTML link element on a HTML page, the link has a value pointing to a resource. The link text might be “Download File XYZ” which points to a static resource on the CDN. You could update that link HREF attribute to reference a new file anytime. How you handle this is up to you.