Ever want to prevent users from accessing specific areas of your site? You can do so through software; for instance, WordPress has a login mechanism for users. But let’s say that you want to prevent the general public from accessing a specific area of the site regardless of being logged in. You can do this using the .htaccess file.
In a nutshell, a .htaccess file is a configuration file that affects the folder it resides in and any subfolders below the file.
For example, I have a folder structure like this:
- Root
- FolderA
- FolderA1
- FolderA2
- FolderB
- FolderA
If I want to block off FolderA2 from general public access. To do this, I add a new file to /Root/FolderA/FolderA2 and title it “.htaaccess”. The file is a plain text file and inside, I type the following:
Order deny,allow
Deny from allNext time I access the any files in FolderA2 through my web browser, I see something like this:
Keep in mind that you can place one .htaccess file in each folder. Of course, .htaccess files that are in child folders take precedence over parent folders.