Security Profiles - Actions and Restrictions

In the realm of Security Profiles, each security profile condition can be associated with multiple restrictions or actions. These actions or restrictions are then executed or applied once the associated condition is met.

To configure these actions, a condition must first be selected. Following this selection, you can either click `Configure` or simply double-click on the condition, which will cause the configuration window to appear:

In this window, you will find two tabs with different sets of options:

1. Page Restrictions

Page Restrictions allow you to control what actions end users can perform when viewing the current HTML page or PDF document. By default, ebook applications allow end users to perform a variety of actions such as selecting and copying text, printing pages, displaying the context menu, among other actions.

However, if you wish to impose restrictions, simply enable the desired option(s):

Prevent end users from selecting text: This restricts users from selecting any portion of your HTML text or PDF document. The text will be displayed in a manner akin to print preview mode, but this does not prevent users from navigating through your publication. This feature is commonly employed when you wish to disable the "copy to clipboard" functionality.

Cannot copy text and URLs to clipboard: If enabled, this feature prevents end users from selecting parts of your HTML documents or URLs and copying them to the clipboard.

Disable mouse context menu: This feature disables the mouse context menu (accessed via right click), which allows users to access various commands like copy, print, and top page. You can also partially disable some commands using the context menu component.

Cannot print pages: This restriction disables the ability for users to print pages from the publication. By default, end users can print HTML and PDF documents from your publication, but enabling this feature removes this capability, along with the Print button from the toolbar.

Cannot copy images to clipboard: Similar to the "Cannot Copy Text" feature, but in this case, it pertains to images and is only applicable to HTML Viewer publications.

Disable Paste command: This removes the Paste command from the Edition and context menus.

If the document is a PDF file, allow access to X pages: This option lets you limit the number of pages a user can access in PDF documents (only if the built-in PDF viewer is enabled). For instance, if you enter 2, only the first two pages will be accessible, while the remaining ones will be removed by the viewer.

2. Locking Pages

This feature allows you to prevent end users from accessing the current HTML page or PDF document. When a page is locked, it cannot be displayed, and instead, an error page is shown. You have the option to specify which page should be displayed in such instances.

When an HTML page is being requested, the publication loads its associated security profile and executes all actions of fulfilled conditions. If one of the actions is of the "page is locked" type, then the HTML page is not displayed at all.

By playing with the different conditions of a security profile, you can determine whether a user should have access to a page or not.

  See this sample about how to use a security profile to password protect pages (using "Locking Pages").

  Return to Security Profiles.