How to configure Requester Pay Option with Cloudberry Explorer for Amazon S3

It has been just a couple weeks since Amazon introduced a new option for requesting content stored in S3 buckets – Requester Pay option. With this option you can configure bucket in such a way that the user who request the contents will pay transfer fee. When your content is fairly popular and you have many requests, transfer fees may become overwhelming. Amazon recognized the challenge that content distributors face and implemented Requester Pay option.

It worth mentioning that Requestor Pay option seamlessly integrates with Amazon DevPay Service and you can not only pass transfer fees to requester but also charge the premium on top of that.

Note that you still have to pay storage fees for the content stored in the bucket configured for Requester Pay.  Also keep in mind Requester Pay option works only for authenticated requests. It doesn’t work for anonymous requests, BitTorrent requests and SOAP requests.

  You can get more info on this option on Amazon Web Services website http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/ann.jspa?annID=386

Configuring a bucket for Requester Pay option

 

We decided to support Requestor Pay option in the newer version of CloudBerry Explorer. To turn Requestor Pay option “on” for a bucket you have to right click the bucket and click properties.  On the property sheet click “Requester Pay” tab.  You will get the screen shown on the picture below.

 

All you have to do is to check the option off and click “ok” button. 

Note that a requester will have to configure a request for content in this bucket in a special way. He will have to explicitly indicate that he agrees to pay for content otherwise he will get an error response.

Configuring an external bucket for Requester Pay option

 

To demonstrate how it can work we decided to support Requester Pay option in our External Bucket feature.  When you add an external bucket that is configured for Requester Pays options and try access it you will get an error message stating that access is denied. You can specify that you agree to pay transfer fees for the content stored there.

 

So, now you will actually pay if you get contents from someone else’s bucket. We external bucket implementation will be useful when you explore Requester Pay option or test a more comprehensive system that employs Requester Pay option – we expect a lot of systems like this to be build in near future! Or maybe you will want to use CloudBerry Explorer to distribute your content and avoid excessive fees!

We are actually wondering if you find our External Bucket feature that supports Requester Pay option useful and we are eager to know how you use it. We hope you like our post and as always we are looking forward to your feedback!