How to configure Private Content for CloudFront Steaming with CloudBerry S3 Explorer

Note: this post applies to CloudBerry Explorer 1.9.1 and later.

CloudFront team recently introduced a set of features that would to allow you to secure content streamed through Amazon CloudFront. Private content features for streaming distributions give customers more control over who can and who cannot view content streamed with the service.

New release of CloudBerry Explorer fully supports configuring private content for streaming distributions and this article will demonstrate how.

To enable Private Content select a bucket and click Streaming button on the toolbar on in the context menu. Make sure a streaming distribution is created already and go to Private Content tab. Check out our previous blog post on how to create the streaming distribution.

Click Enable Private Content Distribution check box and make sure you click Add myself as a trusted signer checkbox. Click Ok.

The Private Content feature for streaming distribution works in a similar way as the private content feature for regular http distributions and we recommend that you check our previous blog post on Private Content for more details and definitions for Origin Access Identity and Trusted Signers.

Now we have to create a Policy to specify who will get access to the resources. Go to Tools | Policies in the program menu and click Add. For the sake of simplicity we will create a Canned Policy. Please refer here on creating a Custom Policy. Canned Policy will allow you to create time limited URLs similar to the ones you can create for Amazon S3 using Query String Authentication.

Check out here on how to obtain Private Key file and Key pair ID. Basically, you have to go to AWS portal and log-in to your account. Then go to Security Credentials section and scroll down to Access Credentials. Click to Key Pairs tab and Create a New Key Pair if you don’t have it yet. The interface will prompt you to save the key file on your local computer.

Now as you enabled Private Content for a Streaming Distribution and created a Policy you are ready to create URLs for the files stored on your distribution. Select the file you want to create a URL for and click Web URL button on the toolbar. Choose RTMP option at the top to create a URL. Select the date when you want URL to expire and choose the Policy that you created in the drop down list. Click Generate button. The URL will be created and you can use it in your favorite video player such as JW Player or Flow Player.

You can also generate an HTML for JW Player by selecting an HTML option at the top of the window. All you will have to do is to copy and paste the HTML code to the source of the HTML page.

CloudBerry S3 Explorer is a Windows freeware product that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

CloudBerry S3 Explorer PRO is a Windows program that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/ It is currently in beta and free for all users. You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

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Automating deletion of files from Amazon S3 with CloudBerry Backup

Note: this post applies to CloudBerry Backup 1.4.1 and later.

CloudBerry S3 Backup is a powerful Windows backup and restore that automate backup and restore processes to Amazon S3 cloud storage. CloudBerry Lab team is gradually improving the program and with this release we are adding a highly demanded option to automate deletion of the files from S3 storage. In the previous release it was not possible to delete the file from backup storage if they were deleted locally. This situation may arise when for instance you are reorganizing your local disk and moving files around.

In the newer release we have added an option to delete files if they were deleted locally. This option is available on the Purge options step of the Backup Plan Wizard and it is off by default.

Please use this option carefully as they files will be deleted permanently and there will be no way to restore them.

CloudBerry Backup is a Windows program that leverages Amazon S3 storage. You can download it at http://cloudberrydrive.com/ . It comes with onetime fee of $29.99 (US) per copy.

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Canned ACL policy support in CloudBerry S3 Explorer

Note: this post applies to CloudBerry Explorer 1.9 and later.

We are extending CloudBerry S3 Explorer with useful Amazon S3 functionality and in the post we would like to introduce the Canned ACL policy support. When doing a PUT request you can specify a canned ACL, which grants certain access right. You don’t need to do an extra request to set an ACL. This makes working with Amazon S3 more efficient. In the previous releases of CloudBerry S3 Explorer we ran an extra request for setting ACL of every type. Now we will recognize the type of ACL you want to set and run canned ACL whenever appropriate.

Following are canned ACLs that are supported for REST.

· private—Owner gets FULL_CONTROL.

No one else has access rights (default).

· public-read—Owner gets FULL_CONTROL and the anonymous principal is granted READ access.

If this policy is used on an object, it can be read from a browser with no authentication.

· public-read-write—Owner gets FULL_CONTROL, the anonymous principal is granted READ and WRITE access.

This can be a useful policy to apply to a bucket, but is generally not recommended.

· authenticated-read—Owner gets FULL_CONTROL, and any principal authenticated as a registered Amazon S3 user is granted READ access.

· bucket-owner-read—Object Owner gets FULL_CONTROL, Bucket Owner gets READ

This ACL applies only to objects and is equivalent to private when used with PUT Bucket. You use this ACL to let someone other than the bucket owner write content (get full control) in the bucket but still grant the bucket owner read access to the objects.

· bucket-owner-full-control—Object Owner gets FULL_CONTROL, Bucket Owner gets FULL_CONTROL

This ACL applies only to objects and is equivalent to private when used with PUT Bucket. You use this ACL to let someone other than the bucket owner write content (get full control) in the bucket but still grant the bucket owner full rights over the objects.

CloudBerry S3 Explorer is a Windows freeware product that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

CloudBerry S3 Explorer PRO is a Windows program that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/ It is currently in beta and free for all users. You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

Like our products? Please help us spread the word about them. Learn here how to do it.

Sync Folders – delete files with CloudBerry S3 Explorer

Note: this post applies to CloudBerry Explorer PRO 1.9 and later.

As always we are adding features that our customers are requesting. Ever since we first introduced Sync Folders feature users have been telling us that they would want to be able to make sure that the contents of Amazon S3 buckets are identical to local folders. In other words if a file is deleted locally it should be deleted from Amazon S3 too. We were reluctant to implementing this feature because if the file is deleted there is no way to recover it. However, our users insisted that they will use the feature carefully and take all the responsibility. Moreover with the advent of Amazon S3 versioning, it became little easier to recover deleted files, provided that the versioning is on for a bucket.

With the release 1.9 we added an option to delete files on target. If this option is on when you deleted the file on the source (your local computer) it will be automatically deleted from the target (Amazon S3). This option is off by default and we hope you will be using it carefully.

CloudBerry Explorer is becoming a comprehensive tool for Amazon s3 management, with the newer release not only can you synchronize folders with more flexible options, but also you are getting the advanced compare tool.

CloudBerry S3 Explorer is a Windows freeware product that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

CloudBerry S3 Explorer PRO is a Windows program that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/ It is currently in beta and free for all users. You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

Like our products? Please help us spread the word about them. Learn here how to do it.

How to compare contents of Amazon S3 and local disk with CloudBerry S3 Explorer

Note: this post applies to CloudBerry Explorer PRO 1.9 and later.

As always we are adding features that our customers are requesting. This time we decided to add a feature that allows comparing contents of Amazon S3 storage with the folders on your local computer. As of version 1.6 we are offering an option to synchronize local folders with Amazon S3. While offering this feature we learned that our customers want more flexibility and visibility when it comes to comparing the folders before the synchronization.

There are a number of options available in the compare tool on the toolbar and each option worth a small description.

Sync Direction options allows you to select if you want to sync from left to right panel, from right to left or bi-directional sync.

Missing Only will highlight only files that do not exist on target in this case only the files missing on the target will get copied.

Delete on Target - will delete file on target if it doesn’t exist on the source anymore.

Include subfolders will compare all the contents of all the subfolders beneath current folder.

Save - will save settings in the existing sync folder or ask to create a new sync folder.

Filter allows you to select what files to you want to see in the list.

If you click Compare it will basically compare the contents again taking into account the filter you set.

Sync Now will create a Sync Folder

Conclusion

Overall, CloudBerry Explorer PRO becomes more and more comprehensive tool for those who work with Amazon S3 storage on a professional level. We hope you will find the enhancement useful and we are looking forward to your feedback.

CloudBerry S3 Explorer is a Windows freeware product that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

CloudBerry S3 Explorer PRO is a Windows program that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/ It is currently in beta and free for all users. You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

Like our products? Please help us spread the word about them. Learn here how to do it.

How to find your AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key and register with CloudBerry S3 Explorer

Note: this post applies to any version of CloudBerry Explorer.

A few month ago Amazon redesigned AWS website to make it a little easier to use. However, due to the huge amount of information it is easy to get lost for the first time. In this article we will show how to get AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key and register with CloudBerry S3 Explorer.

In fact, this is very easy. Click on Account link at the top right corner and then to Security Credentials link.

You will get to the Security Credentials Page. Scroll down to the Access Credentials section and you will see your Access Key ID. To see your Secret Access Key you need to click Show link.

Now open CloudBerry Explorer, go to File | Amazon S3 Accounts in the program menu. Click Add and copy your keys from AWS website to the form as shown on the screen below. You can enter whatever you want to Display name box – it is just for your reference and it is useful when you have more than one account. You may also want to click Test Connection button to make sure they keys are entered properly. If connection fails it is an indication that they keys are incorrectly entered. Click OK and enjoy your Amazon S3 account!

CloudBerry S3 Explorer is a Windows freeware product that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

CloudBerry S3 Explorer PRO is a Windows program that helps managing Amazon S3 storage and CloudFront . You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/ It is currently in beta and free for all users. You can download it at http://cloudberrylab.com/

Like our products? Please help us spread the word about them. Learn here how to do it.

CloudBerry Backup Notification email enhancements

Note: this post applies to CloudBerry Backup 1.4 and later.

CloudBerry S3 Backup is a powerful Windows backup and restore that automate backup and restore processes to Amazon S3 cloud storage.

In release 1.3 we introduce CloudBerry Backup notification service and you can learn here how to configure it. Notification email used to provide fairly minimum information on the backup completion.

We got quite a lot of feedback on our notification email content and with the release 1.4 we are sending more comprehensive information in our backup completion notification email. Here is how our new notification email looks like.

In the future releases we will be extending our email even further and you will be able to optionally choose to get a complete report of the list of copied files. Stay tuned!

CloudBerry Backup is a Windows program that leverages Amazon S3 storage. You can download it at http://cloudberrydrive.com/ . It comes with onetime fee of $29.99 (US) per copy.

Like our products? Please help us spread the word about them. Learn here how to do it.