Issues with link

[CaseyHORNER]

When i click on a link to download a dataset for Jamovi I am getting an error message. 

https://ao.ecu.edu.au/PSY6810/Assessments/PSY6810%20-%20Assignment%202_Jamovi%20Outputs_updated..pdf

this is the link. 

I am then getting a 403 access error. 

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[James · Accepted solution]

@CaseyHORNER 

This sounds like it is an issue with content within your course and will need to be solved by someone at your institution. These forums are a global community of Canvas users, but we do not have access to your course to make changes.

The error message we get when trying to access that document is "Whoa there! This resource is only accessible from your course. Please access your course to view this resource."

If that is the same error message you're getting, I can think of a few possible things going on.

• You followed the link from somewhere outside of Canvas. Perhaps it was emailed or shared with you? Make sure that you are inside your Canvas course when clicking on the link.
• Another possibility is that the ao.ecu.edu.au server is expecting a referer header that says what page you were on when you clicked the link. This technique works most of the time, but it is not guaranteed to be sent and its use for checking that someone is in Canvas is discouraged. Instead, Canvas recommends that developers use external tools to pass information about where the link is coming from.
• If you are logged into your Canvas course and getting this message, then it is possible that the ao.ecu.edu.au server is expecting Canvas to launch this as an external tool, but the instructor (or whomever designed the course), made it a regular link. External URLs or links on a page do not send the information needed to verify that you are in a specific course.
• It is possible that the filename is misspelled. I noticed there were two dots before the pdf at the end. However, I do not believe that is the error. If I try changing the filename, I get a different error (404 file not found). That makes me fairly confident that the filename is correct and that something else is wrong.

I did some additional testing on my end. It seems that ao.ecu.edu.au is indeed using the referer header to allow access. I lied to it and told it I was coming from ecu.instructure.com and it let me have the PDF file.

My revised list of things to try is now.

1. Make sure that you are inside your Canvas course when you click on the link. Do not click on the link from an email.
2. If that doesn't fix it, then the referer header isn't being sent properly. If you have another browser installed, try it, but it may not make a difference.
3. Depending on the way the link was created, the referer header may not be sent. If the original link in Canvas was set to http instead of https, then it sounds like no referer header would be sent. In that case, the instructor would need to update the link to use https instead of http. You can check that by mousing over the link and seeing the URL. Check for http or https as the beginning of the link. Many servers will automatically redirect http traffic to https. That is helpful, but in this case, the header isn't present to get sent to the secure connection.
4. If that none of that helps, then seek help from your local institution. They may not realize that using the HTTP referer header is not a reliable way to detect someone coming from Canvas.