How to prevent file navigation through a direct link, but only through PHP: fopen('file.ext', 'r')?

Question

PHP

I have a users.json file and I need to be able to read it through fopen, but following a link to it should be prohibited. How can you do that?

Answer 1

Put .htaccess in the folder with the file

<Files "users.json">
    deny from all
</Files>