I have a PHP/MySQL subscription database where users are given access to over
800 MS Publisher files.

I am trying to protect these files by putting them one directory above my
webroot on my server and I am using PHP to authenticate the user (MySQL based
login system) I am trying to use PHP to open the Publisher file and it
appears that the Publisher HTML files are a redirect and it makes it
difficult to open using the PHP readfile() function.

I dont want to use .htaccess because I need to user to login using the
PHP/MySQL database first, and I cant pass their session over to htaccess.

Any suggestions?