ExpressionEngine: How do I block direct access to templates that I am using for embeds only

Question

I have a template group that I am using to store embeds like header and footer. I do not want people to be able to directly access those templates by going to www.domain.com/embeds/header. I want that to redirect to the 404 page. How do I go about this? Is there a way to block template groups from direct access? Would this be better done in .htaccess? Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

In versions of EE2 prior to 2.9 if you start the template name with a dot it will not be directly accessible.

In the just-released EE 2.9 you can specify a different character instead of dot and the default has been changed to underscore.

Documentation on this feature (currently describes 2.9 handling):

http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/templates/hidden_templates.html

I don't believe EE has a mechanism for blocking direct access on the template-group level. If you needed that then you would probably want to do on the server level (.htaccess rewrites).