I'm not sure what you want, exactly - the jukebox is taking a stream from the server, and the alternative (the regular link mechanism) will launch real player, winamp, etc, with an m3u file.

Can you explain a little more?

[high]* EasyTarget signs the petition for multi-file support
[/high]

:D

sorry andrew..... i would like for example a link which when clicked plays in real player winamp etc but is leech protected so people cant right click and save it.... primarily then (because my LDM will be only mp3) i would like to be able to get a user favorites into a single m3u hence making a kinda radio station...

i was hoping to do this with flash hence the request for xml files etc..... but im told by flash gurus that theres not much point because flash would need to at least preload some of the whole playlist... which could take ages with a large playlist

hope that makes things a bit more clearer.....

cheers

benj

o yeah... why are you not taking donations..... are you rich or bored or both ;

Thank you, sir. ;)

Completely jaded with life, surrounded by thousands of slaves who answer to my every whim. (Dream on...)

that explains it ;)

Well .. one Slave .. not sure about every whim mind .. :p

Is this hack able members to add their own hack or is this strictly for admins to add links for their affiliates...

Thanks Andrew, for helping me with the questions.

I like the Jukebox idea, I don't mind letting people to download as long as the files' location are hidden, which they are.

But I still can't get jukebox to work, when clicking on audio files such as mp3, wma, I'd like the embeded window media in the browser instead of open windown media in window like it is right now (clicking on the link will pop up a embemded window media would be fine too). I'm not sure if LDM already had it and I didn't know how to make it work or it doesn't work that way, if you can give some more clarification that'd be great.

anyone can add links / download depending on the permissions you set :D

1- You have to set some filetypes via LDM->Admin->Settings->musicbox_filetypes and/or LDM->Admin->Settings->musicbox_filetypes_realplayer. These filetypes must have mimetypes set using the main VB/Admin/Attachments/Extensions and Sizes page (e.g. mp3: Content-type: audio/mpeg)
2- You have to upload the filetype icons that I supply in the release/icon directory, and point LDM->Admin->Settings->file_icons_dir at where you have put those icons
3- You have to authorise some usergroups to use the Jukebox with LDM->Admin->Settings->can_play_musicbox
4- The Jukebox only works on Windows machines. The RealPlayer part has one or two problems with files that are held on someone else's site, e.g. when using cURL rather than allow_url_fopen

When you do all these, the linkbit displays will include an icon just to the left of the main link. When you click that icon, it will launch the embedded jukebox.

If you still have problems, send me a PM with details of your board and an admin account, and I'll take a look.

problems viewing .SWF and wmv files...

in the Entry after i uploaded the .SWF or .WMV files, there is 2 links.. 1 link is the ICON link and the other is next to it, which is the wording link.. It seems that only ONE of the 2 links will play the file correctly.. My users probably might get confused to which link to use to play the file correctly, is there a way to fix this problem where it'll detect which player will play the file correctly and just use that?????

I've just tested this with a WMV file and things seem to work ok.

I assume that you have done the following:
a) set up a correct mimetype for wmvs in the main VBulletin attachments table (e.g. wmv - Content-type: video/x-ms-wmv)
b) told LDM that wmv files can be played through the internal jukebox (LDM admin, musicbox_filetypes)

The wording link triggers a normal download, so should fire up a stand-alone Windows Media Player.

The icon link triggers the internal Jukebox, which should launch an embedded Windows Media

Any further information on the problem?

ah i see, i forgot to set the mime types for the video files...

so may i ask what are the mime types for:

SWF
ASF
WMV
MOV

and every other video file extension in existence or at least common so i can set it in the attachement menu ... =)

You can find these on the internet, e.g. http://www.livezone.com/supportzone/mimetypes.shtml

I gave you the info for wmv's - Content-type: video/x-ms-wmv

Andrew, everything worked perfectly as you told. I'm really appreciate your time to show step-by-step like that. It doesn't get any better with great hack and great support. I just wish that the title link work the same as icon, and there is another link say "download" for clarification's sake. But the majority of people won't need it and it's really a big deal to me. In the future if you consider to add an option in admin that allow to download or not, if no download allowed LDM will be streaming only, it would be great.

One more thing on the download limitation, which you will release in the future.

1. I wonder how it work if I set limit of say, 20 mb a day, and there are 2 files that are 15mb and 15mb, would LDM allow a user to download the first one and not the second one since it's over limit? And what if the user try to open 2 windows at the same time?

2. Is it possible to allow only one download connection per user? That woud make bandwidth limitation easier for you, I guess for number 1 question.

3. Is it possible to limit number of files to download and NOT the bandwidth? Say if there is dedicated music site only, where most music files are 3, 4 mb, it would be better to limit like 5 downloads a day instead of 20mb total in bandwidth.

4. Lastly, just wondering if it's possible to make this limit bandwidth apply not for the whole but just category only.

I hope I'm not asking too many :). I know you probably haven't had time to code it yet, but those are suggetions/questions only, in no way I want these and if I do it's not in one release. I just brainstorming some ideas here in case I forget so take anything you like :).

Thanks - I'll take these ideas into account.

I started on this last night, and your suggestions are very helpful.

1) I think the right solution is to allow the user to download until she has exceeded the limit, rather than stopping before the access starts. Also, sometimes one doesn't know the size of the download until it actually takes place.

3) This is a good idea and easy to implement

4) It will be difficult to apply different bandwidth limits per usergroup and per category. One solution might be to have a per-category flag to indicate whether limits apply to the category or not, but a global limits set per-usergroup on actual limits for restricted categories.

I'm not programer :), so if LDM doesn't know the size of file until it completed, what would happen? Say File1, 2 and 3 each has 100MB and my limit is set to 150MB, then?

1. User download file1, after complete, he still has 50MB of bandwidth left, so he continue to download file2, in which if he complete, he would be over the limit 50MB, but since LDM doesn't know, he's allowed to download that file2, then on file3 he can't get it because he already got 200MB, am I correct? If so, I can live with that :).

But like I asked before, what if he open all 3 browsers for file1, file 2 and file 3 and download them simutaniously, then he can download all those 3 files since LDM doesn't know the file size yet, this case he over limit a lot more, if my examples are more than 100MB>

2. It's possible to make a small window or somewhere in the corner saying: "You have ???MB of quota/bandwidth left", just for user to keep track of his downloading.

3. Real quick question, how do I change the embeded media window size to 320x240 for wmv files? I tried using admin mime setting and it doesn't work.

After play with LDM for 2 more hours let me quote my own quote and say that this feature is already on the LDM, all I need is to set permission to NOT access link to all group but allow play_music_box. Doing this only the icon is available to play but the title link is not highlight.

But there is a little weird though, there are two download links in the pop-up embeded browser. The first one link to the file and the second one like to site/forums/local_links.php. I'm not sure if Andrew try to say "Home" or what, but I think it's better to remove that download link. Include is the screenshot.

Slave, I realise that the edited link (and its category) will be highlighted as new if you change the time stamp to 'now' when you edit. I will add a check box next to the time stamp to make it easy to select 'now'

I am testing this and I found an issue with the permissions.

I have one category. The category is set to use permissions from a forum. I have added one download to the category.

The permissions on the forum that is used allow no access to anybody accept admins.

On the front page local_links.php clicking on the link under "most popular..." results in a permission denied page. Thats good.

However clicking on the links what's new or what's hot displays the attachment and download is possible even for anonymous users.

...

Ok, just found out that I can prevent that by also setting a forum to control permission on the attachment itself.

So my question is this instead: Shouldn't the attachment permission as default follow the category in which it is posted? And setting a different forum on the attachment should then overide the category permission?

I've wondered about that myself. At the moment, the *default* permission for links and categories is set on the admin page. Perhaps you are right that the default link permissions should be the category's permissions and the default for the category should be as set on the admin page. There are arguments both ways. One complicating factor, for example, is that a link can be a member of more than one category.

Take a look at the links_play template. You need to make several changes - in the javascript width=800,height=500, in the width parameter on the table tag and in the width= and height= tags in the embed and object tags.

Thanks Adrew, not all files have the same size, how to make it autodetect please?

That is possibly a big task - it will have to be put on the list of things to think about.

I thought it was simple, if it's a big task then forget about it, not too many people need it anyway, thanks Andrew.

Btw, another question is that how difficult to make access to link based on category? Say Registered member can access to A and not B category, but Premium members can access to both. Just a thought.

You do this with the forum-based permissions system.

Chose (or create) two forums which have the usergroup permissions you want, let's say Forum 1 (Registered and Premium access) and Forum 2 (Premium only)

'Associate' all the links that you want to be available to your premium users only with Forum 2. You set this on the link edit form, or you can 'mass edit' all the links in a category using the Admin/Category page

Ditto 'associate' all the links you want to be available to registered and premium users with Forum 1.

You can set LDM up so that protected links are visible (or not) to other users witht he Admin/Permissions/Can see protected links on portal permissions

ok... I was one of the early ones to install this and it continues to be one the best most important hack out there...great job!!

and AWESOME NEW UPDATES!!! uploads WHOOHOO!!!

question:
is it possible to have it retain the original file name of an upload?

I spend a lot of time naming files properly (as do many) and really wish it would retain the file name when downloaded. :)

This will be included in 2.1.1 - I coded the change this morning.

David, let's have another go at debugging this problem. Can you upload the attached and let me know when it is available

awesome!!! :D you rule. This hack rules. :)


now..I'm actualllly having a couple problems...but let me ask one at a time:


================================================== =====

PROBLEM:
I can't seem to get the filetypes to work for uploads. ie..this section doesn't seem to actually do anything for me:

This is what I put in that box:
no matter what I put in there...it still goes by the Vb attachment table. :(
Is there something I am missing? Does an item have to be added to the vb attachment table to be added here? (seems to defeat the point though :/)

It only worked when, as a test, I added the extension to the vb attachement table (specifically wmv files).

(REF: my upload dir = Also, dunno if it matters I haven't touched the jukebox settings yet -- step-by-step ;))

any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

This setting *limits* the types that can be uploaded. An upload is only possible for those types is defined in the VB attachment table, and attributes like maximum size, mimetype, etc, are read from there. If you set *upload_filetypes* to anything, then *only* the types that appear in both lists can be uploaded.

ic ic. is this true for the jukebox file types as well? (I will get to that soon).
that is, I have to make sure the jukebox file types are list in the Vb attachments table as well?

Yes - all files that are to be handled as uploads, downloads or through the jukebox have to have types that are in the VB attachment table, because that is where LDM finds the mimetype information.

The Jukebox settings on the LDM admin page control which of these are played either by Windows Media Player or by Real Player.

i have a mp3 file that is a music file that can be played. However, when the link is clicked, it has to download the whole file before it plays, is there a way i can change the mime types or any other way to let it START playing same time that its downloading... sorta like streaming play... this way my users dont have to wait to download 10megs before they can hear it....

pls let me know.. appreciate it =)

P.S - 1 more thing, the MP3 file doesnt seem to play in the JUKEBOX in either Windows Meda or Realplayer mode... it just says "ready..." in windows media, and in REAL PLAYER, it says "Requested File not found. The Link you followed maybe outdated or inaccurate." What might be the problem here??

Thanks for ur attention =D

Andrew,

I love this hack; I am using it on two of my sites. My questions are:

1..Can you make it so we can select how many columns we want to display on the page like with the script I am testing here:
http://cardraft.com

2. How can I make it so instead of showing the number of links in a category like ?[6 entries]? to show as just ?(6)? right after the description? (as you can see on the link above)

3. Is there any way we can run this hack in mysite.com/local_links.php instead of in mysite.com/forums/local_links.php ?

Andrew has helped me here with the similar quesiton, you can check it out Here

And thanks Andrew for the category permission, I didn't thought of that, really appreciate it.

The text link is simply an instruction to download the file (or jump to another site, if it's a regular url). For an mp3 file (and for most file types), the user's pc will wait until the file is complete before doing anything with it.

As far as I understand (I'm not an expert), to 'stream' mp3s so that the user does not have to wait for the download to complete, you wrap them up in m3u playlists. For example, to stream a file http://yoursite/xxx.mp3, then write a m3u file as follows:

You also have to set up the m3u mimetype information in the VB admin/attachments page, and provide an m3u.gif icon in your files_icons_dir directory. The correct mimetype is Content-type: audio/x-mpequrl.

One possible problem with the m3u route is that it reveals the whereabouts of the main mp3. Possibly I could wrap all this up inside LDM, but that will have to take its place in the wish list.

Happy to take a look - PM me with your board's address and an admin username and password - apologies if you've already done this - I lose track.

Thanks :)

Will add this to the wish list - do you want columns for both categories and the entries in categories or just categories? And do you want the sort order to go across the page (easy) or down the columns (slightly more work)

You edit the links_catbit template, e.g. to use the attached.

I'll think about this - it should be a simple change.

See PM:

I moved mp3 from musicbox_filetypes_realplayer to musicbox_filetypes, and all the entries in your music and video category seem to work fine - e.g. your uploaded talk show and an mp3 I added from our test site (see AD test mp3) - plus the videos.

With mp3 sitting in the musicbox_filetypes_realplayer list, it seemed to me that realplayer is trying to obtain a quicktime plugin - not sure why.

I couldn't trigger your error message at all.