Ok Andrew, so if I want to allow anyone to view and add links, but I want to moderate all the added links, I should set moderate_link parameter to 1, and set default_forumid to "none". In the permissions section the can_add_link parameter has every usergroup checked.

I am not sure if it matters, but I set "Can_Set_permissions" to only the administrator.

Is there anything I am missing? I cant explain it, but unregistered users are seeing all links, even those awaiting moderation. However, a registered user does not see the items awaiting moderation.

Thanks for your help, and sorry about being a pest.

I understand the problem ;)

When moderation is switched on, new links are only visible to the user who submitted the entry and to moderators, until the link has been moderated.

However, if you allow an unregistered user to add new links, this creates the difficulty you observe. Logic:
- link was created by userid 0 (the userid of an unregistered user)
- any other unregistered user also has userid 0, therefore the hack thinks that they are the same user who added the link, therefore displays the unmoderated link.
- any registered user who is not a moderator has a different userid, therefore cannot see the unmoderated link

Possible solutions:
- I change the code so that links added by unregistered users are only visible to moderators (i.e. not even to the person who added the link) until the link has been accepted by a moderator
- You only allow registered users to add links
- maybe there's another possible solution?

What do you think is best?

Good, I'm glad I'm not going crazy. It does make sense now. Although it would be a bit more difficult, I think Option 1 (Links added by unregistered users can only be view by moderators) would probably be the best option.

Option two, I believe, could probably be implemented using the Default_Forumid parameter, if you wanted to restrict to only registered members.

Do you think this is a quick modification? If you can make the change, I would be willing to test it out for you.

Rob Morley

Assuming that you are running v1.60, try the attached local_links.php. It's almost complete - the change also requires a mod to the 'whats new' count, but this should be enough for now. Let me know.

Preliminary tests look good. I will continue to test it, and let you know what I find out. Thanks agian for responding so quickly, and putting together a quick fix for the problem!

Andrew,

I am not sure if this is already in the works, or I just missed it on the admin page. When moderation is turned on, is it possible to have Vbulletin email a moderator so that they can review the added link and accept or reject it.

Is this option possible by using the default_forumid parameter?

Thanks

Rob

This is not in the system at present and no-one had asked for it, but I'll give it some thought. I'm wary about the consequences - do different moderators receive different emails, do standard users receive emails when there is something new, should this be a 'cron' job - i.e. regular emails announcing status, etc.

The forum assignment does not have any connection with this - it is basically a mechanism for providing security and association.

I had not thought of the new post notification for users. You could probably use some of the same code used in the subscription notification in VBulletin, but I am not sure how important this would be. I just looked at Vbulletin, and it looks like there is a cron job setup to handle thread subscriptions on an hourly basis. Rather than trying to re-create this, would it be possible to tap into the thread/post subscription process? I am not very familiar with the VBulletin coding, so I have no idea of the complexity of this enhancement.

Regarding emailing moderators, I was thinking about the possibility of creating a Moderator_Email_Address parameter. Then, when a new link is added, and being held for moderation, an Email could be sent to the moderator(s). Since this would probably only email a few folks, I was thinking that this could be run when the submit button is clicked.

Thanks agian for the enhancement that handles moderation of unregistered users.

-Rob

Andrew unfortunately I got really low skill in coding.

There is only database backup available in pafile db, is it possible to move data from sql dump to csv?

Forgot to ask you: is it possible to setup links category view in the same way as forum category view, I mean dept of forums? Something like here, at vbulletin.org?

Thank you for your help!

I took a quick look at pafiledb. It's quite easy to translate the database format, however it would take me several hours to write and text the code. How many entries and categories do you have in your pafile database?

Concerning the second question, you can set up the category view to include subcategories to any depth.

Andrew,

We have about 20 categories and 300 files in databse. And we have 3 databases based on pafiledb: files database, addons databse and missions database. We had to made 3 different databases because this script doesn't allow to make subcategories. Also here is very important fields like filesize and author - is it possible to convert these data too?

Andrew, I have tried to make different dept but unfortunately can't do this. Because color of categories and sub-categories alternate all the time without account for importance or parent of category.

Ones again thank you for your help, I appreciate it.

Send me the pafiledb sql backups by email - ad_rodin at noos.fr - I'll take a look

Awesome mod! I just added it. The ease of install should seriously be commended on this one! HUGE THUMBS UP!

I guess the only thing missing is possibly a way to have the "Who's Viewing" thing to work with it.

I have sent SQL dump to you Andrew, thank you for your help!

Hi
We have the hack setup here:
http://www.global-army.com/forum/local_links.php?

And am very pleased with it however, we have a bit of a problem with perms.

We created a group in admincp called links

Then we added the user to that group.

Then we used the hacks admin tool to allow that user to add links etc

Which worked BUT..

It also gave him rights to all our private forums.

Sorry we are a bit noobish, can you advise .

Got it, thanks. Will take a look when I have a chance - probably it will be at the weekend

Andrew

Surely you need to go to the regular VB admin page / Forum Permissions and remove viewing permissions for links from your private forums?

Andrew my members today informed me a strange situation. Normally they never faced a problem like this but a member uploaded a 123 mb file from ftp to the server and added it to links section. When someone clicks on the link it opens the link in a new window and wait like 15-20 seconds then it start downloading and when it reachs 48kb it says completed. Do you have any idea what can cause this ?
When I try to download from ftp i have no problems.

Yes, the problem is related to how you provide access.

If you have force_redirect=0 (the default value of the parameter on the admin page), then downloads are mediated by the script. In that case, large files can use up all the cpu time available to the script (typically 30 seconds). If you set force_redirect=1, then there is no problem with downloading large files, but the location of the file becomes visible to the user. It's a question of how important you find security versus cpu time. If you want to keep file locations secure, then you need to permit php scripts to use sufficient cpu time to read and re-transmit the file. If you prefer to limit cpu usage and are not concerned about security, then change the setting of force_redirect.

OK?

Andrew

I am keeping the security more important then downloads but is there a way to get this working ? If yes how can i do that ? I have a shared hosting and will it work with it ?

You change the cpu limit for your scripts by modifying the parameter max_execution_time in your php.ini file. By default, this tends to be set to 30 seconds.

The least cpu intensive way to provide downloads is to ensure that the files are on your server and to create the links by referring to them using the local file name, e.g as /dir/file.typ rather than as http://site/dir/file.typ.

I have uploaded a first beta of this hack in the VB35 forums here

For those who are wondering where it is, here ya go :). It has been slightly renamed to 'Links and Downloads Manager 2.0' so it took me a sec to recognize it.

Regardless, cheers for this Andrew.

Hmmm... I'm not sure what I did, but When I go to administer the Hacks Database, every page comes up completely blank. I just installed BVShoutboxFULL. So I'm not sure if that would have messed up some file. Everything else seems to work fine and I re-ran the install script just to make sure.

Any help is appreciated.

Hacks Database?? BVShoutboxFULL?? Anything to do with this hack?

I updaraded to the latest and I have to say its the BEST yet. But I have one question, I set the timeout_hit_allow to 300 seconds (5 minutes), though I would like it in minutes (suggestion for next version), its no big deal. But I want to show them how much time they have left. The script must be storing that time limit somewhere in the database and I want to show it on the page where it says "Please wait before trying another access - timeout period (seconds): 300."

I want to show it as "Please wait before trying another access - timeout period (seconds): 300, you have *** seconds left for you next download" or something like that. Can anyone please help me out here :).

whoops... I didn't mean the hacks database... I must have just been reading about it... anyways... When I click on administer and any of the four options that drop down, it brings up a blank page. Everything else works, and I don't get any db errors. Any Ideas?

:edit: Nevermind. I thought I re-uploaded the file and didn't. Works now.
Thanks!

All I can think is that you have somehow got a mismatch between the code and the templates. What link is showing on the administer links? If it reads 'local_links.php' then you've got old code, 'local_links_admin.php' is the current code.

Just try re-uploading the code, templates and phrases and rerunning the install script. It will not cause damage your database.

Thanks. I just re-uploaded all the files and did the whole install again. Works now.

hiho

just updated to 1.60c and now i can't add any new links. it always shows up a message "no category specified"

and in the box "parent categories" there are no categories listed? what did i wrong?

:(

I'll bet that you didn't upload the new templates, or put them in the wrong place. I can reproduce your error exactly by installing the 1.60 code and the 1.55 templates

Thanks.

This is an easy change to make. Two edits:

edit local_links.php. Find these lines

and replace with
Then edit local_links_phrases.xml and find the line
and replace by
I'll make this a permanent fix for version 2.00 but I don't plan any more changes to 1.60 unless there are serious bugs.

Possible BUG...NOTHING SERIOUS... Just a suggestion for a FIX in 2.0...

When I rate a file, the rating is correctly logged and all. But unlike the forum's rating system, your rating system allows members to CHANGE the rating once they have given a rating. Its no big deal but I think in your version 2.0 should have an option in the ADMIN PANEL where the admin can set to allow the members to rate once OR more than once, this way its more flexible depending on the admin's needs.

Yes, this was by design - actually they can't give more than one rating - only the latest one that is counted. I'll note your suggestion - thanks.

ok i have now fully translated 1.60c to german ;)

@andrew: do you want it via email or as an attachment in the forum here?

Super. heh

Hi,

This is every good hack. I installed version 1.3 and did not use it because I bought the Vbadvanced links directory. But now I tested the newest version and realized that it is excellent now and I want to use it for my music page.
Things work well. Howerver,I want to give a user group pessmission for ONLY listen(play )the music file but not to DOWNLOAD(it mean that the hyper link to the music file will be hidden). If anyone know how to do this please help me!

Thanks a lot!

Sorry for the delay - I've been on holiday. Could you post the translation here? I'll pick it up and include it in the official release.

It is an easy edit to the links_linkbit template - you just need to remove the hyperlinks to local_links.php?action=jump - let me know if you need help. I'm not going to make any further releases to the vb 3.0x version of this hack - efforts concentrate on the 3.5x version and I'll include this as an option.

Can't help you with this ;)