Thanks for your feedback. Actually, a number of us seem to have the same needs - I wrote this hack because we have a site full of links that regularly need harvesting and reclassifying.

I've written some php which is not that different from your suggestion. But I suspect that "not that different" is rather important - everyone will have a slightly different requirement, so we will need different harvesters feeding a standard farm.

Could we specify an interface between the harvester and the farm? For example, should the harvester generate an xml file or should it just dump links straight into a default category in this hack's database?

Am happy to give some thought to this, with your suggestions.

Well, ideally, if your script contained a link harvester designed to nab links from the posts table, the results should be queued somewhere else. This way someone would be able to mark what links were already checked so when they run the harvester next time, it won't return all the links it already gave them. Someone could run it once a month or so (or if it had a scheduler built in you could just set it to run automatically and email a designated person so they know a new set of links are ready for review and filing) and see what new links having been posted might be worth moving to an appropriate existing category (or indicate the need for a new category). Would also be nice if the results showed what forum/thread/post the link came from.

[high]* lasto clicks installs
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what an easy hack to do :) - 2 misn from start to finish and no editing of any files either top stuff.

Works a treat as well - cheers m8

This is the link that I am trying to put in..
http://www.gamerzplanet.net/files/wa...ta_English.zip

The link you've given simply redirects to your home page. It does not download the zip file. The same thing happens if I click it here in VB or if I cut and paste the link to the address line of Internet Explorer.

AndrewD

firstly: nice hack/mod :D
secondly: is there any way to stop non-logged in or non-registered users from downloading files? I tried by setting the permissions to a forum which wont allow not-loggedin or unregistered users to download attachments, will that permission work for the downloads.

The downloadable files are just dumped into a directory, and directly linked to the mod.
Do I need to add the files as attachments to the forum and then use that forums attachment link rather than the direct link to stop unregistered users from downloding? or is there another way round it?

Tnx

This is exactly what the forum permission setting is for. Every time you associate a link or a category with a forum, then it is only visible to users who are allowed to *visit* that forum. (Access to forum attachments is not the issue - it is forum accessibility.)

You do not need to add the files as attachments - just dump them in a directory. You need to take care that the file and directory names are not that obvious, otherwise people could just go straight there. The hack hides the information from the casual user.

Sorry I should have been more precise.
I am using vbadvanced homepage, and a hack ontop of that which shows the latest 5 downloads available on the main page.

http://209.51.146.19/index.php on the top right you will see latest downloads block, if you click on latest downloads it wont show you anything as you are not logged in, but if you were to click on the actual downloadable link in the same block it will allow you to download.

Is there a work around for that?

Thanks again.

the hack works but when i go to add new link how come in the small box in bottom left hand corner where it says based on which forums permissions it is just blank ?

Have i missed somethign out.

Also i may be on wrong track but does this auto link to attachments added to the board or does it only do ones that u specify ?

I haven't looked at the vbadvanced integration but I pointed out a similar problem to Natch who wrote the vbindex integration. Without looking at their code, I'm not sure how the vbadvanced hack handles permissions - I'll try to look this week.