Do you know around when this hack is gonna get a final version released?

Ha, ha! There's never a final release - didn't you know?

I plan to move this to the full release forum either this weekend or next, and call it version 1.0. There will be no further new functionality, apart from a slight tidying up, and I shall include Natch's integration with VBIndex for those who want it.

There is a wish list - particularly moderation and mass import/export of links, which will be done sometime.

OK?

Sounds good, lol hopefully it's this weekend. This is a hack ive been requesting..etc for a while now since vb3 has been out.

I added a space between the description and the 'added' info. Makes it a bit more readable.

in template links_linkbit:

change
to


EDIT: this only inserts a space if you have no description. How can we get a space between the description and the 'added' text when there is a description entered? (other than putting a hard return in each description box when entering links)

I think the solution is to have a "table in a table" - it spreads things out a bit better than the break tag. I'll play around and see what it looks like. One point, though, is that I haven't coded multiple page handling, so all the links in one category appear together. The more one opens up the template, the longer the page becomes.

Before I install this I gotta few questions that I wanna clear up... you can put permissions on the link itself right? rather than sticking the link somewhere on the forum and setting certain permissions to the view of the page. I remember vbportal had a downloads page and they could specify permissions on the files rather than just the page. So that's what im wondering about this, and if it does, does it have a file size limit? Cause i know when you cant add big files on VB attachments cause of the mysql limits..etc

you specify a forum 'parent' for each link which determines the viewing permission.

but that wouldnt really protect the file, cause then people could just give out links still

The permissions system works in two ways, both building on VB's usergroups:

a) Ability to "do" certain things. You set this in the admin pages, by defining which usergroups can create links, categories, etc. Only a user who is a member of one of the specified groups can carry out the specified task.

b) Ability to "view" things. When you create/edit a link or category, you "assign" a forumid to the link/category. This may be explicit or implicit - i.e. if the user has can_set_permissions (see previous item), then that user can choose which forum to assign to the link, otherwise the default choice set by the administrator is used.

Whenever one of your users views these pages, she will only see links and categories for which her usergroup has the appropriate forum permission. I.e. if that group can see and visit a particular forum, then she can see and visit links associated with that forum.

This also works when trying to download a file. These are set up as a call to local_links.php?action=jump&id=n. If someone tries to get round the system by simply choosing a random number (or if someone tells someone else what number to enter), the code still checks to see if that usergroup has the relevant permission, and refuses the download if not. The user never gets to see where the actual file is stored.

Of course, if someone actually knows where the file is really stored, and gives out that information, then it is perfectly possible to bypass the whole security system. But that is nothing to do with this hack.

Clear?

alright i understand all that... but what if they were on a custom page on vbindex, that rule wouldnt apply anymore right?

pm a mod or admin and ask them to move it to the proper area of full release forums..

This has now gone to full release 1.0 and moved to the main hack forum

I'm having only one issue. It appears that any attempt to 'edit' an existing category automatically sets its catforum to 0. Since I'm not using forum based permissions, I'd like it to remain -999. I'm going to do some more looking around, but this creates some pretty odd behavior.

Otherwise, fantastic hack. I've been waiting for this one to appear. Install was smooth. I've made a slight mod to use to use 'star' images instead of a number rating, since I'm already using those star images on the page elsewhere, and they're cached. Nice and quick.

Installed.

- ZJ

Excellent Hack - fantastic.

[high]* trilOByte clicks install
[/high]

One problem though, I inseted a category as a sub category, when I wanted it as a parent. I tried to move it and got a nopermission error (I'm primary admin, group 6), every attempt to acces thereafter and I get nopermission (I have permissions set to a -ve value). I deleted the category (catid = 3) using phpMyadmin (does only having catid's 1,2,4 cause a problem?) and everything else seems to work OK. I dont know why this happened, just thought I'd bring it to your attention.

Thanks for a great hack. :)

What's that mod? I'd like to do that myself. ;)

Oops, fairly big problem - relating to my post on the previous page. If I attempt to edit any of the categories, I get a nopermission error and the category vanishes from the listing. I cant access the category thereafter. It shows in the statistics, but that is the only place I can see evidence of it's existance - aside from the dB itself.

As I said before, I'm primary admin, userid = 1, usergroup = 6. Changing permissions from a -ve value to +ve and specifying forums, makes no difference.

OK, I'll try to track this down - there's a couple of people finding that something goes wrong with editing categories. Thanks.

The links will display on the vBIndex front page with my addon regardless of permissions, but if a user does not have permission to download, then the link will point to a standard vB "No Permissions" page ...

Two steps: In the 'ratebit' template, change:to:Then, in the local_links.php file, find:and change it to:Obviously, use your own URL to the star image. This isn't fancy, but it works. Hope that helps...

- ZJ

Yeah, I went as far as finding that this changed the catforum to '0', but not *why* it was doing this. Thanks for looking into this. It seems to apply to making *any* edit to a category... primary/secondary descriptions, parent, etc.

I did look in the code. There was a variable 'pforum' that is being saved to the catforum column in the db. Is that right variable? Was it initialized?

I'll butt out now *grin*....

- ZJ

If you can play in the db, and want a temporary fix until Andrew comes up with a real one... do something like:

YMMV.

- ZJ

I think I see where the problem lies, but it will have to wait until I get home from work to test and fix. Sorry, guys!

great hack! install worked flawless!

is there an easy way to import links from a text file?

No, but there should be! What format do you keep your links in?

Andrew, I ran Zhin Jio's query and uploaded your new php file, my vanished categories reappeared and it would appear I can now edit them without problems.

You're a star. Thanks to you and Zhin Jio for the speedy fix (and thanks ZJ for the stars mod).

Cheers,
Great hack Anderw. ;)

Happy to help...

- ZJ

Uhm sorry for the stupid question but in what way is this hack a file database?!?!?! I can only see a links database when I install it. I would be looking for a file database where I can add movies, with a screenshot, movie info etc.

If you put a link to a file, then when clicked, the file will be downloaded. You can use vb code for images.

I'm somewhat confused.. lol I think it's more so that I'm tired. i keep getting this message when i try to add a link "(not available)" can someone post a screenshot of an already setup setting for the added link so i can compare it with mine.

How about posting exactly the string that you are entering into the url box? It should look something like the following
The "not available" message means that the script has tried to access the URL you specified and has failed.

In the url box i just put the source of the file right? http://www.example.com/test/example.mp3

Should work fine - sure there are no spaces or something in your filename? I just tried this with an mp3 and everything was ok.

Give me the link to an mp3 on your site and I'll try to link to it.

I have fixed the category bugs reported earlier this week. Please reinstall, as there is also a template fix.

To confirm - if you had left the default permissions forumid as -999 and you edited a category without selecting another forum, then the category would disappear into the big blue yonder.

If you have encountered this problem, you can repair it by running the sql query given by Zhin Jio.

Another thought - what web server software are you using? If you refer to a file on your local server (i.e. skip the http: stuff), then my code looks for a file somewhere below $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]. I think this should be set with a correctly configured server.

im confused what you mean andrew..

Your forum is hosted on a site that runs a certain type of web server. Do you know what the server software is? e.g. is is Apache, etc?

apache

OK, then can you give me the *exact* file name you were putting into the URL box?

asksd.mp3

OK, there is a bug in my code, but there are two ways round this.

1) Simply put either a forward slash in front of asksd.mp3, i.e /asksd.mp3, or use a full URL, i.e. http://yoursite/asksd.mp3

2) VB comes pre-configured to handle downloads of bmp, doc, gif, jpg, pdf, png, psd, txt and zip. To handle mp3, you have to go into your VBulletin AdminCP, and set up the proper mimetype for MP3 files. This is done under "Attachments". I'd have to check the right mimetype.

Your easiest option is probably (1) - can you try it and see. Can you also upload the attached file, tryit.php, onto your server, run it and let me know what it prints.