hi,

thank you verry much.

I'm having a hard time understanding what LDM actually does and what it looks like from a user's perspective - in other words, what a member of my board will see. Does anyone have a board using LDM where I could see it "in action"?

My problem is that I use my board as a "support site" and my users download executables and pdfs on the order of 20-120Mb. vBulletin, as far as I can tell, makes uploading large files difficult and downloading them very unreliable. So I'm trying to find a better way to post large files and make them easier for my members to pull down. Is LDM the answer?

Thanks!

Let's take your last question first. Uploading large files is difficult because the normal techniques used for the web (the HTTP protocol) are not suitable for handling these files. This is why people use FTP protocols instead, which involve different tools. HTTP is a reliable way of transferring small quantities of data. You can force it to work with larger files, but it becomes unreliable.

VBulletin aims to make life easy for people using the web, primarily for having discussions.

LDM also aims to make life easy for people on the web to share links and downloadable files, including uploading relatively small files. There are quite a number of LDM users who are using it to allow users to upload quite large files, but they need to know what they are doing. The bottom line, for files bigger than 20 MB, is the following - if you can install them on your site correctly, LDM will handle the downloading process.

As far as reliable downloads are concerned, this is again a 'feature' of the web. LDM will work smoothly with other download managers to allow failed connections, etc, to be picked up and corrected.

However, I do not recommend that you rely on it as a general purpose uploading tool for large files.

Andrew, thank you for the response. I do upload my large files (I'm the only one who actually uploads - all my members just download) to my site using FTP because of the very problem you cite - I'm somewhat relieved to hear my HTTP troubles aren't "just me".

You mentioned that LDM works well with other download managers - do I need to use another manager in combination with LDM or is just LDM enough?

AndrewD,
I would like to import the limitaccess-byhits-plugin.xml from the extras folder but the instructions do not tell you which hook to use. Can you advise the correct hook placement?

No, you don't need to use another download manager - it's simply that some people find that these take the hassle out of managing multiple large downloads, so it was a relief to discover that LDM works with (at least some of) them.

The plugin already knows where to go - you use VB/admin/Plugins and Products/Download and Upload Plugins - and then upload the xml file.

Doh. Thank you AndrewD. I had a complete brain fart and forgot about that VB option. Maybe it's time to go back to bed. On a different note, just completed the upgrade from 2.2.5-rc to 2.2.5 and it went as smooth as a baby's bottom. Great product.

Will be changed in the next upload.

I use the cURL functions and everything has been working great, however I recently added someone else to help with the LDM and he's done something to make it so my thumbs no longer display.. they're all just red x's.

He was remote linking to images on other sites but now not only do those images not work, none of them do. I've tried changing the thumbnail settings (size and create_thumbs_oninsert) and resetting the thumbs but nothing seems to be working.

*edit*
resubmitting them 1 by 1 seems to fix them, is there another way to do this without having to edit each link with a thumbnail image?

also, if you're thinking of tweaking/adding more to the forumhome addon, what about a random images/files setting where it would display random files/images apart from the new/hot ones (as well as being limited to specific categories as hot/new are)?

I've had steady problems getting the image handling to work well - probably more red cross errors than any other. Each time I think I've got it sorted... Sorry

Really, to get a handle on this, I need to take a look at your site - can you PM me with details + an admin uname and password. Thanks.

Greate Installed byt i have one question..


Its possible to mass add files from remote server??i check the scan future byt scan only the local server :(

I have to server one file server and onother one my site server ...

Not currently - this would create a potential security problem.

If the two sites are actually running on the same server, you can achieve this effect with the LDM admin setting local_file_root and local_file_root_prefix, so that all LDM files are located based on the server file system rather than the web site root directory.

However, you should understand what you are doing before making this switch.

Its not on the same server its on two different..

so no way to make mass add from onother server??

if i wont to make an inport from cvs file what is the code to do this...

expamle i have make now one file from my server with all links on it exaple

http://www.sitename.com/folder/file....lder/file3.ext

its possible to import that way?

Take a look here:

http://www.eirma.org/wikis/index.php/LDM_Import_Export

:) thanks

Byt i must make a file with 2800 links inside :)

Sounds like a Sunday afternoon Perl project

Hi,

I tried to bring some infos of the system to my CMPS 2.2.0 portal page but it did not work.
I checked the documentation and followed it to bring the latest links to a module but all I get is this:
I am using LDM 2.2.5

Yes, sorry about that - I introduced a new function into LDM that has the same name as a function used in VB Gallery.

I'll post new code this evening to fix the problem - there are instructions earlier in this thread but not complete.

WOW! INSTALLED!

Would ie be possible to have the user-side interface in DUTCH and the ADMIN-SIDE interface in ENGLISH.

With all respect for the person who translated it but I really have difficulties reading that and I would like to see a ENGLISH settings page.

(and to be honest atm I cant find where to go to a category to uploading files and stuff?)
(:DI dont understand anything of it.. Even when Im reading the manual atm)

Glad you like the overwhelming complexity...

Most of the phrases for the admin material have names that contain *admin* or *perms*. Here is a quick 'cut and paste product xml beween the English and Dutch which does most of the work. Otherwise, you can manually go through the phrase files in the development phrases directory

Ok, so I have to do it manual.
Little bit more work to do but I will.

Thank you Andrew!

Okay Andrew, I got another interesting request for you...

Lets say I do a directory scan to add a batch of files. Simple right? However, these files are .AVI files and it is a major pain to edit each and every one to add the thumbnails for them...

Considering one file, when it is added to the database, it has the following info:
$Name: wld.060812.mbac.Matrix.vs.LeoGeo
$Desc: trawled during scan of /matchvids/wld.060812
$URL: /matchvids/wld.060812/wld.060812.mbac.Matrix.vs.LeoGeo.avi

Would it be possible to slightly change all this?
So that when I add a file do the database using the batch method it adds the following:
$Name: wld.060812.mbac.Matrix.vs.LeoGeo
$Desc: /matchvids/wld.060812 (just the $dir)
$URL: /matchvids/wld.060812/wld.060812.mbac.Matrix.vs.LeoGeo.avi
$IMG: /matchvids/wld.060812/wld.060812.mbac.Matrix.vs.LeoGeo.gif (thats $dir/$name.gif)

http://www.crookedjester.com/local_links.php

No problem at all. It would be nice if you could update the package to 2.2.6 with a fix, otherwise we get lost here in all these postings :D

Dear AndrewD,

First of all, thank you very much for your updates. the function of the username/password link worked perfectly. thanks again.

another question is that, is there a way we can insert a images into the new create thread using: autocreate-threads plugin? but the image is filled out on the addlink screen. after submit the addlink form it will insert the filled out images into the thread that is created. so when people read the new link is added, the know what movie is added. .. sorry i was mainly do with the movie so i need this part.

(The reason I said attaching the image into the new thread instead of the LDM because the images can be managed under VB db sql or filesystem so LDM doesn't have to bother managing it again)

once again, Thanks AndrewD
XD

Try this plugin. (VB/admin/plugins/download and upload/import)

I'm going away for several weeks, so usual service will be interrupted from Sunday.

I will modify the autocreate plugins and include the change in the next upload, which I hope will be there by the weekend.

Andrew, attached you'll find an updated translation for the new LDM 2.2.5.

I've corrected some typos, changed the translation for some phrases etc.

Phrases are translated to "German - formal Sie". If I've time the next days I will perhaps add "German - Du".

Daniel

Andrew, just so you know, the "Reset Thumbs" feature does not work in 2.2.5.. It gives an error of undefined function clear_thumbnails();

As well I have discovered two more errors with 2.2.5...

1. The file size is listed as -999 kbytes (doesn't really matter though, on first click, it automatically fills in the correct information...
2. The date added is WAY off... it automatically lists the date as 12/31/69 instead of the current date. I noticed there ISNT a mass-edit feature to edit the dates for files... so this is a problem.

These two problems only happen using the SCAN based mass addition system.

The sample-avi-image.xml file you gave me works great...

thanks for posting the upgrade so quickly; WORKED flawlessly!

This must be the issue on our LDM too - many users will complain somtimes a link is broken and once it's gone through this "30 second timeout" seems that the link is actually broken.

Okay... let me summarize the problems I am having with 2.2.5...

1. clear_thumbnails() does not exist
2. SCAN mass upload feature is broken... all links get default values of:
- file size listed as -999bytes
- date listed as 12/31/69 05:00
- parent forum = 1 (instead of open access none)

Not sure about (1) - I can't reproduce the problem with 2.2.5 gold - I recall that problem but thought it was fixed a while ago.

(2) is definitedly a bug in 2.2.5 and is fixed in 2.2.6 - which I keep hoping will be uploaded before this weekend.

Just to be clear -

If an entry in LDM

a) points to a downloadable file (i.e. has a filetype that appears in the VBulletin Attachments table), and
b) is set up as a full url (i.e. http::/site/dir/file.typ) - NB it doesn't matter if site is actually your own site or somebody else's

then you are likely to have problems with running out of CPU time if the file is bigger than a few MBytes. This is because the work of retrieving the file and then retransmitting it to the user is expensive. There isn't much one can do about that.

LDM is much more efficient if the file is actually stored on your own server and the entry is set up using the local file name rather than as a full url.

Note also that these problems do not occur if the entry points to a filetype that is not in the VBulletin attachment table, because in this situation, LDM itself is not actually managing the transfer - the user's browser and the original site are doing all the work. However, this gain in efficiency is achieved at a loss of secrecy about the location of the file.

Thanks - will update everything soon.

thank you Andrew

your hints helped me. But I wana explain why I want to give my users the ability to know the full url. because they need to upload thier images into my server, then can put the link as source of the image :

thats mean : I like to give the user a link after he/she upload an image. so he can i.e. put that link in html tag as <img src="image_link" />
in this case the image will apear directly without need to jump or click.

Hey Andrew, I noticed you fulfilled my request and set the hits grab at the beginning of a download instead of at the end, thus letting the "hits" system work for shared servers that how a low wait_timeout... However, I noticed that the system still holds a sustained connection in which I get an error report after 20 seconds (my wait_timeout setting). If the hits grab is now at the beginning of the file, is there still a need to sustain the connection which is killed off by wait_timeout?

I imagine that the connection is being held by VBulletin itself. I don't explicitly let this go. I will take a look at the options.

Hey Andrew... any possibility for an extra profile field for links? Just an extra field where I can store an additional piece of information, but not part of the description? So I can call this extra piece of information in a template somewhere?

If I understand you correctly, the url you want is http://yoursite/youforum/local_resize.php?linkid=NN.