Links and Downloads Manager
 

LDM extends VBulletin to manage a library of documents, files and links to other web sites. Documents can be stored on your own web site, stored on your server separate from the web site, uploaded by your user community, or held somewhere else altogether. So you can use LDM to provide your user community with access to your own files and allow them to share files with each other.

12/08/06 - Versions that work with vb36 are available and supported in the VB36 thread. Version 2.2.1, which works with VB 3.5 but not with VB 3.6, remains available here.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with all the design, testing, etc.
Translations are provided (thanks dLutt and LeeWicked) into German, (thanks to Allan) into French, and (thanks to Hugo) into Spanish. Harry1951 has handled the Dutch translation.

Screenshots, Instructions and How to Install

Full details and instructions are available as a Wiki at http://www.eirma.org/wikis/index.php...nloads_Manager

LDM installs as a VBulletin product. There are no modifications required to standard VB code.

Basically - upload php files and run the installer through VB's Product installer. No changes needed to VB code. Remember to BACKUP YOUR DATABASE. By default, LDM prefixes its database tables 'local_'. Edit the configuration file, local_links_init.php, if you need/wish to change this.

LDM can handle an essentially unlimited number of categories and nested subcategories, and an unlimited number of entries (hyperlinks or downloadable files). Each entry can be placed in one or several categories. Categories can have styles. Descriptions and titles can optionally include BBcodes, smilies, images and html, giving the possibility to add images, colouring, etc. File types can be flagged using icons and individual entries can also have associated thumbnail images.

Standards templates are provided for libraries of links, files, documents, and photographs.

Users can offer comments and rate the links/downloads. Each user is allowed one rating and many comments per entry, and can freely edit these if they change their mind.

Permission to use specific features is established via the product's admin page, where the administrator specifies which usergroups can add and edit entries, comment and rate these entries, moderate, etc.

By default, all entries are visible to all users. You can restrict visibility/access to links and categories by using the permissions masks from your board's forums.

Moderation of new entries is available but turned off by default.

Users can report bad links to the relevant moderators/administrators.

Each user can flag links as his/her "Favourites".

Modules are provided for VBAdvanced.

Hooks are provided in suitable places in LDM and sample plugins are included in the release (see extras directory), for example to integrate with ID3 tags in mp3 files, for slideshows, to autocreate new threads in your forums, etc.

Plus much more.

oh man, thank you so much
i just as of 5 minutes ago upgraded to beta 2 and was going to upload all the files as as attachments

your my hero!

If a user is a guest, can I say they CAN'T see the downloadlink/url link BUT CAN see the filename/linkname and description?

In that case, this is what I'm looking for :)

Yes, you can configure it in this way, but you need to understand how the permissions system works, see instructions.txt.

a) Out of the box, all entries are available to all users and only administrators can create/edit links. The admin page provides a large number of permission settings to change this per user group.

b) You give each a url/download access permissions by 'associating' it with one of your board's forums which has the required permissions masks. The admin page can be used to provide a default forum.

c) You can set it up either so that usergroups only see the urls/downloads they are allowed to access, or so that they see everything but can't get at the file

d) You need to read the instructions file - in particular, look at the explanation of the admin parameters *default_forumid* and the group settings for *can_see_protected_links_on_portal*

screenshot please

yep ;)

very nice. useful. however it would be better if admins were able to upload files from the control panel so you could offer files from your own site. i mean many of us use uploading services like rapidshare, yousendit and others, but they don't allow direct links. so ..yah.. please consider it. will really appreciate the ability to add downloads from the admin cp. thanks.

I couldnt find an add category link but i can still add a category by going to the url at http://myurl.com/forum/local_links.php?action=addcat Can anyone help me on why it doesnt show.

I avoided offering this with the VB3.0 version, but am willing to think again. Question - what is the maximum file size you would want to upload?

I sort links by date in descending order, and when I validate all links, it forgets which ones were uploaded last and screws around with the order they are displayed. Is there a fix for this?

Will take a look. Currently the sort order is not retained between accesses - it will probably need storing in a cookie or such like.

This new version works great ! Thank you. :)

Why do you need to know the max file size as you are usually limited by the server setting like in you php.ini file... which we have ours set higher for the bigger uploads we do via the browser.

Exactly so ;) - before coding this, I want to make sure people aren't expecting to be able to handle arbitrarily large files. Those who run on shared servers are often limited by a small upload_max_filesize and post_max_size, around 2M.

/me signs petition for upload capability/integration

any possiblity of getting curl support in this script?


also why does it rely on the allow_url_fopen function for links/files within the same site? I added some folders inside my forums directory for the downloads and the hack picks them up in the scan but then the links to the files don't work because the allow_url_fopen function isn't allowed, but it seems that that function shouldn't be necessary for this ability.

when trying to delete a category which still has files/subcategories in it I am brought to the Invalid delete error, but this error gives a link which is invalid.
Maybe its some error on my part, but the $url address doesn't lead anywhere for me.

*edit*
I'm running 3.5 beta 4 btw.

OK, will check - probably something simple.

Also will take a look at the curl/fopen situation

Claps my hands and stomps my feet.........wow that was easy to install *clicks Installs*

Excellent Mod! Just what I have been looking for for my new site! ;)

One question ... is there a way to only allow links to sites added and not downloads? ;)

Currently, this choice is not available, but it would be easy to add - up to a point.

The code works out if the entry is a 'link' or a 'download' by checking the VB attachment info to look for a mimetype that corresponds to the file suffix. If there's mimetype info available, then it's handled as a download. It would be easy enough to accept only entries that *do* or *do not* have mimetypes available. I'm not sure if that is sufficient.

I'm using this on my new site which is a Fathers' Rights site and all I want is links to law and informational Fathers' Rights sites. I know sooner or later someone will try to link a file or something. ;)

If you could maybe have a setting for this then that would be great! ;)

Excellent job, by the way. It was almost TOO easy to install. ;)

Thx, will give this some thought.

It's going to get even easier to install - I've got the product management install/uninstall script written - I like the system they've introduced for this.

I love the product management system! I ran 3.0 RC 1 (with all security updates through the 3.0 releases) and never upgraded because my board was too heeavily hacked and I really didn't want to have to re-do everythiing every time a new version came out. Now upgrading is a snap. A few template changes and we're back in business. ;)

Let me know if you need any testing done with the links as only links. ;)

Uploaded the first official release of the Links and Downloads Manager.

New features:
- Uses VB's product installer
- Includes user comments on links/files
- Categories can be given different styles
- Bad links can be reported

Grateful for reports.

Do we need to re-run the install file or anything to upgrade?

This version uses the VB product installer - it no longer has a separate installation script. All you need to do is upload the five php files, then install the product.

Works great! ;)

There is one small thing I noticed ... If you set this up as a forum link, when you first go into it, the Administer link is not clickable. If you click the Moderate link, then it becomes clickable. It only seems to happen if it opens in a new window. ;)

Are you running this on a board that you have upgraded from VB3.0? I had a similar problem at first, because my board also included edits to some of the standard VB templates (header, for example). Suggest you take a look at the main VB admin page -> Styles and Templates -> Find Updated Templates. You may need to 'revert' some of the standard templates, because they've changed the way they handle drop downs.

If you're running this on a clean new VB3.5 install, I can't reproduce it.

Nope, running a clean 3.5. ;)

The link is there it just isn't active until I click the Moderate link.

can i just upload everything and install the product or am i required to go thru the installation.txt and edit files

You might want to check the instructions file out as the files get uploaded to different directories. ;)

It only happens when I set the links as a forum with the link in it. I notice none of the drop downs (in the nabvar or links) work when I first go into it. I checked the find updated templates and there were none listed. Strange. ;)

EDIT: Found the problem. I have the links db mod as the link for my forum but I had it opening up in a new wondow instead of the way it is by default. I took the target part out of it and the drop downs work fine now. ;)

It's explained at the start of the instructions file:

Five php files to upload using FTP, two into your main forums directory, three into the includes directory
Then you use the main VB admin CP to upload and run the xml product installer, which loads templates, plugins and phrases and runs the install/upgrade code

No code changes are needed.

I think I found something else here. Sorry. ;)

If you have links in one category and you move them to another category, when you set the display order, it defaults back to one when you view it in the new category. You have to reset the display order after you move it. Shouldn't that be set as you edit it to move it?

You're right - will check this evening.

Thanks

Now that's what I call service! Was there a smile with that? ;)

Let me know what you find out and thank you, sir. ;)

I'm having a blast with this Mod! ;)

A big smile :) Actually there was a rather subtle bug lurking in the code, which you helped me find. Just upload the revised local_links.php - no need to rerun the installed. Let me know if if's ok.

That did the trick! Working fine now. Thank you, sir. ;)

I have to know, what was the subtle bug? ;)

In earlier versions, suppose you had put a link into more than one category and given it a new display order in all of these (e.g. 2). If you then tried to change its display order again but in only one of its categories (e.g. to 3), all the rest would be reset to 1. Rather an obscure situation, but it took me a little while to work out what was happening.