Major Additions - Links and Downloads Manager

Version 2.3.0 of LDM is now the official release. This works with both VB3.7 and VB3.8. You can obtain it here

Version 2.2.8 remains available here, with limited support.

04.02.08: patch-cat.xml 'extra' uploaded - see first post for information

27.10.07: Version 2.2.8-post1 uploaded
French translation of product installer uploaded (other language translations are in the main release zip)

Remember to back up your current database tables before upgrading.

What this is and does

LDM is a general-purpose link and file manager, which handles user uploads and downloads in a flexible way. A range of media players is integrated into LDM and others are included as plugin extras. LDM is described below in the first post of this thread, which also contains a brief list of the currently-known bugs.

This release of LDM works correctly with all VB versions 3.6.x and recent versions of vbadvanced.

Documentation, screen shots, etc, are provided as a Wiki at http://www.eirma.org/wikis/index.php...nloads_Manager

Thank you to everyone who has tested, given suggestions, helped with the translations, etc.

[Ophelia]

Okay, some side questions.

I have the download manager now installed on another site that I'm admining for. On Friday, they send out a newsletter to roughly 12,000 subscribed members advertising the download for that day. They will typically have roughly 2-3,000 hits on it by the end of the day.

We are seeing a huge strain on the main database, which is on the main server. A new server, dedicated to the downloads, has been purchased. Now the question is.. can we have a seperate database just for the link manager, or does it have to be inside the forum database? Right now, when that newsletter goes out, it overloads the database and shuts down the site, which is bad because the store is also there.

Second issue:

Older install... those who are allowed to upload can do so, but it's putting all their files into "moderate". I've looked everywhere to see if it's really set to moderate them, but can't find anything. It's driving me batty. Ideas?

[Ophelia]

Originally Posted by Ophelia

Here is the issue that I'm seeing (I'm using just a regular registered member to do this, not admin).

1. Add Entry
2. Input all the information.
3. In the field where I want to schedule the download to be visible, it is showing my correct time; CST. I input the time and press submit.
4. I look and see that the download is not scheduled (it doesn't have the red "Expired or scheduled" message. When I go in and edit, it is showing one hour earlier (ET) for the scheduled, and not the CST.

Example: I type in 7:40 CST and press submit, it changes it to 6:40 my time instead and doesn't schedule it for later.

I know that this worked in 2.2.6, as we haven't had any issues with it at all.

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Have you set up the timezone/daylight saving settings for your 'registered user'? THe LDM code uses (I think!) standard vb routines for dates/times, but I'll check again.

I have the forum itself set up for ET (-5)
I have the user set up for CST (-6)

I just installed the newest version, and it's still doing this.

Here are some screen shots.

When I first go in to enter a new entry. This shows the current time for CST (the user).



I change the time to 9:30 AM on January 30th and press submit.

I go back in and edit, and now it shows this:



So it took my CST 9:30 and changed it to ET, which would be 8:30 a.m.

It didn't work this way in 2.2.6. When you go in to add in 2.2.6, it would show the ET even if your member was set to CST.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by berayiwu5

How do I lay out all the photos inside a single box: http://www.eirma.org/wikis/images/f/fb/Photolib.jpg?

Edit the category; go to the Control Settings tab; choose Photo Album for template_linkbit; and set link_cols_display to whatever number of columns you want.

Originally Posted by berayiwu5

Second, is there a way to display all the images that a user has ever uploaded using LDM all in one place?

You can do it directly with the urls

local_links_search.php?action=show&user=username

local_links_search.php?action=show&userid=userid

or you can go to search/advanced search and enter the username

or (with the standard linkbit) you can find an extry by the user of interest and click on the magnifying glass just to the right of the username

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Firen

I have recently installed this awesome mod. Is there any way to password protect zips?
Thanks.

Do you mean that you want LDM to modify the zip file to insert a password into it?

Or do you mean that you want the user to be prompted for a password before being able to download the zip?

The first can be done with a tool like winzip. Currently, LDM has no password features built into it - I've not tested, but I imagine that you could route access via a password protected VB forum.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Ophelia

Okay, some side questions.

I have the download manager now installed on another site that I'm admining for. On Friday, they send out a newsletter to roughly 12,000 subscribed members advertising the download for that day. They will typically have roughly 2-3,000 hits on it by the end of the day.

We are seeing a huge strain on the main database, which is on the main server. A new server, dedicated to the downloads, has been purchased. Now the question is.. can we have a seperate database just for the link manager, or does it have to be inside the forum database? Right now, when that newsletter goes out, it overloads the database and shuts down the site, which is bad because the store is also there.

I never dreamed that this would end up being a heavyweight....

First thing to work out is whether it is the load on the database that is killing your server, or the physical effort of transferring the files which are being downloaded. I would be inclined to suspect the second - recall that the files themselves are not stored in the database.

Second, how are the urls being specified for the downloads? If they are being entered as full urls (even if this is the same server), this is a sure fire recipe for hammering the server. Far better to have the files specified using a local filename (or uploaded, which amounts to the same thing).

I really don't know about being able to run LDM in its own VB database - but one way that should work is to have two installations of VB on the same server, and use one of them for LDM. Might need some clever work to keep the usernames in sync.

Originally Posted by Ophelia

Older install... those who are allowed to upload can do so, but it's putting all their files into "moderate". I've looked everywhere to see if it's really set to moderate them, but can't find anything. It's driving me batty. Ideas?

Take a look at the Control Settings tab for the category into which they are uploading (or its parents), as well as the Admin/Settings page. Moderation can be set on a per-category basis and globally.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Ophelia

I have the forum itself set up for ET (-5)
I have the user set up for CST (-6)

I just installed the newest version, and it's still doing this.

Here are some screen shots.

When I first go in to enter a new entry. This shows the current time for CST (the user).



I change the time to 9:30 AM on January 30th and press submit.

I go back in and edit, and now it shows this:



So it took my CST 9:30 and changed it to ET, which would be 8:30 a.m.

It didn't work this way in 2.2.6. When you go in to add in 2.2.6, it would show the ET even if your member was set to CST.

OK, will dig into this. I spend my life zipping between time zones so I'm surprised that I never tried this myself.

[Ophelia]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

I never dreamed that this would end up being a heavyweight....

First thing to work out is whether it is the load on the database that is killing your server, or the physical effort of transferring the files which are being downloaded. I would be inclined to suspect the second - recall that the files themselves are not stored in the database.

Second, how are the urls being specified for the downloads? If they are being entered as full urls (even if this is the same server), this is a sure fire recipe for hammering the server. Far better to have the files specified using a local filename (or uploaded, which amounts to the same thing)..

Hey, if you would stop providing such wonderful customer support.. we would stop using the program Okay really, please don't!! We're about to create a gold shrine in your honor.

We'll go ahead and start with storing the files on the server that is solely dedicated to downloads... and see how that works. I do know that we get SQL errors when this happens, so that's why I'm assuming it's to much work on the database instead of the server itself.

The problem that I have had w/ the full urls/local filename is that we've never been able to get it working on our server. Anything over 5MB fails, so we have to do the full URL. We upped our PHP Maximum Upload Size to 50.00 MB.. still didn't help.. but I'm guessing I didn't do something right somewhere. I'll do some more reading about this because I think I did see you had posted something about this situation in this thread.

[Ophelia]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

OK, will dig into this. I spend my life zipping between time zones so I'm surprised that I never tried this myself.

I double checked and this isn't an issue w/ 2.2.6, which we have installed on the main site...

I'm wondering though if maybe I did something wrong in the configuration of vBulletin though... can anyone else confirm that it's doing this in 2.2.7? When I go into vB's options to set time and set it to ET, it reads -4 instead of -5, even though I picked -5. Maybe that is the issue and it's all my side I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase!

[Deathspank]

Andrew, I still haven't heard a response from you about my question... is there any way we can choose permissions for categories rather than the entire LDM manager and forum permissions? Like, say in one category, I have a bunch of WMV videos that people can stream in the jukebox and save, and in another category they can only stream the WMV files in the jukebox, not save them. I've noted that you could do this with usergroups, but I need it to be done with categories.

[Firen]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Do you mean that you want LDM to modify the zip file to insert a password into it?

Or do you mean that you want the user to be prompted for a password before being able to download the zip?

The first can be done with a tool like winzip. Currently, LDM has no password features built into it - I've not tested, but I imagine that you could route access via a password protected VB forum.

I was actually after an answer to the latter. But thanks for answering both. I'll try routing the access to a protected forum like you suggested.