Attachment Browser (v2.1 beta testing)

List/Search Attachment Files

List, filter/search, sort, etc. for attachments files. Respects forum permissions. Supports limiting search to a single forum or a list of forums. Also, a separate attachment summary page is available.

Any problems raised in this thread have been fixed. For new features in version 2, see below under Version 2 for "New" entries.

Standard page navigation is supported to go to last page, prev, next, etc.

Sorts, ascending or descending, are supported for:

• two levels of sorting, for example, by user name and then by file name.
• Sort, either level, on these fields:
  • date/time
  • user name
  • forum
  • file name
  • file extension
  • file size
  • # of downloads
• the default sort is date/time (most recent first)

Searching/filtering

• All criteria is entered on a collapsable form at the top of the page.
• Search/filter criteria supported are:
  • user name ('*' wildcards allowed)
  • file name ('*' wildcards allowed),
  • file extension ('*' wildcards allowed)
  • userid or list of userid's
  • forumid or list of forumid'
  • attached before N days ago,
  • attached after N days ago
• Single click filtering by user name, forum name or document type.

Changes pending for version 2.1

1. New Added usergroup access checking.
   Two configuration variables can be set to either (a) allow access to a set of usergroup or (b) disallow access for a set of usergroup id's.
2. New Query performance improved.
   Performance for sites with many thousands of attachments is significantly improved. The single most time consuming aspect of such a script is the MySQL query for 'COUNT(*)' to get the number of attachments matching the selection criteria and access permissions. By including only those JOIN's that are required, depending on the columns being accessed, the ORDER BY, and the WHERE clauses, we improve performance of both retrievals. There is still one case where the row retrieval could be slow: when the user requests that the output be sorted by forum title.
3. New List attachments added since last visit.
4. New Added a debugging setting to display timing information.
5. Change Various other performance improvements that will be detailed when released.

Version 2:

1. New A separate attachment summary page was added.
   Page provides overall summary, summary by forum, and summary by extension.
   This introduces two new templates: attbro_SUMMARY and attbro_summary_categorybit.
   This page is accessed from a new link at the top of the main page.
   
   
2. New Now uses $vbphrase for phrases.
   You can AdminCP-install custom phrases to override the defaults.
   
   
3. New We respect forum permissions.
   To have an entry listed, the user needs 'CANVIEW' and 'CANGETATTACHMENT'
   access and a password if required. Also, $_FORUMOPTIONS[active] and
   $_FORUMOPTIONS[cancontainthreads] must be on and the forum must not
   be a link redirect.
   
   
4. New List forum name with each entry.
   
   
5. New Now supports sorting by forum name; just like any other
   sort, for first- or second-level sort.
   
   
6. New Quick filtering for a single forum, by clicking the
   '[Filter]' link next to a forum name to search only that forum, similar to
   clicking the link next to the user name in our previous version.
   
   
7. New Allow one or more forumid's to be specified as a filter on the Display Options
   form. The "Forum ID" form field may be one or more ID's separated by spaces or commas.
   The "[Filter]" link next to forum names uses this as well to add a Forum ID to the
   current selection criteria.
   
   
8. New Allow one or more userid's to be specified as a filter on the Display Options
   form. The "User ID" form field may be one or more ID's separated by spaces or commas.
   
   
9. New Forums can be explicitly exluded via the URL parameter
   "exclude_forums=LIST", where LIST is one or more forumid's separated
   by spaces or commas. This will eventually be an AdminCP option.
   
   
10. Bug: Checks deletion log so that deleted posts are not included.
    
    
11. Feature/Change: The filter 'sel_userid=NNN' no longer disallows other
    filter criteria. It's treated like any other filter -- combined with other selection
    criteria. Only one of 'sel_userid=NNN' or 'sel_username=XXX' can be specified.
    Userid takes precedence. This change also applies to 'sel_forumid=XXX'.
    
    
12. Change: We use MySQL "LIMIT X,N" syntax to only retrieve the records
    we need to fill the requested page. This should provide some performance gain
    when building pages for high page numbers.
    
    
13. Change: Renamed '[Downloads]' link next to user name to '[Filter]'.
    
    
14. Change: Renamed 'Downloads' in listing header to '$vbphrase[views]'.
    
    
15. Change: Renamed URL parameter 'userid=NNN' to 'sel_userid=NNN'.
    
    
16. Change: Since we now need forum information for every page, we
    always query using all the JOINS -- user, post, thread, forum, deletionlog.
    
    
17. Change: Exclude attachements whose 'postid' is zero. Thanks to
    Pitman for this one, who suggested: "About the private attachments: Since
    they don't have a postid, wouldn't "AND postid !=0" work in the query or
    whatever? If so, that should also fix the problem that some may have with
    attachment names and all showing but no attachment really there yet (like when
    somebody is posting a new attachment and have not yet clicked Submit New
    Thread or Submit Reply)?"
    
18. Bug: Fix mismatched <td></td> in attbro_FORM template that caused
    page to leak past the right margin.
    
19. Phrase changes:
    • New 'stars_allowed' for reminders on form.
    • New 'Filter' for '[Filter]' links
    • New 'Count' for summary page.
    • New 'Attachment_Summary'.
    • No longer use 'Select_Type'.

v 1.1:

• Added .php to all attachment_browser references in template links.
• Added forgotten class="tcat" to first table row for headings.

v 1.2:

• Feature: Enabled display of file type icons and the ability to click
  said icons to recall us to list only files of that type (extension).
  We look for icons using "$stylevar[imgdir_attach]/$extension.gif".
• Bug: Make "Show attachment ID" on form be remembered across calls.
• Bug: Make sure "userid=XXX" is passed in links for page navigation when
  listing a single user's downloads.
• Feature: If we are showing the attachment ID, then always force it below the
  row number with '<br />'.
• Performance: Performance of 'COUNT(*)' query greatly imporved for case where
  we do not need to reference tables other than 'attachment'. Testing
  on our server shows speed improvement around 6x better. This small
  optimization controlled via "$sqlCountRequiredJoins".

----------------------------

To search in a single forum: use the single click [Filter] next to any forum name on a page or enter the forumid on the "Display Options" form.
To search only in a selected list of forums: Enter a comma-separated list of forumid's in "Display Options".

You can AdminCP-install custom templates to override our defaults ones.
You can AdminCP-install custom phrases to override the defaults -- all
references in templates are to "$vbphrase[XXX]".

If you do not want to change the default templates or phrases, then there are
no other files to install -- just put this one in the main '/forum' directory.
If you want to modify the default templates, copy them from this file and
install them as usual. We will notice when there are installed templates to
override our defaults. The same applies to phrases.

We only list forums that the user has permissions to view and get attachments,
for attachments that are visible and not from deleted posts.

We do 2 queries: (1) get the total COUNT of accessible attachments matching
the selection criteria and (2) retrieve enough rows to fill the requested page.

If you follow a link on one of our pages to download an attachment, view a
user profile, or view the original post, then the normal access checks will
apply, as these links simply invoke standard vBulletin files.

The templates referenced are: attbro_MAIN, attbro_FORM, attbro_ERROR,
attbro_attachbit, attbro_SUMMARY and attbro_summary_categorybit. The default
templates and phrases are defined in this file. Look for '$MyDefaultTemplates'
and '$MyDefaultPhrases'.

For example, if we had a template named 'attbro_example', it will appear in
this file as:

$MyDefaultTemplates['attbro_example'] = '
LINE 1 OF TEMPLATE
LINE 2 OF TEMPLATE
';

To install a custom version, just copy the LINES
and install it under the template name attbro_example.
----------------------------
This extension is free, and will remain free.

Cheers, CarCdr

[CarCdr]

Originally Posted by chrisvonc

Yes but thats just for each user to see what they have uploaded. This is pretty cool in that it looks to offer a quick and easy page to call up for all attachments from everyone rather than going in through the AdminCP. I think a little more tweaking and it will be a good little add-on.

That's the idea. We use vB for a company project with a large number of configuration-managed documents of various types, mostly .doc, .xls, and .txt. Users needed a way of doing things like:

* List attachments whose file names begin with 'TASKING_' and sort by date.
* List attachments from user '*Admin' (i.e., ending with 'Admin') in the last month.

[CarCdr]

Originally Posted by nexialys

this hack have to be in the Beta Releases section, because is not following the vBulletin3 protocol... no lang phrases, no templates, not using the templates at all,... maybe be useful but not in the full released!

Sure. It doesn't matter to me where it goes.

I see your point, definitely. Still, I would note that the entire mod is phrased (i.e., no english in the templates), although it uses a non-standard method for additionally required phrases. All phrasing is done either through $vbphrase references or references to $attbro_PHRASES. which is defined in the PHP file. It's actually easier to contain and control the mod within a single file like this, rather than having to go through the AdminCP (imho).

It does use templates. It's just that the default versions are contained in the PHP file itself. If you install an updated template, the program will override the version contained in the PHP file. The rule is to first look for an installed template, then if none is found, to use the default.

that's why i say it have togo to the Beta ... because you have the details, but not the vB3 way/protocol of things... this is a cool tool btw!

[CarCdr]

Originally Posted by nexialys

that's why i say it have togo to the Beta ... because you have the details, but not the vB3 way/protocol of things... this is a cool tool btw!

I hear ya nexialys. BTW, I thought I would give a sense of the phrasing that is used. Here is the list of phrases referenced in the templates:


vBulletin Standard
$vbphrase[ascending]
$vbphrase[days]
$vbphrase[descending]
$vbphrase[display_options]
$vbphrase[downloads]
$vbphrase[downloads]]
$vbphrase[extension]
$vbphrase[filename]
$vbphrase[filesize]
$vbphrase[months]
$vbphrase[post]
$vbphrase[username]
$vbphrase[year]
$vbphrase[years]


New Phrases
$attbro_PHRASES[attachment_browser] => Attachment Browser
$attbro_PHRASES[attachments_selected] => attachments selected
$attbro_PHRASES[Attached_date] => Attached date
$attbro_PHRASES[Change] => Change
$attbro_PHRASES[Display] => Display
$attbro_PHRASES[expand_collapse] => Expand to change/Collapse
$attbro_PHRASES[Filtering] => Filtering
$attbro_PHRASES[First_by] => First by
$attbro_PHRASES[ID] => ID
$attbro_PHRASES[List]
=> List
$attbro_PHRASES[no_matches] => No attachments match the selection criteria you have specified.
$attbro_PHRASES[not_enough_pages] => Too few attachments retrieved to list the page you requested.
$attbro_PHRASES[or_newer] => or newer
$attbro_PHRASES[or_older] => or older
$attbro_PHRASES[Profile] => Profile
$attbro_PHRASES[Results_per_page] => Results per page
$attbro_PHRASES[Select_Type] => Select Type
$attbro_PHRASES[Show_attachment_ID] => Show attachment ID
$attbro_PHRASES[Show_All] => Show All
$attbro_PHRASES[Sorting] => Sorting
$attbro_PHRASES[then_by] => then by
$attbro_PHRASES[Version] => Version
$attbro_PHRASES[D_7] => 7 $vbphrase[days]
$attbro_PHRASES[D_30] => 30 $vbphrase[days]
$attbro_PHRASES[M_3] => 3 $vbphrase[months]
$attbro_PHRASES[M_6] => 6 $vbphrase[months]
$attbro_PHRASES[Y_1] => 1 $vbphrase[year]
$attbro_PHRASES[Y_2] => 2 $vbphrase[years]

Some of the new phrases do exist somewhere in vBulletin, but loading an entire phrase group to get at the word 'List' for example, seemed like overkill.

[Osterling]

I use MyIE2 and it seems to break width at the bottom.. anyone else getting this problem

[trainer]

would it be possible to search in a certain forum only. we have a couple of specific forum and viewing the attachments from that forum only would be great!

[CarCdr]

Originally Posted by trainer

would it be possible to search in a certain forum only. we have a couple of specific forum and viewing the attachments from that forum only would be great!

The rational thus far was guided by this:

Originally Posted by CarCdr In Initial Post

We wanted this to be reasonably fast on large boards, so we stayed away
from dealing with forums. The attachment table is only cross-linked to
the post table and user table. These are the only ones we access. This
means that we do not do proper access checking, as that would required
that we do lookups from the post table to the thread table to the forum
table.

Now, having said that, if someone clicks a link on one of our pages to
download an attachment, view a user profile, or view the original post,
then the normal access checks will apply, as these links simply invoke
standard vBulletin files.

Still, it has been a pain for us as well not being able to search by forum. It will be added eventually. I know how to do it, that's not the problem, it's taking the time to figure out how it affects the page layout.

[CarCdr]

Originally Posted by exasko

I use MyIE2 and it seems to break width at the bottom.. anyone else getting this problem

Got that screen shot of the width problem exasko?

[Osterling]

yes let me grab it

[Osterling]

see the image