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]

Version 1.2 uploaded:

• 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: Speed of 'COUNT(*)' query greatly improved for case where
  we do not need to reference tables other than 'attachment'. Testing on our
  server shows speed improvement around 6x better.

Screenshot:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachmen...chmentid=19525

[Boofo]

Does this hack support permissions and does it show private attachments if you have the PM attachment hack installed?

[CarCdr]

Does this hack support permissions

Boofoo, permissions for accessing attachments and posts is handled. Perrmission handling for generating the listing will likely be in version 2. vBulletin does not offer any modularized way of handling permissions, so it's rather a pain in the a**.

As you no doubt are aware, this would require checking each attachment against the associated forum table, via the thread table, then for each listing entry, a call has to be made to "fetch_permissions".

Permissions in play are CANVIEW, CANGETATTACHMENT, and possibly can_moderate. If CANVIEW is off, then we would not list the post title.

Finally, there would be processing for forum passwords. I do not know how that would work nicely, as you could be interrogated multiple times for a single page.

The only tables we touch currently are attachment, user, and post. I discussed this in the initial post as I anticipated it would be a concern.

Now, if one tries to download an attachment or look at a post, or view a user's profile (in other words, follow any of the links on a listing, then the normal vBulletin permissions apply since these are standard vBulletin URLs.

does it show private attachments if you have the PM attachment hack installed?

No. I am not familiar with this hack. Is it used widely?

[Boofo]

Originally Posted by CarCdr

Does this hack support permissions

Boofoo, permissions for accessing attachments and posts is handled. Perrmission handling for generating the listing will likely be in version 2. vBulletin does not offer any modularized way of handling permissions, so it's rather a pain in the a**.

As you no doubt are aware, this would require checking each attachment against the associated forum table, via the thread table, then for each listing entry, a call has to be made to "fetch_permissions".

Permissions in play are CANVIEW, CANGETATTACHMENT, and possibly can_moderate. If CANVIEW is off, then we would not list the post title.

Finally, there would be processing for forum passwords. I do not know how that would work nicely, as you could be interrogated multiple times for a single page.

The only tables we touch currently are attachment, user, and post. I discussed this in the initial post as I anticipated it would be a concern.

Now, if one tries to download an attachment or look at a post, or view a user's profile (in other words, follow any of the links on a listing, then the normal vBulletin permissions apply since these are standard vBulletin URLs.

does it show private attachments if you have the PM attachment hack installed?

No. I am not familiar with this hack. Is it used widely?

The pm attachments hack for vB3 is very widely used and an excellent hack. Kentaurus coded it.

[CarCdr]

Originally Posted by Boofo

The pm attachments hack for vB3 is very widely used and an excellent hack. Kentaurus coded it.

re: Private attachments

Boofo, the question is "How should it work?" Attachment_browser is meant to be a user utility, not an admin utility. I suppose it could display the private attachments for the logged-in user, but I *believe* the private attachment hack does that now via profile.php.

For listing other user's private attachments, I note that the private attachment hack does not have admin support, via admincp\attachment.php. Perhaps that's what you are after.

Cheers

[Natch]

The problem is that the Private attachments are not private in the dbase - they are stored as regular attachments, and are linked not to a thread, but to a PM - this is what needs to be added to determine who can view what ...

There is (btw) already a hack that displays a listing of all attahcments - take a look for the "Files List" hack ...

Nevertheless, good work!

[CarCdr]

Originally Posted by Natch

The problem is that the Private attachments are not private in the dbase - they are stored as regular attachments, and are linked not to a thread, but to a PM - this is what needs to be added to determine who can view what ...

There is (btw) already a hack that displays a listing of all attahcments - take a look for the "Files List" hack ...

Nevertheless, good work!

Yes, I read through the private attachment code. Like i said, I suppose all one could add is the ability to view one's own attachments, not others. This is a user utility. To see other's private attachments, the private attachment hack should have admincp\attachment.php support.

Yes, I saw that FilesList was posted, but I thought I would post ours nevertheless as it has significantly more features.

[highlander_RD]

This is a very nice and easy hack. *install*
May I ask the possibility to show a thumbnail when the attachment is an image?

Thanks! ;-)

[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!

trainer,

Today I tested the mod's to search only in a specific form. I'll post it later this week.

Implementation
I took the easy way here. Each list entry now contains the form name. Next to the forum name is a [Filter] link. Clicking such a link will add the corresponding forum ID to the current selection criteria.

[CarCdr]

re: thumbnails

highlander_RD ,

It's not that hard, but it would sure mess up the page display, making some entries occupy a lot of vertical space. I'm betting you don't care about that. Personally, I always want as much information on a page as possible -- i.e., lots of entries.