Major Additions - 8WayRun.Com - Media Library

Don't forget to click INSTALL!
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This is a new modification, spawning from the old VB 3.x Video Directory modifications.
For all intents and purposes, both my old Video Directory Remixed mod, and Survivor's original Video Directory mod have been discontinued. Neither of us are maintaining these older versions, they will not receive any future updates and we will not be providing any support. This version has a new name because it has been completely rewritten from scratch and is not being built on Survivor's old code. Because of this, if you are upgrading to this new version, from the old version, be sure to read this entire post in order to understand the upgrade process.

What is this mod?
Simply put, this mod is a directory for media. It supports URL inputs, in order to extract meta data and directorize media into a simple and easy to understand library. Users can add their favorite media from a select few online distribution centers (such as Youtube or Vimeo) and categorize and tag them as they see fit. This mod offers rudimentary support for the hosting of local media. An administrator can upload a media to the /customVID/ (default) directory; then add the media to the library using the URL code of "local:filename". Media hosted locally will be displayed using JWPlayer, but will not provide meta data, so that kind of information will need to be entered manually.

Demo:

http://www.8wayrun.com/media.php

Features:

• Integrated directly into the vBulletin user database and product manager.
• Fully phrased and built on tempaltes for easy re-skinning and styling.
• Simple to use administration features and usergroup permission settings.
• Landing page with the most recent, most popular and highest rated media.
• Ability to add media into a single category, while adding multiple tags.
• Ability to browse media through categories, tags, and user contributions.
• Summary tag cloud with a link to the entire list of tags in the system.
• Comment and rating system based on AJAX including graceful degredation.
• Individual RSS Feeds for newest videos, categories, tags and user media.
• Search function for titles and descriptions.

Installation:

If you are upgrading from before version 1.1, please install that version first.

1. Upload all the files in the "upload" directory of the attached zip file to your forum root.
2. CHMOD the /customVID/thumbs/ directory to full read/write/execute 777 permissions.
3. CHMOD the /customVID/sitemap/ directory to full read/write/execute 777 permissions.
4. Import the product file called "product-medialibrary.xml" in the Product Manager of vBulletin.
5. Set your usergroup permissions and media library settings in your administration control panel.
6. OPTIONAL: Enable the "Generate XML Media Sitemap" scheduled task in your administration control panel.
   
   NOTES: Make sure you decide what you wish to use for your thumbnail quality setting. By default, thumbnails are saved at 50% quality. At 50%, thumbnails will only be 2kb in size, but at the expense of quality. At 100%, thumbnails will be about 15kb in size, but will have the highest quality. I recommend setting it to 80%, which would leave thumbnails at 5kb in size with still excellent quality.
   
   Every time you change your thumbnail quality setting, you will need to run the "Rebuild Media Thumbnails" to see any changes.

Upgrading from VDR:

1. The "video*" tables from your previous installation of VDR need to exist in your database.
2. Enable the "media ADMIN import" plugin in the plugin manager of your control panel.
3. Run the "Import Media from VDR" process in your update counters menu in maintenance.
4. Disable the "media ADMIN import" plugin in the plugin manager of your control panel.
5. Run the "Rebuild Media Thumbnails" process in your update counters menu in maintenance.
6. You may now uninstall VDR once you confirm everything has been imported as intended.
   
   NOTES: You will mostly likely get at least one error while rebuilding media thumbnails...
   
   When you get an error, click the details link for that media. If the media displays some sort of error such as "This video has been removed" or "This video no longer exist", then that means that media is gone and you'll be unable to generate a thumbnail for that particular media. Use the available options on that media's detail page to DELETE it from your library. Then go back to your browser window which is rebuilding thumbnails and click the "retry from this position" link.
   
   If you got an error for a media, but after clicking the details link you can find no obvious error with the video; then the error could have just been a simple syn/ack failure. Just click the "retry from this position" link and the system will try to rebuild that thumbnail again.

Known Bugs:

There is a conflict with this modification and some of Valter's VSA modifications that will prevent navbar permissions from being handled correctly. I don't know exactly who's fault it is; but I'm pretty sure there are no errors in my code that would be causing this problem. There is a work around for this however.

Admin Control Panel > Plugins & Products > Plugin Manager > "media NAVTAB"

Find the code:

    $perms = media_permissions();

Replace with:

$perms['rate'] = true;
$perms['comment'] = true;
$perms['submit'] = true;
$perms['playlist'] = true;
 
if (is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, explode(',','5,6')))
{
    $perms['modtags'] = true;
    $perms['modcategory'] = true;
    $perms['modservice'] = true;
}

[your24hourstore]

Originally Posted by Jaxel

harleyparts, you can delete custom templates from a style by REVERTING them. Since their default option is to NOT EXIST, reverting to the default option will delete the entry. I have no idea with the stylevars though, as we all know they are a little buggy.

thanks i have a few i want gone

[schlottkej]

Originally Posted by KrU$ty

Thats fine cause no other users would need to upload videos except the admin with ftp access. Is there also support or would i be able to add bbcode for avi files too?

I *believe* JWPlayer can handle AVI also, but I'm not 100% sure.. I know it does mp4 and just about every 3rd party video (blip, youtube, etc)

[schlottkej]

Jaxel,

Will this media player have the ability to understand them AME definitions? Building a component to work with their definitions (or working together to build a working system for both) would be a major step forward for this mod.

[Jaxel]

Originally Posted by schlottkej

Jaxel,

Will this media player have the ability to understand them AME definitions? Building a component to work with their definitions (or working together to build a working system for both) would be a major step forward for this mod.

See... everyone always talks about integration. And I have to ask, for what purpose? Integration how?

[schlottkej]

AME has about 100 definitions already completed so making your system work with those (or building a converter) would open up access to a lot more embeddable content than users can currently obtain with 8WayRun Media Player.

The more tied into the forum (ability to connect videos to particular threads and events) would also be something I could see used on a wide range of websites using this product.

[Jaxel]

No can do... AME does no retrieve ANY offside data. It doesn't retrieve titles, descriptions thumbnails, or anything; nothing at all. All AME does is match a regex, extract an ID code, and put the ID code into a predefined object/embed. It does not do ANY cURL processing.

[COL NIL SATIS]

Originally Posted by Jaxel

The next version of this mod will revamp the local hosting system. I would recommend waiting on that before going all in with local file hosting.

awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KrU$ty]

Originally Posted by schlottkej

I *believe* JWPlayer can handle AVI also, but I'm not 100% sure.. I know it does mp4 and just about every 3rd party video (blip, youtube, etc)

No JW player does not do avi. I use this bbcode to do avi:

<OBJECT id='mediaPlayer' width="640" height="480" 
      classid='CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95' 
      codebase='http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701'
      standby='Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components...' type='application/x-oleobject'>
      <param name='fileName' value="{param}">
      <param name='animationatStart' value='true'>
      <param name='transparentatStart' value='true'>
      <param name='autoStart' value="0">
      <param name='showControls' value="true">
      <param name='loop' value="false">
      <EMBED type='application/x-mplayer2'
        pluginspage='http://microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/download/'
        id='mediaPlayer' name='mediaPlayer' displaysize='4' autosize='-1' 
        bgcolor='darkblue' showcontrols="true" showtracker='-1' 
        showdisplay='0' showstatusbar='-1' videoborder3d='-1' width="640" height="480"
        src="{param}" autostart="0" designtimesp='5311' loop="false">
      </EMBED>
      </OBJECT>

May be so bold as to ask for a new feature too, namely the ability to display embed code for users that want to use that to display the local vid on their website/myspace/facebook etc.

[schlottkej]

Originally Posted by Jaxel

No can do... AME does no retrieve ANY offside data. It doesn't retrieve titles, descriptions thumbnails, or anything; nothing at all. All AME does is match a regex, extract an ID code, and put the ID code into a predefined object/embed. It does not do ANY cURL processing.

That makes sense. I didn't think about the fact that AME didn't retrieve information for the source URL.. I just assumed because the regex was already written that it could be brought over and used with 8WR Media Player.

what do you think about my other suggestions? Just some things I've come across while getting addicted to your media center.

• Allow User to input thread URL to add video to the top of a thread (rather than just creating a new one)
• Allowing the user to add the videos to calendar events in the forum
• Ability to Add entire Youtube playlists w/ JW Player or Youtube playlist player
• More Control Over the categories. Right now you have the ability to edit depths 0 and .. allowing users to edit up to 4 or 5 sub-categories would allow them to hide categories from the menu but keep them active. (right now, as you know, if you deactivate a category it can't be accessed anymore) Or, alternatively, creating a system similar to the way forums are managed where subcategories show on the top of its parent category and can be edited to be active, etc..
• Finally, When will the RegEx "How To" be completed? If you haven't built it yet, please use this URL as an example and I can use it to create replicas for FloTrack, Floswimming, and about 45 other network sites.

[Juggernaut]

Justin tv embedding stopped working all of a sudden, all I get is the following message, even though I check that embedding is enabled on the channels :

Media URL contained invalid data.