Major Additions - 8WayRun.Com - Media Library

Don't forget to click INSTALL!
I'm an unemployed computer programmer... if you appreciate the work I have done on this mod, please don't hesitate in offering me a donation by clicking the "Support Developer" link to the right of this text. A donation of $50 or more automatically gives you the right to remove the copyright footer for this modification from a single forum.

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;
}

[Webbstre]

I don't know if this is appropriate or not, but considering that this mod is apparently no longer supported (unless pulling it out of the graveyard changed that?) I figured I should present an alternative modification. Unfortunately it isn't free, but I'm looking at vbtube as a potential replacement for this. I'm one of those people who needs support because I don't plan on making any major CMS/forum switches (again) in the forseeable future.

No offense is meant to Jaxel, as I have been one of the people who has used this modification since the first version went up, but if this isn't going to be supported I think people need to know what alternatives are out there.

[Juggernaut]

Webbstre, Can all the media from this mod be imported into vbtube?

[Webbstre]

As of August, there wasn't, but I'm not sure if that has changed or not. I'll ask and see if there was any progress on it.

[Juggernaut]

Thank you.

[Jaxel]

Just because I am no longer supporting this mod doesnt mean you have to stop using it...

Except for the foreign language characters issue, there are no obvious bugs... I will fix any bugs that do arise...

However, what this means is that there will be no new FEATURES.

[Ninos]

Originally Posted by Jaxel

Just because I am no longer supporting this mod doesnt mean you have to stop using it...

Except for the foreign language characters issue, there are no obvious bugs... I will fix any bugs that do arise...

However, what this means is that there will be no new FEATURES.

So this means that you will still update it to work with future vB versions (eg. 4.1)?

[RobbieZ]

Originally Posted by VBUsers

i installed it on my forum but i have a custom skin. The links to manage the mod arent installed. how can i fix that?

You need to explain a bit more detail to your 'links to manage mod' as you could mean inline moderate or admincp or what?

Did you read the instructions carefully at the top including the know bug?

[Stefanus]

Last Update: Yesterday ?

[Veer]

Originally Posted by Ninos

So this means that you will still update it to work with future vB versions (eg. 4.1)?

I hope so, Hopping for the best

[Jaxel]

If it stops working in 4.1, I will fix it.