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.

[obmob]

Oh, thanls Andrew, i'll test them this week.

[Slave]

Update now installed

No problems with the upgrade and no bugs found so far .. this could change

Suggestions:

If admin, allow to enter comments as other forum users. This is handy if someone has entered a link and written "war and peace" about the link. It would be cool to enter this extra info as a comment by the user on the link instead.

Quick link adding. If you enter a link LDM goes off and finds the meta-data and fills in the rest of the details from this info. (editable if required of course )

I hope you had a good Easter Andrew!!

[itsblack]

Hi Andrew, today I try to use the allowance system to control the downloads. I let the registered user download 1 item every 1 day.
Attachment 62938

And I make a test myself. But I can download different item one after another! Right under the category descritption show that "Allowances: 1 files/ 2 used". That makes me confuse. I also disabled the option "can_bypass_bandwidth_limits ", so I can't figure it out, what's happened.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by itsblack

Hi Andrew, today I try to use the allowance system to control the downloads. I let the registered user download 1 item every 1 day.
Attachment 62938

And I make a test myself. But I can download different item one after another! Right under the category descritption show that "Allowances: 1 files/ 2 used". That makes me confuse. I also disabled the option "can_bypass_bandwidth_limits ", so I can't figure it out, what's happened.

Are you 'downloading' or are you hitting 'links' - i.e do the entries that you are selecting have filetypes that are defined as downloads (i.e. with mimetype data in the VB attachments table).

The test for sufficient file/bandwidth allowances is only applied when you try to make a 'download'. For 'links', the allowances don't apply, because LDM doesn't manage the transfer.

However, you've found a bug in the reporting system ("Allowances: 1 files/ 2 used"), because the figure "2 used" is counting the links you have hit as well as your downloads. I'm surprised that this hasn't been noticed before, because the code in question hasn't changed for quite some time. (There's a piece missing in the sql query that I use to produce that report.) Sorry about that.

[itsblack]

Actually the most filetypes on my site is rar file. It is defined as "Content-type: unknown/unknown" in vb attachments table. Now I have changed it to "Content-type: application/rar". I think both ways are handled as download. But the problem remains.

Maybe, as you said, the LDM is always treat my rar download as hits. Because in the total LDM stastics (as VBA module) there is always "reserved: 0 Kbytes", though there are 1130 Hits. But I am sure, the most hits are rar-downloads from my own site.

Btw, when I submitt the new entry, the LDM can determine the file size.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by itsblack

Actually the most filetypes on my site is rar file. It is defined as "Content-type: unknown/unknown" in vb attachments table. Now I have changed it to "Content-type: application/rar". I think both ways are handled as download. But the problem remains.

Maybe, as you said, the LDM is always treat my rar download as hits. Because in the total LDM stastics (as VBA module) there is always "reserved: 0 Kbytes", though there are 1130 Hits. But I am sure, the most hits are rar-downloads from my own site.

Btw, when I submitt the new entry, the LDM can determine the file size.

OK, then there's something wrong. I'll dig and report what I find.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by itsblack

Actually the most filetypes on my site is rar file. It is defined as "Content-type: unknown/unknown" in vb attachments table. Now I have changed it to "Content-type: application/rar". I think both ways are handled as download. But the problem remains.

Maybe, as you said, the LDM is always treat my rar download as hits. Because in the total LDM stastics (as VBA module) there is always "reserved: 0 Kbytes", though there are 1130 Hits. But I am sure, the most hits are rar-downloads from my own site.

Btw, when I submitt the new entry, the LDM can determine the file size.

Have you got force_redirect set to 1?

I took a look through the database dump you sent me last week, and LDM is indeed serving these files as 'links' even though it's clear from your site (because the filesize is shown) that it knows that there is mimetype infomation available.

It's difficult for me to debug your site directly - Chinese is not one of my skills... - I'm impressed though by the range of philosophy you're making available.

[itsblack]

Yes, I set force_redirect = 1. Because when I set force_redirect = 0, there will be download error (download not completely), and I thought it will also take more server resource, So I prefer to set it to 1.

Is it possible, just let LDM judge the hit allowance has reached or not, when reached, then reject more hit.

btw, I have changed LDM to english version. And I've also move you to the registered usergroup, so you can directly vist my site. You can per LDM/Show menu get the eitries, there are also many entries used englisch. If you nedd admin account, just tell me.

Thanks again for your help.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by itsblack

Yes, I set force_redirect = 1. Because when I set force_redirect = 0, there will be download error (download not completely), and I thought it will also take more server resource, So I prefer to set it to 1.

Is it possible, just let LDM judge the hit allowance has reached or not, when reached, then reject more hit.

btw, I have changed LDM to english version.

OK, now I understand. When force_redirect=1, the hit/bandwidth allowances don't currently come into effect. As LDM is not handling the transfer, I assumed that sites wouldn't want to restrict hits.

This can probably be changed, but it needs some thought.

With force_redirect=0, probably you are seeing transfers fail to complete for large files (I saw some very big files on your site), particularly if identified with a full url.

With the latest versions of LDM, you can set force_redirect on a per-category basis.

[itsblack]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

With force_redirect=0, probably you are seeing transfers fail to complete for large files (I saw some very big files on your site), particularly if identified with a full url.

With the latest versions of LDM, you can set force_redirect on a per-category basis.

I need an overall downloads control, so set force_redirect on a per-category basis make no use for me.

For those links which link to other sites, I have created a single category to put them in, and I set this category bypass the allowance setting.