Links and Files Database

The VB3.0 version is no longer supported although there have been no reported problems for some time

See here for the VB 3.6 version of this hack, which is now the supported version. This version currently also works with VB 3.5
See here for the VB 3.5 thread for this hack.

What's new in v1.60?

Option to display associated thumbnail images
Option to accept/not accept new entries if these already exists in database
Code for mass edits (accessed via admincp) tidied up
VB phrasing completed
Includes a full French and a partial German translation (thanks to cclaerhout, Allan and LeeWicKeD), handled properly by installation script.
Various bugs fixed and tested against php4 and php5:
Better database validation (on startup/in admincp: links with invalid associated forumids, categories with invalid parentids)
Alternative linkbit templates provided (default uses a fieldset, the other is the old-style table row)
Alternative category selection templates (pull down menu/list of checkboxes),
Star rating displayed using standard VB stars rather than in text form
Series of minor bug fixes
See file change.txt in zip file

What it is/does

- Provides a searchable database of weblinks and/or downloadable files, for example manuals, music files, pictures, etc.
- Integrates within VBulletin, without requiring any code changes.
- Transparently handles links and file downloads. (If you want to provide downloads from your own site, you need a separate tool to upload these files. This hack does not and will not include a file uploader.)
- Provides unlimited nested categories.
- Each link/file can be a member of multiple categories.
- Link and category title and descriptions can use all BBCODEs, giving the possibility to add images, colouring, etc, as you wish
- Viewing/access permissions controlled using VBulletin forum system
- Users can rate links, in a similar manner to VB thread rating.
- File downloads are semi-leechproof, i.e. the user does not see where the file is stored and can only access the link if she has access to the associated forum.
- Audio files playable via Windows Media Player can be offered as a jukebox .
- Tracks who downloads what
- Validates links on entry/editing, and provides admin facility to validate the entire database.

Installation/upgrading instructions

Read instructions.txt in the zip file. Installation script works out whether to install or upgrade.

To upgrade from an earlier release of this hack, simply re-run the installation script. If you modified the templates in the top styles, you will lose these modifications unless you back up and re-edit.

PLEASE BACK UP YOUR DATABASE

See also

For screen shots, see attachments.

Tested with

VBulletin 3.0 and higher
PHP 4.1.1 and 4.3.4, should work with all 4.x versions, seems ok with 5.0.4
MySQL 4.0.
Reported ok with MySQL 4.1 but not exhaustively tested

Credits

Initially inspired by drkFusion's vb2 hack "vb Link Directory" v.2 and discussion about v.3 on Vbulletin.org. This is a complete rewrite with many more features. Every credit to the VBulletin folks for providing the infrastructure and to those on vbulletin.org who have helped with testing.

Integrations/Conversions

Natch has written extensions to integrate this hack with VBindex and VBAdvanced.

For convenience, this hack includes fully integrates with, but does not install, his VBIndex hack - i.e. the required template and code are provided, and the admin panel handles the configuration settings. Please refer to his thread for instructions.

Integration with VBadvanced is described in thread 1319 at vbadvanced.com.

The zip file includes a script and instructions for converting from vbLinks v2 (see thread 44551

[Bhuwan]

fixed

[Ranma2k]

Hi AndrewD,

First i want to say thanks for the hack it helped me a lot .. and i hope you can upgrade it to work with vb 3.5.0 when it releases

Second : I wrote a script that extend your hack to help my website needs (A Ticket system )
i have been using it on my site for a quite time now ..
I received a request from people to share the ticket system with them but since it's originally your hack + the addon script i was wondering if it's ok to do so ?!

Thanks

[Kei Kurono]

How do i make it so instead of linking direct urls like this

http://www.mognet.info/file/stuff/godzilla.mp3

I can link like this

/stuff/godzilla.mp3

Can anybody please show me how ?

Yes when you add links it says you can do that but i have tried and it says i got the link wrong.

What am i doing wrong ?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Ranam2k

Hi AndrewD,

First i want to say thanks for the hack it helped me a lot .. and i hope you can upgrade it to work with vb 3.5.0 when it releases

Second : I wrote a script that extend your hack to help my website needs (A Ticket system )
i have been using it on my site for a quite time now ..
I received a request from people to share the ticket system with them but since it's originally your hack + the addon script i was wondering if it's ok to do so ?!

Thanks

Thanks - I'm very happy for you to share the work - the only proviso is that if it leads to support requests back in this forum, we need to sort out the details, so that we're not looking after multiple code versions. I'm sure you will handle this just fine.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Kei Kurono

How do i make it so instead of linking direct urls like this

Not sure - by default, if you create a link to a file called sally.pdf on your site, which is in subdirectory /fred/jim then you should be able to specify either

http://yoursite.com/fred/jim/sally.pdf

or

/fred/jim/sally.pdf

. Be aware that the default starting point is the root of your web site, not your forum directory, so if you are trying to get at a subdirectory of your forums, then you need to stick the forum directory name at the start of the structure.

If you change the parameter local_file_root (lf admin page) from 0 to 1, then the file is specified relative to your server's file system. This gives a way to store files outside the directory structure, provided you're careful about security settings on your site.

[Slave]

Hi AndrewD

Any chance you could make it so that when you create a linked sub forum the system also creates a link within that category back to the forum in question.

I'm just thinking about the "circle" users take .. They look at a forum, see the link to the category, click it, checkout the links, they then want to get back to the forum they were in. It would be nice if, near the top, there was a link to that forum.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Slave

Hi AndrewD

Any chance you could make it so that when you create a linked sub forum the system also creates a link within that category back to the forum in question.

I'm just thinking about the "circle" users take .. They look at a forum, see the link to the category, click it, checkout the links, they then want to get back to the forum they were in. It would be nice if, near the top, there was a link to that forum.

Good idea - I have a stack of 'tidying up' changes waiting to release in 1.61 - mainly those suggested by catalyst - I'll give this some thought. I'm hoping that the VVB3.5 plugin system is not going to require too many changes

[Spinball]

While we're in 'suggestions mode', I'd like to suggest the option of having category be a link elsewhere.
For example, we have a home cinema installers directory. It's a thread in which people pay to have an entry. It's a list of links but since people pay for it, I want it to be maintained by myself within a specific forum.
I'd like to be able to include it in the links database using a link to that specific thread as the category link.

In a similar way to forum categories being links elsewhere.
Is this possible?

[Slave]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Good idea - I have a stack of 'tidying up' changes waiting to release in 1.61 - mainly those suggested by catalyst - I'll give this some thought. I'm hoping that the VVB3.5 plugin system is not going to require too many changes

Cool

One other thing while you're there ..

Any chance you could make it that we can pick a vB style per category? or the same style as the forum I link the category to?

[Goodspeed]

Great hack!

But there is one important question: is it possible to convert pafiledb database into this hack?

Thank you!