Links and Downloads Manager

LDM extends VBulletin to manage a library of documents, files and links to other web sites. Documents can be stored on your own web site, stored on your server separate from the web site, uploaded by your user community, or held somewhere else altogether. So you can use LDM to provide your user community with access to your own files and allow them to share files with each other.

12/08/06 - Versions that work with vb36 are available and supported in the VB36 thread. Version 2.2.1, which works with VB 3.5 but not with VB 3.6, remains available here.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with all the design, testing, etc.
Translations are provided (thanks dLutt and LeeWicked) into German, (thanks to Allan) into French, and (thanks to Hugo) into Spanish. Harry1951 has handled the Dutch translation.

Screenshots, Instructions and How to Install

Full details and instructions are available as a Wiki at http://www.eirma.org/wikis/index.php...nloads_Manager

LDM installs as a VBulletin product. There are no modifications required to standard VB code.

Basically - upload php files and run the installer through VB's Product installer. No changes needed to VB code. Remember to BACKUP YOUR DATABASE. By default, LDM prefixes its database tables 'local_'. Edit the configuration file, local_links_init.php, if you need/wish to change this.

LDM can handle an essentially unlimited number of categories and nested subcategories, and an unlimited number of entries (hyperlinks or downloadable files). Each entry can be placed in one or several categories. Categories can have styles. Descriptions and titles can optionally include BBcodes, smilies, images and html, giving the possibility to add images, colouring, etc. File types can be flagged using icons and individual entries can also have associated thumbnail images.

Standards templates are provided for libraries of links, files, documents, and photographs.

Users can offer comments and rate the links/downloads. Each user is allowed one rating and many comments per entry, and can freely edit these if they change their mind.

Permission to use specific features is established via the product's admin page, where the administrator specifies which usergroups can add and edit entries, comment and rate these entries, moderate, etc.

By default, all entries are visible to all users. You can restrict visibility/access to links and categories by using the permissions masks from your board's forums.

Moderation of new entries is available but turned off by default.

Users can report bad links to the relevant moderators/administrators.

Each user can flag links as his/her "Favourites".

Modules are provided for VBAdvanced.

Hooks are provided in suitable places in LDM and sample plugins are included in the release (see extras directory), for example to integrate with ID3 tags in mp3 files, for slideshows, to autocreate new threads in your forums, etc.

Plus much more.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Attached zip should fix the reported bugs with 2.1.6RC2.

Administration
featured_linkbit setting added to enable choice of linkbit used in featured sites
Bugs fixed
category selection menu expand/collapse only shown with menu, not checkboxes
htmlspecialchars to protect quotes in links titles
profile hits list parses bbcodes
autocreate plugin creates thread url which still works ok after category move
autocreate plugin tells user that thread has been created
fix to stop Adobe Acrobat breaking with partial content requests

Those testing the autocreate forum plugin - please note that you will need to remove the existing plugin manually and reinstall it.

Grateful for a quick check on these problems.

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Perhaps I didn't explain well enough. When the version number doesn't change (which it didn't from 2.1.6RC2 to RC3), you have to tell VB to uninstall the product then reinstall it. Otherwise it doesn't rerun the installation code, and so doesn't make some of the new features available. Including featured sites linkbit. Sorry.

Don't worry - uninstall doesn't harm your database.

* ah ha! GREAT ok. uninstalled and reinstalled again. :banana:

Originally Posted by AndrewD

=> featured_linkbit setting added to enable choice of linkbit used in featured sites

* cool. working now

Originally Posted by AndrewD

autocreate plugin creates thread url which still works ok after category move autocreate plugin tells user that thread has been created

ok. Deleted old autocreat plugin and reinstalled it, but still couldn't get it work at all now. I tested by uploading a few files in a few different forums (all with correct permissions--same forums as last version which worked)...but it didn't create a thread. Again, was there something other than just deleting the autocreate plugin and uploading it that I needed to do?

help!

Originally Posted by AndrewD

"I've changed it to give a different message, along the lines of 'your entry has been accepted and posted into forum XXX'"

as above couldn't get plugin to work, so never got this message.
btw, exactly when/where should this appear?

fix to stop Adobe Acrobat breaking with partial content requests

dunno. NA

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Again, you have to reinstall the extras plugin

I said, I did that. I thought. :/ unless there is something else I needed to do besides delete the plugin....its just not working for me at all anymore. any thoughts?

Originally Posted by Tyegurl

okay ty for that on the threads....
./image.php?u=4&dateline=1142453581 is my exact problem lol

if you need let me know and i will give you a login to use to check it out.

okay i think i figured out what part of it may be.....i think it is another hack...vbbux/vbplaza....nm lol

I'm having same issue and I don't have ubux/uplaza installed..see below.

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Quote:
Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU
an image on the links_linkbit is now broken. dunno why and it wasn't broken before 2.1.6rc2. problem is I can't fix it because I dunno what the image is supposed to be cause the path is weird:
what is that? ugh! to broken images. see attached image.


That looks like someone's avatar is broken/wrong

that doesn't seem to be the issue as there is a broken image for ALL uploaded files/links. :/ Just to be sure I logged in as different users and uploaded as different users. All avatar paths are fine. but still get broken image there. It seems to be related to the date somehow...again, here's a same Screenie as before with the PATH highlighted.


that's all I could check for now. hope that helps.

<<< back to the bug hunt.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

You can set the featured_all_categories setting off so that featured sites are drawn from the favourites in the current category. This enables you to have featured sites in some categories and not others, provided the entries are members of those catgeories.

* 1. well I changed to draw from current category. but I'm still not sure how that allows one ot have featured sites not appear in some categories. do you mean that if there are no entries for that category by the featured site ID there will be no featured sites? what do you do if there are?

sorry I think I need more coffee.

* 2. a good example of why need to exclude from some categories/situations....when you are looking at just one link/file.

if you are looking at a single file/link...and have 3 featured sites showing (or ANY actually... its very confusing (more unrelated items than the one you actually want). When viewing one file...you really only want to look at that one.

insert: The only alternative I can think of is if the linkbit for featured sites is visually different (row of equal sized thumbnails with title only? ala filmstrip style) and positioned different (not on top?) then it might make a good "related links/files" type tool. but that's kinda going off in another direction.

Originally Posted by AndrewD

If you want to be able to draw a random collection of featured sites from all categories but only display them in some, then I will have to make a small change (I think it involves literally adding two characters to the code...) to make this possible.

* 3. yah. that'd be great. ability to do random is good. its not a big deal by any means so whenever you get a chance to add those two characters would be cool.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

also... in following the autocreate plugin directions... I keep getting stuck on:

list their category ids within the array() statement

lol. nooob I am.. I can't find the category ID numbers. is that the same as the display order?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU

also... in following the autocreate plugin directions... I keep getting stuck on:



lol. nooob I am.. I can't find the category ID numbers. is that the same as the display order?

Sorry, could be clearer - hold your mouse over the category name and the link will include a parameter "catid=NN" - it's the NN's you need.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Sorry, could be clearer - hold your mouse over the category name and the link will include a parameter "catid=NN" - it's the NN's you need.

ahhh. thanks anyway .. I was just gunna add a couple excluded categories just to see if I could the autocreate to work....but nope.

autocreate still not working since update at all. (and thus haven't been able to check out fixes to the addon.)


==============
again, how do you uninstall and reinstall the autocreate addon plugin (not the whole product --that's working) properly? I am just deleting it and reuploading it.

see bug report few posts up.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU

how do you uninstall and reinstall the autocreate addon plugin (not the whole product --that's working) properly? I am just deleting it and reuploading it.

That's correct.

Bear in mind that the autocreate process will only work if you 'associate' a forum with a new link/entry. Otherwise, LDM assumes that you don't want this to happen.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

That's correct.

Bear in mind that the autocreate process will only work if you 'associate' a forum with a new link/entry. Otherwise, LDM assumes that you don't want this to happen.

roger.
hmm. then its not working for me anymore. note: it was working for me before. It just had a few bugs as mentioned...but it was making threads succesfully (and I was associatign it to forums).

but not since rc3 install.

Also, again, there is no intuitive instruction that let's the user know it will create a thread...so there is no way to know how to associate it. You mentioned this message was updated...but I don't see any changes. In any case, this is what I do to "associate" it with a forum:

1. add link
2. fill out name, description, file to upload (for example) and other basic info
3. select a Parent Category
4. select Parent Forum (again, I thought this message was updated?--write now it still just says "Parent Forum| Defines Viewing Permissions)
5. make sure user has appropriate permissions for Parent Forum chosen and its an open forum.
6. submit

Am I missing something? Last version that worked, but this time it does do anything (no new thread is created). any thoughts?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU

roger.
hmm. then its not working for me anymore. note: it was working for me before. It just had a few bugs as mentioned...but it was making threads succesfully (and I was associatign it to forums).

but not since rc3 install.

Also, again, there is no intuitive instruction that let's the user know it will create a thread...so there is no way to know how to associate it. You mentioned this message was updated...but I don't see any changes. In any case, this is what I do to "associate" it with a forum:

1. add link
2. fill out name, description, file to upload (for example) and other basic info
3. select a Parent Category
4. select Parent Forum (again, I thought this message was updated?--write now it still just says "Parent Forum| Defines Viewing Permissions)
5. make sure user has appropriate permissions for Parent Forum chosen and its an open forum.
6. submit

Am I missing something? Last version that worked, but this time it does do anything (no new thread is created). any thoughts?

Can you send me a PM with details of your board, ideally an admin account and password. I'm not very good at reading minds - and RC3 works fine for me - I hope it's something trivial that we are overlooking.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Can you send me a PM with details of your board, ideally an admin account and password. I'm not very good at reading minds - and RC3 works fine for me - I hope it's something trivial that we are overlooking.

sent

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU

sent

OK, things are working again.

Problem was that you'd changed the text of the ldm_accepted_and_thread_created phrase. This was killing the 'build new post' routine, but no error was being produced. I've modified the phrase and things are working ok, as you can tell by looking in your multimedia downloads forum.

Edited:

Your version of the ldm_accepted_and_thread_created phrase killed things without warning because you put everything between QUOTE tags - in other words VBulletin thought that everything was an old message, with nothing new added by you. So it generated a 'message too short' error.