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

[Imperial Fritz]

You are doing an amazing job

(still I must do my job and report a forgotten non-phrased word - in linkbit new links are marked with "*New*" instead of something like "*$vbphrase[ll_new]*"



Thanks for all your work so far

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by calorie

These are my notes on how to install AndrewD's LFDB in a directory outside the main forum directory. I cannot guarantee completeness, accuracy, or support, but I give these instructions to you should you wish to install AndrewD's LFDB outside of your forum directory. The main thing with doing this is that you really need to take care about paths and links. Chances are good that if you have a problem, then there is a path or link that needs to be changed to something else. This is a tedious process, be sure, but once done you can call http://www.your-domain.com/links/index.php and get a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Hey man, I appreciate all the help - especially the facility to add comments - but is there a long string of these changes to come? If so, we need to think about how these will be supported as and when the main code evolves.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Imperial Fritz

You are doing an amazing job

(still I must do my job and report a forgotten non-phrased word - in linkbit new links are marked with "*New*" instead of something like "*$vbphrase[ll_new]*"



Thanks for all your work so far

Thanks for spotting this. Patched version uploaded - there's a one line change in the template file and an extra phrase.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by skokarl

@AndrewD

excuse my bad english ...

I use your hack..and it is very fine ! Thank you for the hack.

Bur I only need the downloads ...not the links.

Can you in the future make a hack only for downloads ?
I doesn't know about a good download hack...so I use your hack for my downloads....

but many of the queries and menus and tables are not necessary ..

greetings from germany ..

Skokarl, do you want to change the wording of the menus or do you want to make bigger changes - maybe you could explain?

[skokarl]

I want a smaller programm ...

a very small and simple file database ..., ( in the future )

there are a lot of things which i don't understand ...import, export, Scan site for new files, ...all the things for the LINKS feature ....

sorry for the wish ...like this ??
but I know you can do this ..

may be in the future.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by skokarl

I want a smaller programm ...

a very small and simple file database ..., ( in the future )

there are a lot of things which i don't understand ...import, export, Scan site for new files, ...all the things for the LINKS feature ....

sorry for the wish ...like this ??
but I know you can do this ..

may be in the future.

Indeed, maybe in the future, but I'm not sure why this change would make the database any smaller? There is (I think) only one feature that causes the database to grow - this is keeping track of who has accessed a link/download. You can turn that off on the admin page.

The points you mention though - import, export, scan - make life easier for the admin. Import and export provide a simple text file format for backing up and re-installing your links/downloads. Scan provides an easy way to pre-load your database with your downloads - you can upload a whole set into one of your website directories, then use the scan feature to read these all into the database at once.

[CSS59]

is there "Top Rated" from all the rated links option?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by CSS59

is there "Top Rated" from all the rated links option?

Not at present - 'Show What's Hot' sorts by number of hits. Not hard to add, if this is an important feature.

[calorie]

Sorry, but I don't guarantee support for any of my mods. Perhaps this may make some people unhappy, but I have time constraints. There are other ideas that I have about the comments extension. Maybe I should start a thread in the Add-On forum, or maybe you are planning on integrating some of the things I posted? Anyway, you might want to make the following changes to your LFDB system. The first change prevents a search on "<h1>foobar</h1>" from interpreting the HTML, and the second change encodes the partial URL though it looks like it doesn't get used.

//===================================================================================================================
In the 'if ($_REQUEST['action'] == "show")' statement of local_links.php find:
//===================================================================================================================

	if ($sstring <> "") $message .= ' '.$vbphrase['ll_matching'].' '.$sstring;

//===================================================================================================================
And replace with:
//===================================================================================================================

	if ($sstring <> "") $message .= ' '.$vbphrase['ll_matching'].' '.htmlspecialchars($sstring,ENT_QUOTES);

//===================================================================================================================
In the 'if ($_REQUEST['action'] == "show")' statement of local_links.php find:
//===================================================================================================================

	if ($sstring <> "") $action = "&amp;search=$sstring";
	if ($sforum <> "") $action .= "&amp;forum=$sforum";

//===================================================================================================================
And replace with:
//===================================================================================================================

	if ($sstring <> "") $action = "&amp;search=".urlencode($sstring);
	if ($sforum <> "") $action .= "&amp;forum=".urlencode($sforum);

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Hey man, I appreciate all the help - especially the facility to add comments - but is there a long string of these changes to come? If so, we need to think about how these will be supported as and when the main code evolves.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by calorie

Sorry, but I don't guarantee support for any of my mods. Perhaps this may make some people unhappy, but I have time constraints.

.. as do we all ...

Actually, I'm quite happy to integrate some of these ideas into the main code - this is has been happening all along for this hack.