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

[VampireMan]

another suggestion
I didnt see the 1.60 upload as i havent checked back here in a few days , will update mine later.

Anyway - over the past week or so , i have someone abusing the vote system. Perhaps we can have an 1 vote per link/upload per ip , or cookie. That way it will be abused less & might be possible for me to track down the guilty party

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by VampireMan

another suggestion
I didnt see the 1.60 upload as i havent checked back here in a few days , will update mine later.

Anyway - over the past week or so , i have someone abusing the vote system. Perhaps we can have an 1 vote per link/upload per ip , or cookie. That way it will be abused less & might be possible for me to track down the guilty party

Hi, I'll check the code regarding the voting system - as I recall it only counts the most recent vote per userid and only users in groups with *can_rate_link* should be able to vote. It doesn't track IP addresses at present. Are you allowing unregistered users to vote?

*Edited after checking code* - Indeed, the code stores the most recent vote by given user. This will cause problems if you allow unregistered users to rate links, because each such user will over-write the last one.

[SEO Report]

Is there a way to use standard links instead of :

http://www.domain.com/local_links.ph...inks&catid=XXX

It's easy to use mod_rewrite & htaccess to change URLs to something like this:

http://www.domain.com/link-XXX.html

However I'm having trouble changing local_links.php to use the later format.

For SEO purpose, I prefer to use standard links as it has a much better chance to get indexed by Google.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by SEO Report

Is there a way to use standard links instead of :

http://www.domain.com/local_links.ph...inks&catid=XXX

It's easy to use mod_rewrite & htaccess to change URLs to something like this:

http://www.domain.com/link-XXX.html

However I'm having trouble changing local_links.php to use the later format.

For SEO purpose, I prefer to use standard links as it has a much better chance to get indexed by Google.

I've not used mod_rewrite, so I'm not too sure what you want.

Are you asking for the hack to display category jump urls of the form link-NNN.htm, which your site's Apache will catch and turn back into local_links.php?catid=XXX

If this is what you want, you can achieve this by editing the links_catbit template

Otherwise, I don't understand.

[VampireMan]

i did allow guest's to vote , but ive turned that off now :/

[RichieBoy67]

The Beta works perfectly!! Thanks for all the work that went into this Andrew and for supporting it too. Sweet Hack!!

Rich

[Allan]

Bonjour AndrewD, je te propose de traduire compl?tement le fichier langue (xml) francais pour ta version 1.60, cela t'int?resse t-il ?

je dis cela car il rest pas mal de chose a traduire, et j'avous que ton hack est superbe, par sa simplicit? et sa structure vraiment int?ressante, voila, n'h?site pas

[Tradjick]

Salut,

I got the following notice in the firewall when posting a link:

Application Hijacking has been detected
The application: D:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\Apache.exe try to launch another application: D:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\Apache.exe to go to remote host www.rtl.lu

Is that something i should be worried about?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Tradjick

Salut,

I got the following notice in the firewall when posting a link:

Application Hijacking has been detected
The application: D:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\Apache.exe try to launch another application: D:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\Apache.exe to go to remote host www.rtl.lu

Is that something i should be worried about?

From what I see on Google, this is a common message from the Sygate Personal Firewall. Are you running this on your PC? I don't know how you configure Sygate or if it's a sign of something else on your PC.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Allan

Bonjour AndrewD, je te propose de traduire compl?tement le fichier langue (xml) francais pour ta version 1.60, cela t'int?resse t-il ?

je dis cela car il rest pas mal de chose a traduire, et j'avous que ton hack est superbe, par sa simplicit? et sa structure vraiment int?ressante, voila, n'h?site pas

Je serais tres content si tu le fais. Merci beaucoup.