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.

[Langly]

Awesome work Andrew. I have v2.1.3b3 running atm. To do the upgrade to this, delete the "Product", overwrite the files on the server, reinstall the Product. Is this correct? I just want to be sure I don't lose the SQL database of the downloads listed in there.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Langly

Awesome work Andrew. I have v2.1.3b3 running atm. To do the upgrade to this, delete the "Product", overwrite the files on the server, reinstall the Product. Is this correct? I just want to be sure I don't lose the SQL database of the downloads listed in there.

Not quite - just upload the files and reinstall. As long as the version number changes (which it does her), VBulletin will take take of everything. I always recommend that you take a backup before upgrading, just in case.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Slave

One thing that is weird .. I've got a couple of links that refuse to validate via the admin pages ..

http://www.swift-tools.net/Quake/QVM/
http://www.truecombat.com/intro.php

Normally in this situation I'd just click on the links in their normal listings and once LDM detected that I'd got through to the link it would then change the status to normal instead of "Status Unknown" .. this doesn't seem to happen now. Have I missed a setting, or has something changed?

Well spotted. Variable not declared as global.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Slave

Oh .. one thing that's come to mind ..

With the vBa modules .. at the moment it just shows the link and hits, would it be possible to also show the cat for each link?

link ? hits
cat
link ? hits
cat

sort of thing ..

Is it just the case of adding a $ to the links_vbalinks template, or is some editing of the php file required?

It needs a minor change in the code and a reference to a new variable in the links_vbalinks template. I'll add the variable into the code, but leave the template change for you to patch locally. In the meantime, you can implement the change as follows:
- Edit local_links_include.php
- Line 1907 or thereabouts, in function get_links2, add $linkscat to the list of global variables.
- Towards the end of the *while* loop, before the eval() statement, add this statement :

PHP Code:

$linkcatname = $linkscat[$catid]["catname_clean"]; 


Then patch the template so that it refers to $linkcatname

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by berayiwu5

Mostly for now, I would like to control mp3 audio recordings to be played by Windows Media Player (or Real Player) embedded in posts. What sort of changes should I make? If you can give me detailed instructions, I believe I am up to the task. I singlehandedly set up the vBulletin board myself and installed a number of plugins to date. The only thing I don't know is coding.

1) Install LDM
2) Visit your normal VBulletin admincp, attachments/extensions and sizes. If you have already got an entry for mp3 files, good, otherwise add one. The important setting is the mimetype, which should be Content-type: audio/mpeg
3) Visit the LDM admin settings page, and make sure that this setting is defined: file_iconsdir. This should point at the directory in which you have uploaded the icons that are provided in the LDM release, e.g. images/LDM
4) Visit the LDM admin permissions page and check that the desired usergroups have got can_play_musicbox permission

Originally Posted by berayiwu5

Oh, by the way, one more question. MySQL has a limit on the size of attachment, correct? Does LDM works if I choose to put a link like the following into a post:

www.mysite.com/forum/media/file.mp3

instead of uploading it as an attachment, which might be prohibited by MySQL because of its large size?

That is to say, I FTP file.mp3 into the server, instead of uploading it as an attachment. Does LDM work just as well in terms of controlling how many times the file is to be played? If so, how do I go about doing that?

LDM does not place the files into the MySQL database - it always uses files, even if these are uploaded. However, there are quite tight limits on what can be uploaded using normal web forms, so you are right, the best approach is to upload the files using FTP.

To continue...

- Put some entries in your LDM database. Create a category, then create entries in this category which point to the files you have FTP'd onto your server. It is better to refer to these using local filenames rather than full urls, i.e. create the entry as /dir1/dir2/file.mp3 rather than http://yoursite/dir1/dir2/file.mp3

- If you want people to access these via your posts/forums rather than via LDM itself, then you need to make note of the 'linkid' for each mp3. You can find this by hovering over the LDM entry. You need to paste urls of this form into your posts: http://yoursite/local_links.php?action=play&id=9 in order to get the media player to work

Originally Posted by berayiwu5

For now, it works fine if I can control how many clips each user can play per day--preferably also per week. I think you can easily implement the latter--how many times each user can play per week, right?

The control is 'per day', but there is also an option to let unused allowances accumulate for N days, so I think you can achieve what you want by giving a daily allowance of one seventh of the maximum weekly consumption, and a 'carry forward' of 7 days.

You set these limits on the LDM admin/download quotas page

[berayiwu5]

Thanks, Andrew, for your detailed instructions. You must have put in a lot of time in responding to my questions. I really appreciate it. I don't have time to get to it just yet, but I'll return to bring you the results--which should be positive.

By the way, in your future releases, could you consider implementing an option that can control the number of times a particular user can play a video/audio clip or see an attachment? Is that feasible at all? I think that's very useful for someone like myself who is doing an online course with lectures in audio/video formats--because I want to give access only to the few of those who have signed up for my class. I can't find this kind of mod. anywhere on this vB.org forum, and I believe that other users would love to have this option as well.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by berayiwu5

Thanks, Andrew, for your detailed instructions. You must have put in a lot of time in responding to my questions. I really appreciate it. I don't have time to get to it just yet, but I'll return to bring you the results--which should be positive.

By the way, in your future releases, could you consider implementing an option that can control the number of times a particular user can play a video/audio clip or see an attachment? Is that feasible at all? I think that's very useful for someone like myself who is doing an online course with lectures in audio/video formats--because I want to give access only to the few of those who have signed up for my class. I can't find this kind of mod. anywhere on this vB.org forum, and I believe that other users would love to have this option as well.

OK, I'll take note.

[Slave]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

It needs a minor change in the code and a reference to a new variable in the links_vbalinks template. I'll add the variable into the code, but leave the template change for you to patch locally. In the meantime, you can implement the change as follows:
- Edit local_links_include.php
- Line 1907 or thereabouts, in function get_links2, add $linkscat to the list of global variables.
- Towards the end of the *while* loop, before the eval() statement, add this statement :

PHP Code:

$linkcatname = $linkscat[$catid]["catname_clean"]; 


Then patch the template so that it refers to $linkcatname

That's great .. thanks

[elsupremo]

I have not installed the RC yet, as my install of VBA took the simplicity out of upgrading...I'm still on 2.1.3b3, and it's working very well.

The only wish I have is that the comments, or the ABILITY to add comments, was somehow more obvious or more inviting for users. I have had quite a few people download items from my site, and yet I have very few comments. The comments that are on there are generally from the same person. I don't know how it would be possible, but I wish the comments and the ability to rate/leave comments stood out more.

Still, this is one of the most amazing hacks I've seen. I recently turned on SEO links, and search engines have been loving it.

Thank you Andrew for all of your hard work. Very appreciated.

[Slave]

A quick question ..

AndrewD, have you changed the style/colour of the background colour on some of the headings? .. on the default style it seems to be using the dark blue instead of the light blue which means the collapsible arrow image doesn't look right ..

Where would I need to go to change this back to the light blue colour?