Miscellaneous Hacks - Asset Manager / Image Upload Fix to upload multiple files like the Flash uploader

2017 Update - Google Chrome and other browsers are starting to end support for Flash. As Flash gets deprecated and removed from browsers users trying to upload will see the Ajax Uploader instead. Without this add-on the Ajax Uploader will only allow uploading one image at a time. I've tested and this still works on VB 4.2.5 using PHP 5.6.x (I wasn't able to test PHP 7 but it should work on that as well.) Although it wasn't designed for this issue, it does work great to bring back multiple uploads in the post-Flash era.


---

(Old info from 2014...)

If you weren't aware an exploit was found in the flash uploader (uploader.swf) file supplied with vBulletin 4.x. This file was part of the Yahoo YUI 2 package and Yahoo will not be fixing the exploit- Yahoo instructs anyone to remove the file since they no longer use Flash.

Officially vBulletin says it is better to replace the file with an empty file of the same name.
Official announcement here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...n-uploader-swf

The problem was however that if you remove the flash uploader the default Ajax uploader did not allow multiple files to be selected at one time (using CTRL+Click or Shift+Click to select multiple files) like the Flash uploader used to allow.

However FranzBanz thankfully posted a template edit on vBulletin.com that uses the power of HTML 5 to restore the ability to select multiple files at once!

The template edit is fairly easy, but I took it a step further and made this into a basic vBulletin modification.

There are a few things you need to be aware of-

1) This does not work on IE9 or lower, these users must upload one at a time. IE10, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera should all be OK. (See here: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_input_multiple.asp)

Note: It has come to my attention this will not work in IE at all if IE10 or IE11 are running in IE9 Compatibility mode, which is required on vBulletin for the WYSIWYG editor to work in those versions.

2) There is no easy way to limit the number of files users can choose to upload. If they choose more files then your forum is set to allow they will get an error message when attempting to upload the extra files. Not a big deal but be aware of this limitation, maybe let your users know ahead of time. What I have done is added text that informs the user the max number of uploads allowed. See screenshots for details.

3) Requires vBulletin 4.1.10 or higher, one of the hooks needed doesn't exist in older versions. If you have 4.1.9 or older do the manual template edit linked above.

4) If you need to translate the one phrase used by this mod is a GLOBAL phrase: max_fileassets_bop5

There are no settings for this mod, just install and it is active.

Note- You should go to Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Message Attachment Options and do the following:

• Set Attachment Upload Inputs to a value greater than 1. This will be the max that can be uploaded at once before getting an error.
• Make sure Attachments Per Post is set higher than or equal to Attachment Upload Inputs
• Set Asset Manager - Enable to Yes, Ajax Upload by Default

------------------------------------------------------

Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!
Please direct any donations toward FranzBanz on vBulletin.com :up:

[BirdOPrey5]

Indeed there is and yes it is mine as well. - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=296838

If users want to use multiple uploading in IE10/11 and NOT use the WYSIWYG editor then they can use that mod.

In IE 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 they will also need to edit the headinclude template and delete the line

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9" />

Which forces IE9 compatibility mode.

[Mark.B]

Another workaround is not to use IE at all, but I doubt there's a plug in for that.

[Thangvip9x]

Working on vBulletin 4.2.2, Mark as Installed

[megabink]

Awesome thanks for the fix,installed!

[Jennifer2010]

This works great, thank you! However, is there any way to increase the max number of inputs to more than 10 (vBulletin doesn't allow me to select more than 10).

I tried uploading more than 10 photos at a time and it doesn't insert any at all and with no error message, so this would confuse users. Would be nice to set the limit to more like 100 or something.

Thank you!

- Jen

[BirdOPrey5]

The vBulletin Admin CP has a limit of 10, I would not suggest trying to get around that, it may cause more problem then it is worth.

However if you put the site in debug mode an edit option will show next to each admin cp option allowing you to make changes. You could add a drop down option for 100 and see what happens.

[Jennifer2010]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

The vBulletin Admin CP has a limit of 10, I would not suggest trying to get around that, it may cause more problem then it is worth.

However if you put the site in debug mode an edit option will show next to each admin cp option allowing you to make changes. You could add a drop down option for 100 and see what happens.

This seems to have done the trick, thank you!

[Jennifer2010]

Actually maybe not, uploading 10 attachments works but anything after that and it doesn't upload any - Must be another underlying value that needs to be changed.

[BirdOPrey5]

I'm sorry then there is probably a hard limit in the code somewhere. Do you know for a fact if 12+ files were allowed in the flash uploader?

[Jennifer2010]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

I'm sorry then there is probably a hard limit in the code somewhere. Do you know for a fact if 12+ files were allowed in the flash uploader?

It was worth a shot

The uploader we had before the security hole allowed an unlimited amount of photos. Our forum is photo based and users constantly uploaded 50 - 100 photos at a time.