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.

[BeasTboyz]

ah, is the max file size derived from our attachments options $maxupload or $vbphrase[ll_uploadmaxsize]? Can we set that seperately? And can we mess with only accepting certain mime types?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Vtec44

Okay, what do I do with this error?? I got this after installing 2.0.6 over my existing 2.0.5 version.

"Critical error: different versions of software, templates, phrases and database.
Software: 2.0.6 database: 2.0.5
Cannot continue - ask administrator to correct."

I can't get to LDM AdminCP either I can manually edit the .php file and lower the version number, but don't want to screw up.

Did you reinstall through the VB product manager (remember to allow 'overwrite') or did you simply upload the code?

If necessary, the fix is simply to uninstall the product and then reinstall - don't worry, the uninstall does not destroy your database tables.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by BeasTboyz

1.) I am wondering if anyone knows why the downloads using this script would be limited to only 20KBps roughly? Any idea how to fix that (I'm guessing its in my php settings or something?

The main factor influencing download speed is whether you identify the files as full urls or as filenames without a url. The worst case is when the url points to someone else's server, but http://yoursite/dir/file.type will be much slower that /dir/file.type

Originally Posted by BeasTboyz

2.) I'm guessing upload_maxspace is set in bytes, but I figure it probably can't hurt to change:
upload_maxspace
Total filespace available for use by uploads; 0: no limit

to:

upload_maxspace
Total filespace (bytes) available for use by uploads; 0: no limit

Yes, I agree. Actually, it will accept the same format as the php.ini file, i.e. a number optionally followed by K, M or G

Originally Posted by BeasTboyz

3.) How about user selectable permissions for users that are allowed to upload files?

For instance, we set permissions based on forum permissions, how about a table where we would make our own name up, like "subscribed users", "regular users", "anonymous" users and set the permissions for these new groups (based on forum permissions), then the uploading users can just check off who they want it to be available for. This way they don't get confused by our forum permissions stuff. Hopefully you understand what I mean here.

I understand, this is a good idea and I'll add it to the list of things to think about

Originally Posted by BeasTboyz

4.) How about making it so users can only upload under certain categories. I see this entire upload feature being more useful for sharing the link on the forum than people actually using the downloads database, I don't want them to be able to mess with my categories.

Ditto a good idea

Originally Posted by BeasTboyz

5.) Did you set the max filesize to 200,000 bytes? If so, how can I change that?

No, the file types that can be uploaded are read from the VB attachments table (VB/admincp/attachmenets/extensions and sizes) and in that you can set the maximum size per filetype

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by EasyTarget

I'd like to choose between the links setup, where you click on a category and see a list of live links and a downloads setup, where you click on a category and you see a list of files (with the description and/or thumbnail) but clicking on a file name brings you to a new page for that file.

So something like this if it makes sense.

Category
-Sub-Category of links
-->live link
-->live link
-->live link
-Sub-Category of files
-->file description
--->file page + live download link
-->file description
--->file page + live download link

Yes, this makes sense, will think about it.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by BeasTboyz

ah, is the max file size derived from our attachments options $maxupload or $vbphrase[ll_uploadmaxsize]? Can we set that seperately? And can we mess with only accepting certain mime types?

See the answer just up a little. Per mimetype, the maximum filesize is set from vb/admincp/attachmenets/extensions and sizes, taking into account the overall maximum values forced in your php.ini file.

[dfdems]

I have this installed with about 40 links and so far it works great. I have two questions though

1st question is about link_imagesize

What is a good size to set on average I guess, 300, 1000? Any ideas so they are not to big but convey a decent picture?

2nd question is about downloads. I have movies on my site (WMV, MPG, AVI) Is it possible to set these as available to download or view? I would rather ask and get an answer and then screw up my board then try it and screw it up without having asked..

At any rate, great hack, installed with ZERO problems!

[Vtec44]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Did you reinstall through the VB product manager (remember to allow 'overwrite') or did you simply upload the code?

If necessary, the fix is simply to uninstall the product and then reinstall - don't worry, the uninstall does not destroy your database tables.

Yep, I reinstalled the XML file through vB Product manager and even saw the correct version. I didn't try to uninstall it, cuz I was afraid that it would destroy my links. Now that you mentioned that it won't, I'll give it a shot and update you with the status. Version 2.0.5 works flawlessly BTW. Great job!

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by EasyTarget

I haven't dug into this yet, but maybe one small thing to add could be to the sort by: feature and make it so people can sort by ratings. Then maybe the ratings would also be a bit more important/encouraged.

Good idea.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by benj

theres only one suggestion ( well really a request) i have and that is a whats hot section & whats new section for every category would this be possible or ?

I wanted to get reactions to the home page version of this before I could see about putting it into other categories too

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by dfdems

I have this installed with about 40 links and so far it works great. I have two questions though

1st question is about link_imagesize

What is a good size to set on average I guess, 300, 1000? Any ideas so they are not to big but convey a decent picture?

I'd keep it small - 150 or so - one reason is that these thumbnails are regenerated on every page display (maybe that needs rethinking) and if you make them too big you'll have a big hit on your server.

Originally Posted by dfdems

2nd question is about downloads. I have movies on my site (WMV, MPG, AVI) Is it possible to set these as available to download or view? I would rather ask and get an answer and then screw up my board then try it and screw it up without having asked..

It's certainly possible, but you need to think carefully about the cpu and bandwidth consequences. In particular, *dont try to set the video up as a full url http://yoursite/video.fil (or worse http://somewhereelse/video.fil, as this will really kill you. Host them on your own server and identify them with just their filename.

Even less demanding is to modify the force_download setting so that the files are accessed as simple links rather than processed through the script - but this will make the file location completely visible and exposes you to leeching.