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

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Zain Jaffer

Unfortunately that didn't work

What didn't work?

[AndrewD]

Post withdrawn

[UManiac]

Thanks Andrew!

I updated from 1.41 to 1.51 an now I have two minor problems when administering links I was hoping you could help me with...

1. When I click on Administer on the links page the browser just reloads the page - the address cycles through and sets the "action" to links

To try and resolve that I simply changed the link on the head template to point to "local_links_admin.php" which it does. However, none of the changes I make (like path to icon directory, or group permissions) ever take hold. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[Zain Jaffer]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

v1.55 has the following features/fixes not in 1.51: .....

- strip out bbcodes in category names when constructing navbar (Zain Jaffer didn't think his bbcodes look too good there...)

Hey Andrew, I just upgraded!

How do I enable this option?

Secondly, I'm pretty sure this already exits, just that i'm not seeing it ... how do I set permissions for one usergroup to view a particular section. For example, the downloads section should only be accessed by "registered users" or "any usegroup" I choose?

Thanks, a lot Andrew for your hard work!!! :laugh:

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by UManiac

Thanks Andrew!

I updated from 1.41 to 1.51 an now I have two minor problems when administering links I was hoping you could help me with...

1. When I click on Administer on the links page the browser just reloads the page - the address cycles through and sets the "action" to links

To try and resolve that I simply changed the link on the head template to point to "local_links_admin.php" which it does. However, none of the changes I make (like path to icon directory, or group permissions) ever take hold. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, I'm sorry about that - its seems you are the first person (apart from me!!) to notice that little bug in 1.51 and 1.52. I split the admin code into sections and screwed something up in the process. Just upgrade to 1.55, see post just above yours, and the admin settings should stick again.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Zain Jaffer

Hey Andrew, I just upgraded!

How do I enable this option?

Secondly, I'm pretty sure this already exits, just that i'm not seeing it ... how do I set permissions for one usergroup to view a particular section. For example, the downloads section should only be accessed by "registered users" or "any usegroup" I choose?

Thanks, a lot Andrew for your hard work!!! :laugh:

Zain, either I'm not understanding your problem, or your problem is already fixed. I thought that what you didn't like was that the text of your bbcode appeared in the navigation bar, and version 1.55 has removed that.

For setting usergroup permissions, you do the following:
a) Either select a forum that already has the viewing permissions that you want to use, or create such a forum on your main board (you can hide it if necessary) and (using the main VB admin page) give that the permissions you want to apply to your downloads category
b) Go into your links admin page and make sure you've given yourself can_set_permissions privilege
c) Edit the category that you want to restrict and associate it with the forum in a)

If you only want to restrict some of the links in the category, you can simply edit those and set their associated forum.

[Zain Jaffer]

Hi Andrew, in regard to the last question ... I want all usegroups to be able to view the page, but not download it unless I choose which usegroups.

In regards to the first problem, I think I didn't make it very clear:

The actual thumbnail itself shows where I don't want it to show... for example on here: http://www.juicyduff.com/forum/local...=links&catid=2 (beside "avatars")... I only want the image to show on the main page.

But, thanks a lot for solving the other problem (image url appears in the nav menu!) !

lol .. i'm sorry if I ask too much!

[UManiac]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Yes, I'm sorry about that - its seems you are the first person (apart from me!!) to notice that little bug in 1.51 and 1.52. I split the admin code into sections and screwed something up in the process. Just upgrade to 1.55, see post just above yours, and the admin settings should stick again.

Thanks Andrew. problem fixed - I noticed all the new features

I very much appreciate your time and effort in providing us with this valuable resource!

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Zain Jaffer

Hi Andrew, in regard to the last question ... I want all usegroups to be able to view the page, but not download it unless I choose which usegroups.

In regards to the first problem, I think I didn't make it very clear:

The actual thumbnail itself shows where I don't want it to show... for example on here: http://www.juicyduff.com/forum/local...=links&catid=2 (beside "avatars")... I only want the image to show on the main page.

But, thanks a lot for solving the other problem (image url appears in the nav menu!) !

lol .. i'm sorry if I ask too much!

Zain, I tried to explain in a previous post how to do what you want to do. You have to edit the links_main template and play around with the $viewcatname, $viewcatdesc and $viewcattext variables, which hold the category name + contents of the brief and extended category descriptions. For example, when you set up your category entry, do what you are already doing with the category name, but (e.g.) use the extended description to hold just the title without the img tag. Then kill the line

<td class="tcat" align="center"><strong>$viewcatname</strong>

in the links_main template.

As far as your permission question goes, I think you've changed your question! You achieve this as follows:
a) on the links admin page, set can_see_protected_links_on_portal permission for those usergroups that you want to be able to see but not download files.
b) for the links that you want this to apply to, associate them with a VB forum that you protect as I explained in my previous post.

[Catch-22|BL]

Thanks but the discussed circumstances have changed. Congratulations on a very good hack and thanks for your work.

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Not a stupid question. Currently, there is no distinction between moderators of different categories - either you can moderate (i.e. everything) or you can't (i.e. nothing). It would not be very difficult to change this in the way you suggest (i.e so that moderation was also linked to the category forum) - how big a deal is this to anyone?