[VB3 RC4] [vbAdvanced - Links 1.00] Addon: Latest Links block for vbAdvanced

UPDATED March 6th:

Whoops. Stupid me forgot to add in a template into the global var adv_index.php uses, as a result there was one uncached template. We don't like those, do we precious.

The instructions to modify adv_index.php have been updated accordingly.

First things first - The majority of the credit for this hack goes to Natch, who did the original version for vbIndex. I've converted it over to vbAdvanced, which has a (very) different way of handling custom blocks, and has a different template style as well.

I also took the liberty of modifying Natch's original get_hotlinks_cat.php file so that it orders the list by most recent addition, instead of most popular. You can of course use the original get_hotlinks*.php files from Natches hack if you want to order them that way - those files require no modification to work with this hack.

The attached file includes these instructions and my get_hotlinks_cat_date.php file. Download Natch's hack for the other two files, should you need them.

WHAT THIS HACK DOES:

It combines the Links Directory 1.0 addon created by AndrewD and the vbAdvanced portal by Tigga to give you a "Latest Downloads" block for your vbAdvanced Homepage.


New Files: 1 (3):

get_hotlinks_cat_date.php << To have links/downloads ordered by newest, from specific categories

(The next two files can be used as-is from Natch's original hack, linked above)
get_hotlinks.php << to have top # of all links / downloads
get_hotlinks_cat.php << To have top # from a specific category(s)

Files to Edit: 1
adv_index.php or whatever you renamed it to

New Templates: 2
links_hotlinks
index_linklist

Templates to edit: 1
Index Templates --> index


=============
INSTRUCTIONS:
=============
In adv_index.php (or whatever you have renamed it to):

Find:

'bbcode_quote'

Change To:

PHP Code:

'bbcode_quote',
'index_linklist',
'links_hotlinks' 


Find:

$custom2 = '';

Add Under:

PHP Code:

$linklist = '';

$hotlinks = require('get_hotlinks_cat_date.php');  <!--- or whichever of the 3 files you wish to order the links by --!> 


Find:

PHP Code:

if ($vboptions['showcustom2'])
{
    $getbgrow = getrowcolor();
    eval('$custom2 = "' . fetch_template('index_custom2') . '";');
} 


Add Under:

PHP Code:

eval('$linklist = "' . fetch_template('index_linklist') . '";'); 


Save and close your adv_index.php file. Upload after you've added the new templates, below.

Upload the file get_hotlinks_cat_date.php or Natch's original files get_hotlinks.php and get_hotlinks_cat.php if you are using one of them instead to your forumhome folder

NOTE: if you want more than 5 links listed, please edit the $limit variable at the top of those files.
NOTE: If you are using the standard Links 1.0 TABLE PREFIX or the VB table prefix, make the appropraite alrterations @ the top of your new files as well


Create a new template called links_hotlinks and populate it with:

PHP Code:

<tr>
<td class="alt1">
<if condition="$linkstatus==1">
<a href="$vboptions[bburl]/local_links.php?action=jump&id=$linkid" target="_new">
<span class="smallfont">$linkname</span></a>
<else />
<span class="smallfont">$linkname (not available)</span></a>
</if>
</td>
</tr> 


OR, if you are using Natch's original get_hotlinks*.php files and want to order them by hits, use this instead so you get a hit count column:

PHP Code:

<tr>
<td class="alt1">
<if condition="$linkstatus==1">
<a href="$vboptions[bburl]/local_links.php?action=jump&id=$linkid" target="_new">
<span class="smallfont">$linkname</span></a>
<else />
<span class="smallfont">$linkname (not available)</span></a>
</if>
</td>
<td class="alt2" align="right">
<span class="smallfont">$linkhits</span>
</span>
</td>
</tr> 


Create a new template called index_linklist and populate it with:

PHP Code:

<!-- Latest Links -->
<table align="center" border="0" class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" width="100%">
<tr>
<td align="$stylevar[left]" class="tcat">
<span class="smallfont"><b>$vboptions[blockbullet] Latest Downloads:</b></span>
<tr>
<tr><td class="alt2">
$hotlinks
</td></tr>
</table>
<br>
<!-- End Latest Links --> 


Edit Index Templates -> index and add the following

PHP Code:

$linklist 


Wherever you want the hotlinks box to show up (I put it under $custom2 myself; just search for that in your index template if you want a starting point).


Thanks once again to Natch for the original hack, AndrewD for the Links hack in the first place, and of course Tigga for vbAdvanced.

[Kwak]

Awesome job man! I am going to get this installed sometime next week.

[msimplay]

great hack very pleased with it

[Arkham]

Can this also list a brief description with each link? IE take the first X number of characters from the full description? How hard would that be to add, if it's not already possible?

[ixian]

Originally Posted by Arkham

Can this also list a brief description with each link? IE take the first X number of characters from the full description? How hard would that be to add, if it's not already possible?

With php just about anything is possible - if it's in the database, you can pull it out and display it wherever you want.

The problem with this approach is you wouldn't be able to fit that many characters in the block without it looking extremely cluttered, and "snipping" the text from the main description, while very do-able, means you would have to cram as much info as possible in the first 10 or so characters - not very elegant.

A better way would be to have a short "description" field in addition to the regular description in the Links/File hack itself. I'm actually working on a mod for it - I am adding an "listing" page for files and links so you can display a lot more of them in a more organized fashion. The listing page will then take you to a page that's just for that file/link, where it makes more sense to add much longer descriptions, screen shots, etc. The "listing" page will have the new short description field I am talking about.

Once that is done (I will post it here in the addons section) it will be trivial to add a var that pulls the simple description and displays it in the block.

[Arkham]

Originally Posted by ixian

With php just about anything is possible - if it's in the database, you can pull it out and display it wherever you want.

The problem with this approach is you wouldn't be able to fit that many characters in the block without it looking extremely cluttered, and "snipping" the text from the main description, while very do-able, means you would have to cram as much info as possible in the first 10 or so characters - not very elegant.

A better way would be to have a short "description" field in addition to the regular description in the Links/File hack itself. I'm actually working on a mod for it - I am adding an "listing" page for files and links so you can display a lot more of them in a more organized fashion. The listing page will then take you to a page that's just for that file/link, where it makes more sense to add much longer descriptions, screen shots, etc. The "listing" page will have the new short description field I am talking about.

Once that is done (I will post it here in the addons section) it will be trivial to add a var that pulls the simple description and displays it in the block.

Thanks, looks like you're working on exactly what I need. I wasn't intending to cram it all in a small box, but I needed to know if this would be possible in the current or future version.

I appreciate your quick response. That's one more check in the plus-column for vBadvanced. I've pretty much decided that will be my next step.

Cheers.

[SB2002]

I've hacked and rehacked this now several times, but everytime i do the table on vba is never populated. It just shows the header and that is all. I don't know why, because everything is hacked correctly

I've just checked again, seems that no one can make a hack truely idiot proof

As the saying goes read the f**king manual

[Lionel]

I got it install no problem on the gold release, it is just the $linkhits that does not display on VB_advanced page. I get []. All permissions are set and it does display on main page.

[FleaBag]

Sweet ass, just installed this. Thanks.

[milkmycow]

question, how do you specify the catagory to pull from?