Major Additions - Links and Downloads Manager

What this is and does

LDM is a general-purpose tool for managing libraries of links and files, and handling uploads and downloads in a flexible way, while tracking and control user access. It has a range of integrated media players and a large library of 'plugin' extras.

Installation and Usage Explained in the on-line Wiki, with a brief explanation in the file instructions.txt in the release zip. The recent revision history is given in the first post of this thread.

Please use carefully and always backup your database before upgrading. Post reports of problems and suggestions for enhancements in this thread.

14.06.09 Version 2.3.0 is now the the officially-supported version. Works with 3.7 and vb 3.8. Please post comments in this thread

22.06.08 Version 2.2.9-post1 - This is the previous supported version. Works fine with all versions of vb 3.6 and vb 3.7. All standard features except profile integration and forum prefix selection work fine with vb 3.8.

[vbboarder]

Not sure if this is a LDM bug or IE7 (Windows XP) bug: IE7 will pop up a notification stating that "IE can't open the page" and the "operation was aborted" when loading a page that has a video larger than ~5 MB. However, the page still loads fine and the video plays (testing non-Flash videos that are 20 MB).

[vbboarder]

Bug report: I discovered a serious conflict for file types that are set by the user to be played by Quicktime. For Quicktime file types, if a non-Quicktime player is set with a higher priority in LDM than the Quicktime player, then both players will show up on top of each other in the browser. More seriously, Firefox will become unresponsive (but can still be terminated).

The source of this bug stems from 2 sources: LDM and Quicktime. LDM because it creates an object tag for the highest priority player, and Quicktime because it allows users to set mime types in the browser. This problem may occur for other media types also (Windows, Real, etc), but has only been verified for Quicktime. Changing the mime types in VB will NOT fix the problem.

Solution: Change the media players priority in LDM so that Quicktime has the highest priority for all Quicktime file types. In VB control panel on the left side, select Links and Downloads > Players > then give Quicktime a high priority like 20 so that it's higher than the Windows & Real players. Now only the Quicktime player should show and not freeze up Firefox

[vbboarder]

Bug report: Ok, this is probably the most difficult bug I've come across thus far since I've used VB. Spent a whole day to find a partial work-around. The problem is that media players (ALL 3 - Windows Player, Quicktime, RealPlayer) will display and play media in IE7 but will only play, but NOT display in Firefox 2 (can hear the audio, but can not see the player or video/ image). First I thought it was a transparency issue similar to the LDM bug fix I did for the Flash and Silverlight players, but setting the transparency/ blend parameters for these players had NO effect. After hours of testing different hacks and trial & error debugging, I found the source of the problem.

Partial work-around: Remove this script from the headinclude template:

<script type="text/javascript" src="$stylevar[yuipath]/yahoo-dom-event/yahoo-dom-event.js?v=$vboptions[simpleversion]"></script>

Removing this script will enable the players to display in Firefox. However, this partial solution is obviously not good since many VB scripts will not work since they depend on that yahoo event script. Andrew, can you PLEASE debug this one? I'll be glad to test out any fix you have. Thanks

Note: testing with VB 3.7.2, LDM 2.2.9-post1, Windows XP (SP2), Firefox 2, Explorer 7, Quicktime 7.5, RealPlayer 11, Windows Player 11, and admin privileges for XP, VB & LDM.

[vbboarder]

Ok, I'm done with my bug reports for now.....

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by vbboarder

Ok, I'm done with my bug reports for now.....

Wow

[TsirhCitna]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

OK, will take a look



Yes, I'd found this bug and I have the fix ready. It's releated to the new CSRF mechanisms in vBulletin. All you need to do is edit local_links_ajax.php (main forum directory)

After the line

define('CSRF_PROTECTION', true);

add

define('CSRF_SKIP_LIST', 'swfupload'); // because of problems with flash scripts assuming IE

I'm still having this same issue with anyone who is not an admin.

[RikiB]

The inline player seems to work only with FLV, is there a way to get Mp4/xml working with it as well?

also, is there anyway to have the entry thumbnail be a direct link to the file? It seems $linkimgjump forces it to open in litebox instead of opening the file.

Thanks

[vbboarder]

In researching the Yahoo event script conflict with embedded players, I discovered a possible fix. I verified that the problem exists with VB 3.7.2 alone without LDM. You can reproduce the problem with VB 3.7.2 in Firefox 2 with Flash Player 9 (I'm using Windows XP - sp2):

1. Create a forum with HTML code enabled (remember to allow admins only to post if this will be a permanent forum).
2. Create a thread and post with this sample object tag from youtube:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zzSpPaCIG0g&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zzSpPaCIG0g&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

3. Save and view the thread. The embedded flash player will temporarily show for ~1 sec. when the page loads, but then disappears (if autostart is enabled, video should play but still does not show). Refreshing the page and clearing the cache does not help.

Since the Flash player showed in LDM but NOT in VB alone, I realized that a possible work-around is to create the embedded player with a JS script and not by the object or embed tags. In LDM, the JW Flash & Silverlight players were able to show because they do not directly use the object and embed tags. Instead, the players are created by a script in the links_playerbit_JWPlayer and links_playerbit_JWwmPlayer templates. Hope that helps to create a plugin fix for the other media players.

Since this bug is obviously a VB bug, I posted it at VB's site: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/proje...?issueid=26190
Everyone, please confirm/ comment on this bug at that link so that the VB team will make this bug a high priority. Even if Andrew is able to provide a plugin fix for LDM, this bug will still affect posts at HTML enabled forums since users can NOT post script tags even if HTML is enabled. For example, you may want to create a HTML enabled forums where admins can post YouTube videos for users to watch. Without this bug fixed, you're not able to do that.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by vbboarder

In researching the Yahoo event script conflict with embedded players, I discovered a possible fix. I verified that the problem exists with VB 3.7.2 alone without LDM. You can reproduce the problem with VB 3.7.2 in Firefox 2 with Flash Player 9 (I'm using Windows XP - sp2):

1. Create a forum with HTML code enabled (remember to allow admins only to post if this will be a permanent forum).
2. Create a thread and post with this sample object tag from youtube:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zzSpPaCIG0g&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zzSpPaCIG0g&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

3. Save and view the thread. The embedded flash player will temporarily show for ~1 sec. when the page loads, but then disappears (if autostart is enabled, video should play but still does not show). Refreshing the page and clearing the cache does not help.

Since the Flash player showed in LDM but NOT in VB alone, I realized that a possible work-around is to create the embedded player with a JS script and not by the object or embed tags. In LDM, the JW Flash & Silverlight players were able to show because they do not directly use the object and embed tags. Instead, the players are created by a script in the links_playerbit_JWPlayer and links_playerbit_JWwmPlayer templates. Hope that helps to create a plugin fix for the other media players.

Since this bug is obviously a VB bug, I posted it at VB's site: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/proje...?issueid=26190
Everyone, please confirm/ comment on this bug at that link so that the VB team will make this bug a high priority. Even if Andrew is able to provide a plugin fix for LDM, this bug will still affect posts at HTML enabled forums since users can NOT post script tags even if HTML is enabled. For example, you may want to create a HTML enabled forums where admins can post YouTube videos for users to watch. Without this bug fixed, you're not able to do that.

I will see what I can find out. During the years, I've found that there are frequently interactions problems between the browser and media handling infrastructures - flash, windows media player and real player have all caused problems and they are all specific to certain releases of the support products. It's a real pain to keep up-to-date.

On a similar note, the guy who runs the quirksmode site must be ocmpletely hairless, trying to keep track o the javascript features that do or do not work in different browsers/browser versions.

I posted a question yesterday about an oddity in PHP which has really got me confused.

[RikiB]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

On my own site, I use a simple bbcode definition

[link=NNN]Title[/link]

defined as

<a href="local_links.php?action=jump&id={option}" target="_new">{param}</a>

I also use

[linkcat=NNN]Title[/link]

defined as

<a href="local_links.php?catid={option}" target="_new">{param}</a>

to jump to a category

Is there any way to post an inline video using the JW player in a post using bbcode? That way I can see the player inside the post and just hit play?

Also, mp4 files done seem to work with the inline player

Thanks for the hard work!
- Riki