Major Additions - Links and Downloads Manager

Version 2.3.0 of LDM is now the official release. This works with both VB3.7 and VB3.8. You can obtain it here

Version 2.2.8 remains available here, with limited support.

04.02.08: patch-cat.xml 'extra' uploaded - see first post for information

27.10.07: Version 2.2.8-post1 uploaded
French translation of product installer uploaded (other language translations are in the main release zip)

Remember to back up your current database tables before upgrading.

What this is and does

LDM is a general-purpose link and file manager, which handles user uploads and downloads in a flexible way. A range of media players is integrated into LDM and others are included as plugin extras. LDM is described below in the first post of this thread, which also contains a brief list of the currently-known bugs.

This release of LDM works correctly with all VB versions 3.6.x and recent versions of vbadvanced.

Documentation, screen shots, etc, are provided as a Wiki at http://www.eirma.org/wikis/index.php...nloads_Manager

Thank you to everyone who has tested, given suggestions, helped with the translations, etc.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by stwilson

One other small question (I hope), is there a way to add a custom field for the Links area? I like to show the Phone Number of the local businesses in my links directory. How hard would it be to add a phone number field to the link entry point?

ST

I've been meaning to do this for a couple of years, but never got round to it. Let me think about it some more.

[stwilson]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Extras
- use of webthumbs to autogenerate site thumbnails as entry image
- use of snap to autogenerate a site image thumbnail as entry dropdown

How do I enable these features. I have upgraded to the alpha version but do not see a place to enable these features???

Maybe I should ask another question first, does this feature allow for an automatically created thumbnail of a website link that is submitted, meaning does it go out and capture a snapshot of the homepage and create a thumbnail upon submission?

ST

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by stwilson

How do I enable these features. I have upgraded to the alpha version but do not see a place to enable these features???

Maybe I should ask another question first, does this feature allow for an automatically created thumbnail of a website link that is submitted, meaning does it go out and capture a snapshot of the homepage and create a thumbnail upon submission?

ST

They are supplied in the 'release/extras' subdirectory in the zip file you downloaded. There's a whole set of extras, each with a 'readme.txt' file which briefly explains how to use it.

The webthumbs extra uses Joshua Eichorn's web thumbnail service (http://bluga.net/webthumb/), which autocreates images of web sitesfor entries in LDM.
You need an account, which is free for less than 250 webthumbs a month, and very cheap for more than that, and you (currently) have to edit the account details into the 'extra'. When enabled, it does precisely what you say - goes out, grabs a thumbnail image of the site, and displays that in the LDM linkbit.

The snap plugin hooks into the www.snap.com search engine. It works in a slightly different way, replacing the LDM entry url with a new url which displays a pop up image over the url, usually with the thumbnail.

The two approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. I added them over Christmas in response to a request, and I'm looking for feedback to see if they work as people expect.

[Demon fox]

Hey Andrew I have a Low value for MySQL wait_timeout in red. Now I can't change this unfortantly due to the host will this cause problems to my downloaders? I have up to 64mb files on a different server which I link to will my users get disconnected?

If so is there anything I can do to stop my users from get disconnected?

Cheers

[Martyh]

installed ,, thank you,,, works fine.

If you have time could you tell me how I would make it upload an excel or a visio file

Thanks, I see an area where I can enter this but it sounds like I might be overriding all the other ones that it uploads,,, sorry to be a pain, I am a novice here

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Demon fox

Hey Andrew I have a Low value for MySQL wait_timeout in red. Now I can't change this unfortantly due to the host will this cause problems to my downloaders? I have up to 64mb files on a different server which I link to will my users get disconnected?

If so is there anything I can do to stop my users from get disconnected?

Cheers

You just have to try it and see. When the files are on a different server *and* are large, you will quite likely run in to problems.

If you do not mind that inquisitive users can find out the location of the files, you can overcome the problem entirely by setting the LDM setting *force_redirect* to 1.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Martyh

installed ,, thank you,,, works fine.

If you have time could you tell me how I would make it upload an excel or a visio file

Thanks, I see an area where I can enter this but it sounds like I might be overriding all the other ones that it uploads,,, sorry to be a pain, I am a novice here

See my answer to your question in the vb35 forum

[SherryG]

Hi there,

I am getting the following error message while trying to add a thumbnail. Would someone be able to help me out?

Warning: fopen(/home/stamkcom/public_html/images/thumbs/37971169467226.jpg) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /includes/local_links_resize.php on line 166

Thanks so much!

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by SherryG

Hi there,

I am getting the following error message while trying to add a thumbnail. Would someone be able to help me out?

Warning: fopen(/home/stamkcom/public_html/images/thumbs/37971169467226.jpg) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /includes/local_links_resize.php on line 166

Thanks so much!

Sherry, hi there. This was the reply I posted in the VB35 forum:

Two things to check:

a) Maybe you need to give your web server write access to the /images/thumbs directory (mode 777)

b) Maybe your web server is running php with a restriction on the 'open_basedir' setting. You can check this by going to any of the LDM admin pages and taking a look at the box down the bottom left of the screen. If this parameter is set, you are only allowed to access files in the part of the web server's directory tree that are explicitly authorised in the setting of open_basedir.

Get back to me if you need more help.

[SherryG]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Sherry, hi there. This was the reply I posted in the VB35 forum:

Two things to check:

a) Maybe you need to give your web server write access to the /images/thumbs directory (mode 777)

b) Maybe your web server is running php with a restriction on the 'open_basedir' setting. You can check this by going to any of the LDM admin pages and taking a look at the box down the bottom left of the screen. If this parameter is set, you are only allowed to access files in the part of the web server's directory tree that are explicitly authorised in the setting of open_basedir.

Get back to me if you need more help.

Thanks Andrew!

I thought I had performed the chmod operation already yesterday but when I went back in to check after your suggestion, it had somehow reverted back to mode 755.

I think I need some sleep. All is well again. Thanks for helping me out! :up: