The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

Links and Files Database · **Released**: 01-17-2004

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

13th_Disciple · #**132** 02-28-2004, 06:13 PM

pm a mod or admin and ask them to move it to the proper area of full release forums..

AndrewD · #**133** 03-02-2004, 10:12 AM

This has now gone to full release 1.0 and moved to the main hack forum

Zhin Jio · #**134** 03-02-2004, 08:23 PM

I'm having only one issue. It appears that any attempt to 'edit' an existing category automatically sets its catforum to 0. Since I'm not using forum based permissions, I'd like it to remain -999. I'm going to do some more looking around, but this creates some pretty odd behavior.

Otherwise, fantastic hack. I've been waiting for this one to appear. Install was smooth. I've made a slight mod to use to use 'star' images instead of a number rating, since I'm already using those star images on the page elsewhere, and they're cached. Nice and quick.

Installed.

- ZJ

trilOByte · #**135** 03-02-2004, 11:11 PM

Excellent Hack - fantastic.

[high]* trilOByte clicks install
[/high]

One problem though, I inseted a category as a sub category, when I wanted it as a parent. I tried to move it and got a nopermission error (I'm primary admin, group 6), every attempt to acces thereafter and I get nopermission (I have permissions set to a -ve value). I deleted the category (catid = 3) using phpMyadmin (does only having catid's 1,2,4 cause a problem?) and everything else seems to work OK. I dont know why this happened, just thought I'd bring it to your attention.

Thanks for a great hack.

trilOByte · #**136** 03-02-2004, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zhin Jio

I've made a slight mod to use to use 'star' images instead of a number rating, since I'm already using those star images on the page elsewhere, and they're cached. Nice and quick.

Installed.

- ZJ

What's that mod? I'd like to do that myself.

trilOByte · #**137** 03-02-2004, 11:57 PM

Oops, fairly big problem - relating to my post on the previous page. If I attempt to edit any of the categories, I get a nopermission error and the category vanishes from the listing. I cant access the category thereafter. It shows in the statistics, but that is the only place I can see evidence of it's existance - aside from the dB itself.

As I said before, I'm primary admin, userid = 1, usergroup = 6. Changing permissions from a -ve value to +ve and specifying forums, makes no difference.

AndrewD · #**138** 03-03-2004, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trilOByte

Excellent Hack - fantastic.

[high]* trilOByte clicks install
[/high]

One problem though, I inseted a category as a sub category, when I wanted it as a parent. I tried to move it and got a nopermission error (I'm primary admin, group 6), every attempt to acces thereafter and I get nopermission (I have permissions set to a -ve value). I deleted the category (catid = 3) using phpMyadmin (does only having catid's 1,2,4 cause a problem?) and everything else seems to work OK. I dont know why this happened, just thought I'd bring it to your attention.

Thanks for a great hack.

OK, I'll try to track this down - there's a couple of people finding that something goes wrong with editing categories. Thanks.

Natch · #**139** 03-03-2004, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ???`S?LV?R???`

alright i understand all that... but what if they were on a custom page on vbindex, that rule wouldnt apply anymore right?

The links will display on the vBIndex front page with my addon regardless of permissions, but if a user does not have permission to download, then the link will point to a standard vB "No Permissions" page ...

Zhin Jio · #**140** 03-03-2004, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trilOByte

What's that mod? I'd like to do that myself.

Two steps: In the 'ratebit' template, change:

Code:

<br /><span class="smallfont">rated <b>$linkrate</b> star</span>

to:

Code:

<br /><span class="smallfont">rated: $linkrate</span>

Then, in the local_links.php file, find:

PHP Code:


			
                if (isset($links_totrate[$linkid])) {

                        $linkrate = round($links_totrate[$linkid] / $links_numrate[$linkid]);

                        eval("\$linkratebit = \"".fetch_template('links_ratebit')."\";");

and change it to:

PHP Code:


			
                if (isset($links_totrate[$linkid])) {

                        $lr = round($links_totrate[$linkid] / $links_numrate[$linkid]);

                        $linkrate = "";

                        $i = 0;

                        while ( $i < $lr ) {

                                $linkrate = $linkrate . '<img src="http://pebkac.trippy.org/forums/images/stars/level1.gif"> ';

                                $i++;

                        }

                        eval("\$linkratebit = \"".fetch_template('links_ratebit')."\";");

Obviously, use your own URL to the star image. This isn't fancy, but it works. Hope that helps...

- ZJ

Zhin Jio · #**141** 03-03-2004, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewD

OK, I'll try to track this down - there's a couple of people finding that something goes wrong with editing categories. Thanks.

Yeah, I went as far as finding that this changed the catforum to '0', but not *why* it was doing this. Thanks for looking into this. It seems to apply to making *any* edit to a category... primary/secondary descriptions, parent, etc.

I did look in the code. There was a variable 'pforum' that is being saved to the catforum column in the db. Is that right variable? Was it initialized?

I'll butt out now *grin*....

- ZJ

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