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

[TheBurner]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Certainly possible to change the xml. When you've done this, you need to re-run the install script, stage 2, to reinstall the templates.

I need to do a proper language pack job on this hack, but that was a low priority while things were still in development.

Thanks

I'll try it out.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Blam Forumz

Bump Help

As far as I understand, your site manager has restricted which parts of the local directory structure can be accessed by php scripts. open_basedir is set within php.ini (or perhaps within apache?) - check using phpinfo (VBulletin main admin page, Import and Maintenance).

But I see also that you are setting file_icons_dir to "/", so I presume you've dumped the icons into the main forums directory. Move them into a subdirectory, e.g. set file_icons_dir to (e.g.) local_icons/

[Blam Forumz]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

As far as I understand, your site manager has restricted which parts of the local directory structure can be accessed by php scripts. open_basedir is set within php.ini (or perhaps within apache?) - check using phpinfo (VBulletin main admin page, Import and Maintenance).

But I see also that you are setting file_icons_dir to "/", so I presume you've dumped the icons into the main forums directory. Move them into a subdirectory, e.g. set file_icons_dir to (e.g.) local_icons/

erm.. could you explain that in english please

[Holidazed]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

As far as I understand, your site manager has restricted which parts of the local directory structure can be accessed by php scripts. open_basedir is set within php.ini (or perhaps within apache?) - check using phpinfo (VBulletin main admin page, Import and Maintenance).

But I see also that you are setting file_icons_dir to "/", so I presume you've dumped the icons into the main forums directory. Move them into a subdirectory, e.g. set file_icons_dir to (e.g.) local_icons/

I have no idea what this means. I do not have access to php.ini. I am getting a similar error.

Warning: opendir(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/forums/images/link-icons/) is not within the allowed path(s): (/path/to/my/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php:/tmp) in /path/to/my/forums/local_links.php on line 2630
 
Warning: opendir(/pathtomy/forums/images/link-icons/): failed to open dir: Operation not permitted in /path/to/my/forums/local_links.php on line 2630
				The following setting(s) are invalid
file_icons_dir : //forums/images/link-icons/

I put my icons under the /forums/images/link-icons directory. I have tried moving the images to a wide variety of locations and get the same error.

HELP!!

[Lionel]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

I'll think about this.

I managed to do all I wanted... If only you could tell me how to enable html, then I'll be done completely.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Blam Forumz

erm.. could you explain that in english please

See reply to bitg. Will try to provide a fix soon.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by bitg

I have no idea what this means. I do not have access to php.ini. I am getting a similar error.

Warning: opendir(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/forums/images/link-icons/) is not within the allowed path(s): (/path/to/my/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php:/tmp) in /path/to/my/forums/local_links.php on line 2630
 
Warning: opendir(/pathtomy/forums/images/link-icons/): failed to open dir: Operation not permitted in /path/to/my/forums/local_links.php on line 2630
				The following setting(s) are invalid
file_icons_dir : //forums/images/link-icons/

I put my icons under the /forums/images/link-icons directory. I have tried moving the images to a wide variety of locations and get the same error.

HELP!!

Sorry if my answer seemed like Greek. I think this is what is going on...

Your system manager has configured your account so that people like me can only write scripts that do a "directory listing" in certain places in the file system. Unfortunately, she has set it to forbid "directory listing" access to your web site directories. My script tries to read the icon directory a) to be sure that it exists at all, and b) to see which icons are there. Step a) fails because of this setting.

I'll fix the code to deal with this situation.

I realise on further thought that a full fix is probably not possible for sites that have set open_basedir. I can get round the error message by not doing the error checks - but this will only be satisfactory if you make sure that you enter a correct directory and if you ensure you provide icons for every file type that you make available for download. Otherwise the user will see missing images for downloadable files when the icon isnt available. Can you guarantee this?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Lionel

I managed to do all I wanted... If only you could tell me how to enable html, then I'll be done completely.

In order to enable html, you need to remove calls to htmlspecialchars() in local_links.php. This function processes user input to turn html entries into escaped html entries.

So have a look in the insert_link code and in the do edit link code. You'll find that the database insert/update statements wrap several fields in a call to htmlspecialchars().

[Holidazed]

OK, I got my problem resolved. I went into the control panel for that m host provides and turned on directory listing for that folder.

Thanks Andrew for the heads up on why it was failing.

[Lionel]

Thank you Andrew :up:

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Lionel

I did a nice little addition to rating
below:

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

I added:

$thevote="<img src=\"images/rating/rating_$linkrate.gif\">";

and in template ratebit, I swapped $linkrate with $thevote. :squareeyed:

Thanks Lionel

Those who do not like coding can achieve this just by editing the links_ratebit template

PHP Code:

<span class="smallfont"> <img src=images/rating/rating_$linkrate.gif> <if condition="$links_permissions[can_admin_links]"> <a href="local_links.php?action=doratelink&amp;vote=-1&amp;id=$linkid&amp;catid=$viewcatid&amp;page=$pagenumber">clear</a></if></span> 


[Blam Forumz]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

See reply to bitg. Will try to provide a fix soon.

Thanks

Also, i got it to work by making it so it has the parent of a section on my forum ^^

[hodur]

I have a error, when I want to moderate a link:

Datenbankfehler in vBulletin 3.0.3:

Ungueltige SQL-Abfrage:
mysql error: Query was empty

mysql error number: 1065

Datum: 17.10.2004 19:48:54
Skript: http://mysite.com/forum/local_links....modcat&catid=7
Referer: http://mysite.com/forum/local_links.php?action=mod
Benutzername: hodur

Any ideas?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by hodur

I have a error, when I want to moderate a link:

Any ideas?

Sorry, there's a bug in the uploaded version, see https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=600 for the fix.

I forgot to upload the corrected version.

[hodur]

Now ist works fine. :squareeyed:
Thanks.