Major Additions - vB Affiliate Linking System (Multi-Purpose & Flash-based)

vB Flash Affiliate Linking System (Multi-Purpose)

Important: No longer supported on vbulletin.org - advice and support only available from Digital Port UK
Another creative idea brought to you by Syrus XL Media.
Free and Pro versions available from ? http://www.digitalport.co.uk
LIVE DEMO: http://www.shedevils-ld.com
Released: 15th April 2007
Version: 1.0.0
Documentation: Download packaged with .txt and .pdf formats.
Color Variations: See end of this post for other available colors.

Description
Even though we have called this an ?Affiliate Linking System?, it could serve many other purposes, depending on configuration. Basically, it will rotate any image, along with a title and an active url. You can also rename the modification name (currently the text on the bottom left) by editing the content.txt file.

Some suggested uses of this modification:

• Display forum Administrators and Moderators photos.
• Use as a miniature gallery.
• Use to display your affiliates.
• Display latest store items for sale.

The modification uses no database queries and is totally XML driven, maybe in the future we will change this to a database driven modification.

Usage
Windows users can benefit from using the scroll-wheel to flick through the various links. By double-clicking on any image, the url will be opened in a new window. A single click on any image will bring it to the front.

Adding new links with thumbnails is just a case of creating the thumbnail and editing the XML file. There?s no need to know anything about Flash, everything is controlled externally. If you find that after adding a certain number of links they fail to load, or show - Make sure you are not viewing a cached version in your browser. You should clear your Temporary Internet Files to fix this problem.

vBulletin Installation
Please read this carefully, these instructions will place the modification display on your forum homepage (if you wish to put this on the vBadvanced CMPS please view below). These instructions assume you are using the vBulletin default style.

In all installations upload all the files within the UPLOAD folder to your forum root directory.

Directory structure:

adls_data.xml
adls_content.txt
vbadlsystem.swf
/adls_images
/clientscript/flashobject.js

Note: If you have installed previous modifications by us, you may find that the flashobject.js file is already in your vbulletin installation. This file is used for fixing compatibility issues when embedding flash files, with some browsers.

Template Edits:
AdminCP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Default Style -> Edit Templates

In the headinclude template
FIND:

<script type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/vbulletin_global.js?v=$vboptions[simpleversion]"></script>

Above add this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/flashobject.js"></script>

In Forum Home Templates > FORUMHOME template
FIND:

$navbar

BELOW ADD:

<div align="center" width="100%" id="link_display">
Warning!!! To view this please enable JavaScript and Flash! 
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
   var fo = new FlashObject("vbadlsystem.swf", "link_display", "700", "230", "8,0,0,0", "#E9E9F2");
   fo.addParam("quality", "high");
   fo.write("link_display");
</script>
<!-- js flashobject -->

Change the "#E9E9F2" to suit the background color of your forum.

End of Template edits to Display modification on vBulletin homepage.

Configuring the adls_content.txt file
This file only contains the text which you want to display along the bottom of the display. When editing this file do not add spaces before the main variable.

EXAMPLE:
content=Whatever you want goes here

Configuring the adls_data.xml file
This file needs very little explanation, however here?s what 3 variables you can change per image url.

The file contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<photos path="adls_images/">   This path can be changed, just a default we have set for the images.

   <photo name="Digital Port UK" url="image1.jpg" link="http://www.digitalport.co.uk/"></photo>

</photos>

The ?photo name? is the text you would like under the image when displayed.
The ?url? is the path to your image (note the directory is not required).
The ?link? is for your image when double-clicked on.

Creating your thumbnails
Each thumbnails image is 200x150 pixels and a non-progressive jpeg format. The flash file will resize thumbnails when they are the incorrect size, but this may lead to distortion.



vBadvanced Installation
The installation is pretty much the same apart from one template edit. These instructions assume you have installed the CMPS inside your forum ROOT, not outside.

If you have installed the vBadvanced CMPS outside the forum ROOT you will need to prepend the urls of the edits required with the flashobject.js and the vbadlsystem.swf with the full url path.

You will need to upload all files as previously mentioned for the vBulletin installation and also do the headinclude template edit.

On top of this you will need to do the following edit:
In the vBadvanced CMPS Templates -> adv_portal
FIND:

<table align="center" class="page" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">

BELOW ADD:

<div align="center" width="100%" id="link_display">
Warning!!! To view this please enable JavaScript and Flash! 
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
   var fo = new FlashObject("vbadlsystem.swf", "link_display", "700", "230", "8,0,0,0", "#E9E9F2");
   fo.addParam("quality", "high");
   fo.write("link_display");
</script>
<!-- js flashobject -->
<br />

Change the "#E9E9F2" to suit the background color of your forum.

End of CMPS Template edits

Enjoy!

[Ophelia]

I'm not able to get this to work on the vbAdvanced page.
http://www.gottapixel.net/

It's working just fine in the forums, just not on the home page. Ideas?

[MissKalunji]

because ur using vbadvanced out of the forum root...you gon have to play with the edits like forumhome template = that you probably put in vbadvanced template make sure that vbadlsystem.swf put the whole http://www.domain.com/forum/vbadlsystem.swf

thats what i had to do to get it to work

[ThePimp]

Can you release the FLA file?

[Ophelia]

Just got this from a member..

just wondering if it's possible to make your flashplayer kit showcase thingy on the homepage into a rollover feature... its really bogging down my internet connection. my animation disabler plugin for my browser doesn't work with flash applications and its taking a long time for the homepage to load

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[syrus.xl]

Originally Posted by Ophelia

Just got this from a member..



Any ideas on how to fix this?

The flash file itself is relatively small in file size - however the more images and links added will cause problems over slow internet connections.

When creating the images try and reduce the output quality, this will decrease the overall download time.

I will be releasing some updated flash files very soon, that work in a different way - instead of the auto-scroll, there will be a scroll-bar and a fix with a small bug some people have noticed.

[syrus.xl]

Originally Posted by ThePimp

Can you release the FLA file?

Sorry, we don't release any .fla files for copyright reasons.

[YabbaDabba]

Requests:

1. Admin-defined Height/Width of app
2. Admin-defined Height/Width of images (or at least some calculation of how app size affects image size)
3. Admin-defined scroll-direction (I'm thinking it would be cool in a skyscraper layout)
4. Admin-select for continuous loop
5. Admin-select for frame/background colors/transparency (use vB css even better)
6. Admin-select for single-click on front image (instead of current two)
7. BB/html in the adls_content file (text is so small now, it is quite hard to read)
8. BB/html in the adls_data file (name string only) or maybe via an admin config page
9. Brand-free version (for a fee of course)

[jagari]

Warning!!! To view this please enable JavaScript and Flash!

I have it enabled..<_<

[syrus.xl]

Originally Posted by jagari

I have it enabled..<_<

This usually happens if you've missed the headinclude template edit. It's part of the coding, left in for debugging purposes and to sort out peoples problems.

Check this first...

[syrus.xl]

Originally Posted by YabbaDabba

Requests:

1. Admin-defined Height/Width of app
2. Admin-defined Height/Width of images (or at least some calculation of how app size affects image size) <-- this could be done, and maybe tied in with the first suggestion.
3. Admin-defined scroll-direction (I'm thinking it would be cool in a skyscraper layout) <-- This would require, the mod to have 2 versions of the movie, and very different template edits. Might be considered if we use 2 different product.xml files.
4. Admin-select for continuous loop <-- This would be an AdminCP setting
5. Admin-select for frame/background colors/transparency (use vB css even better) <-- This is being looked into, and maybe released shortly - incorporating a transparency mode.
6. Admin-select for single-click on front image (instead of current two) <-- An option is a good idea, since we already have an a single-click option set as default.
7. BB/html in the adls_content file (text is so small now, it is quite hard to read) <-- We could implement HTML code into the movie, but not BBcode.
8. BB/html in the adls_data file (name string only) or maybe via an admin config page <-- This would be done via a PHP XML version fed via MySQL and using the AdminCP.
9. Brand-free version (for a fee of course)<-- Always available on all our products.

At the moment we don't have the time to change this to a full working dynamic modification, since we are concentrating on a few 'high-end' commercial modifications.

But, we will keep these ideas in mind when updating it.