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

[hitmanuk2k]

hi, for your informations i repaired the tables several times today but the problem keeps reoccuring. The hack had been working fine for around 2 months then suddenly these errors pop up. vb version 3.0.0

the error message is the same as on the site:

----------

Database error in vBulletin 3.0.0:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT INTO local_linksdownloads (linkid, linkurl, username, userid, userip, userbrowser, usertime)
VALUES (
'41',
'http://forum.pesinsight.com/showthread.php?t=8678',
'Unregistered',
'0',
'XXXX',
'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; DT)',
1088524553
)

mysql error: Duplicate entry '32767' for key 1

mysql error number: 1062

Date: Tuesday 29th of June 2004 11:55:55 AM
Script: http://forum.pesinsight.com/local_li...ion=jump&id=41
Referer: http://www.google.de/search?q=rebuil...-8&hl=de&meta=
Username: Unregistered
IP Address: XXXX

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by hitmanuk2k

hi, for your informations i repaired the tables several times today but the problem keeps reoccuring. The hack had been working fine for around 2 months then suddenly these errors pop up. vb version 3.0.0

the error message is the same as on the site:

I think your problem is that Google and other search engines are coming along and accessing all your files. Every time this happens, the downloads table logs it. You've had more than 32K hits since you reset the downloads table.

Immediate suggestions:
- If you're not too concerned about tracking who is downloading what, empty the local_linksdownloads table.
- You can do this in a couple of ways. If you go to the links admin page, there's an option in the statistics section to view/clear the dowloads. Or use phpmyadmin and empty this table.
- You might ask yourself if you really want Google stealing all your band width. Are all your links set to be available without being logged on? You might change this/

I will modify the table definition with the next release so that we don't hit this problem so soon, but it will still be there. I might put some code in to stop bots downloading links.

Thoughts?

[hitmanuk2k]

thanks for the information. i will just empty the table.

[Natch]

Run this query:[SQL]ALTER TABLE `local_linksdownloads` CHANGE `dlid` `dlid` MEDIUMINT( 11 ) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT [/SQL]Should solve the problem (11 digits for a smallint ? even overkill for a mediumint ... but hey )

[krohnathlonman]

OUCH! I just tried using this for a couple of files I posted (DX9.0c). It was linked as a normal file and then when I switched to a link using this system the loads jumped from .3 to over 2.0! that's from 1.25 beta....

I really haven't checked into it very much yet to help determine the cause of this within your sytem. I will be doing so as soon as I can right now I'm tweaking some of my own systems to run even better google has started placing me alot better recently in some important key words so I've been getting alot more traffic lately.

[krohnathlonman]

OK, basically don't use fopen on any large files since it loads that file into the RAM and it can't exit until the file download is completed. Basically just using the normal redirect is the only thing to do for larger files. You'll want to search google for bandwidth theft to learn some .htaccess methods of blocking refs not from your domain.

[JirQUEST]

does this work on 3.0.2??

[EnriqueHavoc]

Hi Andrew thanks for this awesome script.

*note- Im using 1.22 because my php/mysql is not up to date so i apologize if this has been address in 1.25

Question: How can I alternate the linkbit TD colors for each link and category displayed?

Ive tried editing the linkbit using if conditions with $linkid and it works but when the links are sorted, it throws off the alternating sequence. How can I edit the templates so that the links/categories will always alternate color regardless of how they are sorted?

[JirQUEST]

Originally Posted by JirQUEST

does this work on 3.0.2??

ok never mind. it works on 3.0.3

[vonedaddy]

I installed an it works great. Thanks... ONE QUICK QUESTION... Where in the templates is the forum jump?? I would like to remove the forums jump drop down menu.

See it here : http://hereyah.com/forums/local_links.php?action=links