Geek AutoLinker 4.02

HowdA All,

Welcome to Geek Autolinker 4.0 from the makers of Geek Autolinker 2.0 and Tang - the stuff the people in space drink.

posts for version 4.0 start here

What it does:
It allows you to specify key words to replace in posts with ANY FREAKING URL YOU COULD THINK OF. Thats right, you to can now have key words automatically url'ed to other areas of the world wide web.

Now in 4.0 you can create popups, track impressions and click-thrus, get statistics on them and specify more attributes of the links. The popups can now also use bbcode to create virtually any kind of popup you could imagine. You can limit categories of links to certain forums and also enable specific usergroups to toggle GALs on or off (by category).


This is a perfect gift for sponsors, click throughs, referal programs, definitions, instructions, birthdays and other celebrations.

Example:
If I define Bob as a keyword that I would like to automatically come up hyperlinked to bob.com all I have to do is say so (well, you put it into the admincp). Presto! As quick as that, everytime a user sees the word bob, bobs, bob! Bob bOb? etc... it comes up linked to bob.com

How much will bob love you?

If the url you want it to jump to is actually a thread on your site, you can use the nifty ignorethreadid option. Heres how that works:

If I have a thread entitled Reputation and how to use it, I can put the word reputation into the Geek AutoLinker with the URL pointing to the thread about reputation. Then everytime the word reputation appears in someones post, anyone can click on it to learn more. Since it would be stupid to have the thread Reputation and how to use it autolink to itself, I put the threadid in the ignorethreadid box. That way all matches for reputation are linked to that thread except for the reputation matches in the thread Reputation and how to use it.

Safe mode and dangerous mode.

There are now two modes of operation. Safe mode will autolink any match AS LONG AS IT HAS A SPACE BEFORE IT. That means that <br />bob or .Bob are not valid matches and wont be highlighted. The reason for this is to prevent the autolinker messing up URLs with matches in them (like www.bob.com). Safe mode will most likely end up with fewer matches, but no messed up URLS.
Dangerous mode however could care less about your cute little spaces. It will link them regardless. That means more matches, but a slight increase that an existing url might break in a post.

Here are some examples in action.
Keyword: freak

Safe mode.
Freak out whenever freaks freak about on www.freak.com
Dangerous mode:
Freak out whenever freaks freak about on www.<a href="www.freak.com">freak</a>.com

Other stuff:

• Category management - allows you to override global settings
• Limit - limit the number of replacements per link per post
• Ordinal - organise the order replacments are made
• Customize your own replacment code on a global, catergory, or individual level.
• The installer is a prototype GISH installer that does the file edits for you. Please check the readme for details on how it works - its pretty cool).

Upgrading

• Download, replace all existing files with new ones.
• Run the gal4_install.php file (in your admincp)
• Follow the upgrade path.
• The system will ahve you manullay chage any files it can not find to update.

DEMO: http://www.thenailgeek.com/showthread.php?t=11011 (note the words MMA and PREP. If you follow to MMA you will notice that MMA isnt linked in the final article thanks to ignorethreadid)

Difficulty: Easy
File mods: 4 simple ones
Added queries: 0 or greater depending on your settings

Updated 10.5.05 - Major
Massive update in functionality

Updated 13.4.05 - Major
Massive update in functionality

Update 25.03.05 - oops!
Changed readme addition to functions_showthread.php Things look good now

Updates 25.05.05 to v.204 - sneaky bug
Thanks to Razz - I found 2 minor typos that end up causing people working in safemode to actually be working in danger mode! To upgrade, simply check out this post

Updated 12.2.05 to v. 2.03 - ultra minor
Fixed a typo in readme. To upgrade, al you need to do is edit admincp/index,
do a search for
construct_nav_option($vbphrase['GAL_add_new'], 'GAL_admin.php?do=create');
and replace with
construct_nav_option($vbphrase['GAL_add_new'], 'GAL_admin.php?do=add');

Updated 11.2.05 - ultra minor
Fixed a typo in README (dont worry, it wasnt in the instructions)
Stopped phrase text spitting out during install. Some of the phrase is html so it looked confusing to new installers.
Removed reference to GAS3 settings in the install. This is because its the same installer. Just forgot to remove that line.
All in all, this was just a typo fix. There is no upgrade because there are no problems with the code.

Updated 10.2.05 - minor
Found a couple typos that affect safe mode.
Nothing major - just replace the GAL_admin.php file

Updated 10.2.05 - Major
Completely re-written.
See README for upgrade instructions.

Update 10.2.05 - minor
Updated include/geek_autolink.php as it was missing a table_prefix
To upgrade, download latest package and replace your geek_autolink file.


nJoy

[pigsy]

I've run some test on the performance BEFORE and AFTER.

My test was conducted on an average page, and I recorded the "Page generated stats". I had 191 replacements, and using the DB cache.

The results were page loading time on average more than doubled, from an average of 0.5 secs, to 1.2 secs. This is an unacceptable increase, so despite really liking what this has to offer, I'm going to have pass on using it. If anyone can think of a way to make the performance better I'd love to take another look at this - unfortunately you can't get round the fact that for every new link added it has to check it against every word in the text, so in my case 1500 words x 191 links = 286,500 comparisons being made. Even on my dedicated dual-Xeon server it takes a big performance hit.

I wonder if a different approach can be taken, along the lines of how some sites you have words linked to ads - they don't seem to do anything with the html itself, but must be some clever javascript at work - perhaps this could be the answer.

All the same, praise to The Greek, for all his hard work, and if your only using this on a handful of links, I think there would be no problem in doing this - it's only when you want to have 100+ links you'll start to slow down signifcantly

[The Geek]

alexi - usng the db cache gives you more whistles and belles (ie real time exclusion of links that have expired) however it requires a query to be called. Not using the query means that the datastore cache is used. You get the same basic functionality but not so many of the whistles and bells.

To be honest, The extra query isnt much of an overhead.

Pigsy - I appreciate whate you are saying and yes, the more replacements... the more server load. Even with a js callback, your server will need to scan the text for matches you have wich I doubt will lighten your load much. Personally, I never envisioned people using it with 190 replacements! If you come up with a different method, I would love to hear about it for the next release.

Cheers all!

(BTW - just an FYI - Im not around much right now as I am in Spain on holiday with the family. In fact, my wife is going to go nuts if she sees me on the system!... Be back soon )

[TechnologyGuide]

Originally Posted by The Geek

alexi - usng the db cache gives you more whistles and belles (ie real time exclusion of links that have expired) however it requires a query to be called. Not using the query means that the datastore cache is used. You get the same basic functionality but not so many of the whistles and bells.

To be honest, The extra query isnt much of an overhead.

Pigsy - I appreciate whate you are saying and yes, the more replacements... the more server load. Even with a js callback, your server will need to scan the text for matches you have wich I doubt will lighten your load much. Personally, I never envisioned people using it with 190 replacements! If you come up with a different method, I would love to hear about it for the next release.

Cheers all!

(BTW - just an FYI - Im not around much right now as I am in Spain on holiday with the family. In fact, my wife is going to go nuts if she sees me on the system!... Be back soon )

The Geek, thanks for this mod, we're toying with it at forum.notebookreview.com

One thing that would really help me is date ranges on the stats report. Right now it's set up as a lifetime, but for us, viewing performance over a week or month is more useful. If you could work that in some time, we'd be appreciative.

[Paul Ross]

Hi,

Where does this hack install itself? A friend of mine did it, but I can't see it in Admin.

[croupier]

I've installed it and it's working great, thanks geek.

I have one problem though. I also have vBadvanced installed but the autolinker doesn't work on the vBadvanced homepage.

Is there a way of getting the autolinker working on the vBa homepage (and I've somehow missed it while searching for the answer) or is this still a problem to be solved?

[The Geek]

Paul - check the gish folder for changed files

croupier. Im on holiday right now so I cant tell you exactly where and what, however yuo can simply call (something like) $gal->process_text(text);
Whereever you want gals to link. You may have to play about as I said - im away from my system so I cant tell you exactly what to do.

HTH´s

[blueuniverse]

Originally Posted by T3MEDIA

No.... doesnt work. Darn.
I have it saved in "Thread display options" and it is a radio.
1 on 2 off
she no workie.
First time checking it. Sorry I didnt see that before.
I checked as a Admin not a regular user.

Problem for me as well. I need it to be turned off for a while and I've set all usergroups to be exempt from it and my field value to off but still no luck.

[Paul Ross]

Hi Geek,

Can you elaborate a bit on "check for changed files" please?

Also, whereabout in Admin CP should it show up? May have to pay someone to do this for me.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Paul Ross,

You are currently showing up as unlicensed. To be able to download hacks and/or receive support here at vBulletin.org, we ask you to please click here (vB-germany users click here) and enter your email address, to show us that you are licensed.

You will need to use your customer number and password (which will be in the email you got when you paid for your license) to access that page. Please note that your email is case sensitive. The update of your account may take up to one hour.

Thank you.

[Paul Ross]

I've adjusted that Marco.