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

[yahoooh]

is there away to use this script 3 times in one forum by change some names of prefex and files in this script because i wanna use it for 3 different service and i do not wanna make them in different categories , ineed to use it 3 times with change also of template names
any help?

[Tradjick]

Hello Andrew, it´s me again. :squareeyed:

I use your hack as a directory of forum threads. (articles)

So all of the links are links to showthread.php?p=...

It´s having the breadcrump navbar at the top.
When beeing in the thread, it displays "myforums->forumname->threadname"

But i would prefer it beeing:"myforums->links->title"

Do you know any way of doing this?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Tradjick

Hello Andrew, it?s me again. :squareeyed:

I use your hack as a directory of forum threads. (articles)

So all of the links are links to showthread.php?p=...

It?s having the breadcrump navbar at the top.
When beeing in the thread, it displays "myforums->forumname->threadname"

But i would prefer it beeing:"myforums->links->title"

Do you know any way of doing this?

Do you mean the navbar that appears when you click the link to jump to the thread/post? That navbar is built inside the showthread.php code, so U can't see how to change it the way you want without rewriting showthread. Maybe I am not understanding you?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by yahoooh

is there away to use this script 3 times in one forum by change some names of prefex and files in this script because i wanna use it for 3 different service and i do not wanna make them in different categories , ineed to use it 3 times with change also of template names
any help?

I think - without trying this - that you could create three copies of each of the files, with different names, e.g. local1_*, local2* and local3_*. You would have to go through the files to change the values of the parameters THIS_TABLE, THIS_SCRIPT, ADMIN_SCRIPT and LINKS_SCRIPT. I'm afraid I don't have time to try this out.

[Tradjick]

I think you got me wrong. What i meant is the breadcrump template.

In showthread, i would prefer it show the "local_links" path (which in my case has been renamed to "Archiv".

(see at attachments)

[sketch42]

Great hack... easy to use ... works as advertised
/me clickity clicks install

[animehawk]

is it possible to make downloads cost points useing the uCash uShop hack?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by animehawk

is it possible to make downloads cost points using the uCash uShop hack?

I imagine that this is straightforward - I asked the uCash people to tell me about the interface, but got no reply. If someone can explain, I'm quite willing to take a look.

[Harry72]

Thx Andrew.
The best Linklist i've ever seen.
Top programming.
Very fast install. :nervous:

*Klicked install !*

[animehawk]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

I imagine that this is straightforward - I asked the uCash people to tell me about the interface, but got no reply. If someone can explain, I'm quite willing to take a look.

If i knew what you needed I would help. But I'm not much of a coder.

but... if you gave me some info on what you needed then I might be able to help,or if you would like I can grant you access to my forum? Perhaps that would help.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by animehawk

If i knew what you needed I would help. But I'm not much of a coder.

but... if you gave me some info on what you needed then I might be able to help,or if you would like I can grant you access to my forum? Perhaps that would help.

Thanks - I appreciate your offer. It's coding insight I need. I don't have a lot of time and to implement this I would need to know how the UCash code handles credits/debits - it's not something I've used. Sometime, maybe.

[animehawk]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

Thanks - I appreciate your offer. It's coding insight I need. I don't have a lot of time and to implement this I would need to know how the UCash code handles credits/debits - it's not something I've used. Sometime, maybe.

Ok. I'm going to try the Ucash support too. Maybe they can offer some insight about what code it would require. Even if it had to be hard coded. :? I'f they give any help I'll post .

[bhxtyrant]

hey AndrewD,I'm having a small issue i was hoping you could help me with that i just noticed.A while back i installed your mod in our forums.Everything works perfectly fine except one thing i noticed.

I set my forum permissions to only allow admins and mods to view the files database so guests cant access it and it seems to work fine.however guest can still go into the dropdown menu and click "whats hot" and are able to see files from the catagories that only admins and mods should be able to view.How can i fix this problem?

Our site is currently still under heavy construction and we want to keep our downloads hidden until we officially launch the site so this issue has just been reported by our site admin to me.Thanks as always and i look foward to your reply

Originally Posted by Tradjick

I think you got me wrong. What i meant is the breadcrump template.

In showthread, i would prefer it show the "local_links" path (which in my case has been renamed to "Archiv".

Hey just was wondering exactly how you changed the name in breadcrumbs to "Archiv"?I wanted to do the same except i wanted mine to be "Downloads".Hope to hear from ya.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by bhxtyrant

hey AndrewD,I'm having a small issue i was hoping you could help me with that i just noticed.A while back i installed your mod in our forums.Everything works perfectly fine except one thing i noticed.

I set my forum permissions to only allow admins and mods to view the files database so guests cant access it and it seems to work fine.however guest can still go into the dropdown menu and click "whats hot" and are able to see files from the catagories that only admins and mods should be able to view.How can i fix this problem?

Our site is currently still under heavy construction and we want to keep our downloads hidden until we officially launch the site so this issue has just been reported by our site admin to me.Thanks as always and i look foward to your reply

I'll have to take a look this weekend - the hack locks out all links/cats based on the forums permissions, and the 'whats hot' code does the same check, which seems to work ok on my board.

If you felt like pming me an admin username/password and your forum url, it will be easier for me to check what's going on.

[bhxtyrant]

HEy again i seem to have gotten it working.It's kinda weird though.I went into the admi panel for Links databae and set the default permissions mask to a forum that is only accessable by admins but it didn't work.So i decided to manually edit my 5 main catagories which contains all the files one by one and set there permission mask to the same forum and it works fine.Perhaps some sort of unseen bug with the admin panel?

Also since the other dude hasnt replied as of yet think you could answer my question in my previous post about changing "links database" in the breadcrumb to "Downloads"?