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

[MrD]

Hi,
how can i disalowed unregistered User to download a File.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by MrD

Hi,
how can i disalowed unregistered User to download a File.

You create (or choose) a forum on your board, and give that forum the permissions you want to use for the file (for example, only registered users can view posts in the forum). Then you associate the file with the forum. You do this within the form for adding or editing the link. You can do the same for categories.

If you want to apply this condition to every new file you make available, then on the links admin page, you set that forum to be the default forum for new links/categories.

[LeeWicKeD]

so..i just came home..and now i'm not going to work any more on the translation...tomorrow i think
and tomorrow i will try again with version 1.55
and yes i'm using the forum-permission-system.

ok, have a good night
lee

[Imperial Fritz]

Yay! When I have time later tonight I'll upgrade.

[Slave]

1.55a now installed ..

Thanks for adding the suggestions .. Brill .. This hack just keeps on giving

I think I've found something .. on the new cat page you can give a custom name to the linked cat, but on the edit cat page you can't edit it .. is this as planned?

Apart from that .. perfect!

[Slave]

Oh .. and one more suggestion if you have time/it can be done ..

I used to use a cgi script called Links 2.0 as my links page (I think it's been mentioned before in the thread) ..

No! I'm not asking for an importer!

But .. one thing, it was able to do, was very handy indeed .. If you went to a web page and wanted to add it to your links page you could highlight some text as your description and then click on an IE favourite and it would take you to the "add link" page, auto-fill the URL, Title and Description in the entry boxes. Then, all that was left to do was, pick which cat you wanted the link to be in and click the entry button.

It made adding links to the back-end very easy .. and quick!

Here's the code that was used for the favourite:

javascript:Q='';if(top.frames.length==0)Q=document.selection.createRange().text;void(btw=window.open('http://www.domain.com/links2.cgi?db=links&add_form=1&URL='+escape(location.href)+'&Title='+document.title+'&Description='+escape(Q),'AddToLinks','menubar=1,location=1,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,status=1,toolbar=1'));btw.focus();

I think this would be easy to do for this hack .. as long as the .php file, for adding links, is built to expect the text from the URL in the above code to be placed in the entry boxes ..

I've had a go at changing the code to be compatible with the hack ..

javascript:Q='';if(top.frames.length==0)Q=document.selection.createRange().text;void(btw=window.open('http://www.domain.com/local_links.php?action=addlink&url='+escape(location.href)+'&Title='+document.title+'&Description='+escape(Q),'addlink','menubar=1,location=1,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,status=1,toolbar=1'));btw.focus();

But of course it doesn't work as, like I said, I think the .php needs to be built expecting the text .. (and I've probably got the .php extensions wrong anyway )

What do you think?

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Slave

1.55a now installed ..

Thanks for adding the suggestions .. Brill .. This hack just keeps on giving

I think I've found something .. on the new cat page you can give a custom name to the linked cat, but on the edit cat page you can't edit it .. is this as planned?

Apart from that .. perfect!

Yup, that's planned. Basically, I try to keep this hack as separate as possible from the main VB code. It turned out to be easy enough to create/delete a VB forum, but I'm wary about trying to do too much before I really understand what's going on in the rest of the VB code. So if you want to rename the sub-forum, you'll have to go to the main VB admin page.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by Slave

Oh .. and one more suggestion if you have time/it can be done ..

I used to use a cgi script called Links 2.0 as my links page (I think it's been mentioned before in the thread) ..

No! I'm not asking for an importer!

But .. one thing, it was able to do, was very handy indeed .. If you went to a web page and wanted to add it to your links page you could highlight some text as your description and then click on an IE favourite and it would take you to the "add link" page, auto-fill the URL, Title and Description in the entry boxes. Then, all that was left to do was, pick which cat you wanted the link to be in and click the entry button.

It made adding links to the back-end very easy .. and quick!

Here's the code that was used for the favourite:

javascript:Q='';if(top.frames.length==0)Q=document.selection.createRange().text;void(btw=window.open('http://www.domain.com/links2.cgi?db=links&add_form=1&URL='+escape(location.href)+'&Title='+document.title+'&Description='+escape(Q),'AddToLinks','menubar=1,location=1,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,status=1,toolbar=1'));btw.focus();

I think this would be easy to do for this hack .. as long as the .php file, for adding links, is built to expect the text from the URL in the above code to be placed in the entry boxes ..

I've had a go at changing the code to be compatible with the hack ..

javascript:Q='';if(top.frames.length==0)Q=document.selection.createRange().text;void(btw=window.open('http://www.domain.com/local_links.php?action=addlink&url='+escape(location.href)+'&Title='+document.title+'&Description='+escape(Q),'addlink','menubar=1,location=1,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,status=1,toolbar=1'));btw.focus();

But of course it doesn't work as, like I said, I think the .php needs to be built expecting the text .. (and I've probably got the .php extensions wrong anyway )

What do you think?

This looks a great idea, and I'll give it some thought. When I have the time.....

I also plan to provide a new interface for mass checking/editing/adjusting viewing/dowload permissions, as this seems to be the most frequently asked question.

[Slave]

Nps about the linked cat thing .. just didn't know if it was planned ..

Glad you like the favourites idea ..

[LeeWicKeD]

andrew here are my translated .xml files...


just noticed some little phrases that are still english...will fix it maybe tomorrow but about 99% of the important things are translated