Links and Downloads Manager

From EIRMA Wiki

Quick Links
Overview and Tutorial Introduction Quick Tutorial
Pre-Installation Site Configuration Installation Installing LDM Upgrading Removing Post-Installation Speed, Security and Server Load Configuring Filetypes
Administration Introduction Control Settings Permissions Controlling Access Monitoring and Controlling Usage Database Imports and Exports Content Overview/Mass Editing Entry Attributes
Moderation Introduction Design Layout and Design Advanced vbAdvanced Subscriptions Add-on Extras Media Players Mirrors Synchronising Categories and Directories Hacking LDM Search Engine Optimisation
Other Known Bugs Common Problems Wish List Version History Acknowledgements

Contents 1 What is the Links and Downloads Manager 2 Features 3 Getting Started 4 Compatibility with vBulletin 5 Screenshots 6 Sample Sites 7 Support 8 The Small Print

What is the Links and Downloads Manager

The Links and Downloads Manager, LDM, extends vBulletin to provide managed access to libraries of documents and bookmarks, such as:

• links to other web sites
• downloadable documents
• music
• videos
• photographs
• files uploaded by your user community
• etc.

You can use LDM to provide your community with access to content that you provide, or let them share files and bookmarks (urls) with each other. You can even use LDM to manage simple contact lists, without requiring a url or file at all.

This wiki is currently being updated to describe version 2.3.0 of LDM, the officially supported version. New and changed features are marked as such. Generally, the behaviour of existing features does not change between versions. Apologies for inconsistencies or omissions - on-line documentation tends to run behind the software. Your help in spotting any gaps will be appreciated - please report these on vBulletin.org.

Features

LDM handles a library of entries (links, downloads and uploads) organised within categories. Entries can be bookmarks pointing to other web sites; files on your web site; files held on your web server but outside the web site; files on another web site accessed via http, https or ftp protocols; and files uploaded by users.

The product:

• manages the creation of categories (nested to any reasonable depth) and entries
• controls user access to these categories and entries, with optional timed entry, access limits, etc
• provides a variety of social group features, including editable user comments and ratings on entries, "starred entries"
• handles user "Favourites" which each user can set up and view as a group
• treats selected users' Favourites as "Featured Sites" to be advertised to all users
• handles reporting of bad entries, sending emails to friends and 'update' emails to users
• has in-built media players for playing a wide range of audio and video files
• provides powerful searching mechanisms, including free text, keyword, and profile-linked searches, including a 'suggest similar entries' feature based on your user community's visits to LDM

The product is compatible with vBulletin, without being heavily tied into vBulletin, in:

• using templates and styles which can be overridden by users and in individual categories
• allowing use of standard BBcodes, smilies, images and html
• using icons to highlight category contents and indicate entry filetypes
• integrating with vBulletin features such as Who's Online, My Profile, etc

It has powerful administration and integration features and:

• tracks who has downloaded/jumped to what and providing the administrator with reports of recent downloads
• offers daily bandwidth and download limits for selected usergroups
• integrates easily with the vbAdvanced portal
• works with client-side download managers and supports their use of HTTP Partial Content and error handling
• can keep entries in categories synchronised with contents of corresponding directories on your web server
• supports the use of mirror sites to allow you to spread server load and improve response times
• can be extended to handle an open-ended number of extra data items (attributes) associated with entries

There is an extensive range of 'extras':

• interfaces with other media players including the commercial Wimpy player and Jeroen Wijering's Silverlight player for Windows Media files
• interfaces with popular video sites
• security extensions to the user allowances and access control systems
• support for search engine optimisation
• etc, etc, etc

Translations into English, Chinese, French, German, Dutch and Spanish are provided with the release.

Getting Started

Start by following these links (see also the Quick Jump menu on the right side of this page):

• Installing LDM
• LDM Quick Tutorial
• Administering LDM

Compatibility with vBulletin

Version 2.3.0 works with vBulletin 3.7.x and 3.8.x. Version 2.2.9 works with vBulletin 3.6.x and 3.7.x.

Older versions of LDM, which work with vBulletin 3.6.x, 3.5.x and 3.0.x, remain available on vBulletin.org but are no longer supported.

LDM integrates with versions 3.x of vbAdvanced.

Screenshots

Main category listing	Standard entry layout
Photo Library layout	Jukebox
Admininstration (settings)	Administration (user hits)

Sample Sites

Yaxley Village - Example of vbAdvanced integration	Versionist Music Community - World Largest Reggae Community.
Gottapixel - A very creative site for sharing design work	MusicaDigitale - Italian Computer Music Resources

Support

We provide reasonable assistance in return for help in testing, useful comments, translations, suggestions for improvements and extensions, etc.

However...

• Please read this Wiki first
• Support is only available via vBulletin.org
• We make no promises at all regarding future development but try to implement useful suggestions as/when time permits

Take a look at the Wish List to see what is on the radar map.

The Small Print

LDM is © 2004-2009 the European Industrial Research Management Association. The product is provided without charge to registered vBulletin sites, provided that no claims are made of ownership and that it is not sold or included in part or in whole within other products offered for sale or in violation of others' copyrights. No warranties or guarantees of any sort are offered.