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 Uploads, Downloads and Media Filetypes
Administration Introduction Control Settings Permissions Controlling Access Monitoring and Controlling Usage Database Imports and Exports Content Overview/Mass Editing Entry Attributes Where are Files Stored?
Moderation Moderation and Timed Entry 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 being updated to describe release versions 3.0.x, which works with version 4 of vBulletin, in place of version 2.3.0, which works with versions 3.7 and 3.8. So far, there are only a few significant differences between the features provided by the two LDM series. Some obsolete and deprecated features are being removed and new features added, such as support for the vBulletin CMS and the possibility to limit ("throttle") file download speeds by usergroup. No further features will be added to the 2.3.x series.

In general, the behaviour of existing features does not normally 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 links and files, organised as entries 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 the library of entries, organised into categories and sub-categories, which can be nested to any reasonable depth
• 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 and "starred entries of the month"
• 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. It:

• uses templates and styles which can be overridden by users and in individual categories
• allows use of standard BBcodes, smilies, images and html
• integrates with vBulletin features such as Who's Online, My Profile, etc
• allows automatic announcement of new entries as posts within your forums

It has powerful administration and integration features, which can be used to:

• track who has downloaded/jumped to what and providing the administrator with reports of recent downloads
• offer daily bandwidth and download limits for selected usergroups
• integrate easily with the vbAdvanced portal
• work with client-side download managers and supports their use of HTTP Partial Content and error handling
• keep entries in categories synchronised with contents of corresponding directories on your web server
• support the use of mirror sites to allow you to spread server load and improve response times
• extend LDM 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

Versions 3.0.x work with vBulletin 4.0.

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 versions 2.x.x integrate with versions 3.x of vbAdvanced. No decision has yet been made whether this will continue with versions 3.x: currently they do not work together.

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 © 2004-2010 the European Industrial Research Management Association. The product is provided without charge for use on properly-licensed and registered vBulletin sites. It can be modified, provided that no claims are made of ownership, that the original or modified code is not sold or included in part or in whole within other software products offered for sale, and that there is no violation of others' copyrights. No warranties or guarantees of any sort are offered.

The author expects that this product will be used responsibly and will accept no liability should sites choose to use it for purposes that are contrary to the law.