mercDownloads

[Robbo]

Note: I have no time for this at the moment and have no ETA on it being done. This thread will be unlocked when I know more.

Ok I am planning out the downloads mod and have a few questions of what people want/need.
What I have planned so far is a very detailed, very high quality version... basically any feature the forums have the downloads mod will have (for example it will even support moderators per category like the forums).

Question time.

Mirrors
I will add the ability to add external mirrors the same way as, for example, adding poll choices when creating a thread. And then there will also be the option to upload a .torrent file. My question, however, is about internal mirrors. How do you require them to work? I have never used them or seen a system that does use them so am unsure on how to go about it.

Read Log
Do you want a read log like on the forums? I will have alerts with the ability to watch a download etc. But do you have any need of a read log in downloads for their comments? Seems like overkill to me (so if I was to add it I would have an option to be able to turn it off).

Node Tree
I'm just going to create a category tree, so it will be like the node tree but just with categories. Unless there is some other node people might want? Speak now or forever hold your peace.

That's all for now.

 

[Vicros]

Wow what a great idea.

 

[kkm323]

great
any screenshot

 

[Robbo]

There is nothing to screenshot, I'm in planning stages. Things get messy if you don't plan it out properly, especially in PHP (a high percentage of PHP projects suffer from this problem, that and people thinking they know PHP when they don't).

 

[Vincent]

Don't forget the "I accept to this license" function

It's useful for projects using Gpl3

 

[maidos]

heres my request


the biggest disadvantage with downloadsII is that if webmaster go big with the mods and only have example 3x 500gb you have little choice to do much. with downloadsII i have one 500gb that is almost full and members uploaded the file to the server which unfortunately was directed to my one 500 gb while leaving my other two 500 gb collecting dust
so what i did was just simply deleting 250gb files and ftp moved those 250gb files manually to my second and third hdd and the worst part was that i had to manually link all those 250gb files on my own. so i plead you to implement a good features that allows admin to select the location of the storage. example on admin control panel i can enter hard path /home/domain/hdd2 /home/domain/hdd3 so when members upload they get two option of which storage to upload at


Ability to add multiple mirrors in one forum page(possibly ability to mass import download mirrors by just adding a storage path from a different server, it will cross reference with the current storage path and automatically add the mirrors)


mass import ability from rsjelles downloadsII to your xf downloads(you basically upload files via ftp, apply the server path details on admin panel and mass import it


Ability to add tags on each separate file page (same as ability to search the tags)
Based on usergroup on the user permission, he can upload bulk of files in one go. Aswell adopt similar admin import features from rs jelle(ftp upload)


having file description to read html and/or php depending on the admin(based on usergroup permission)

When normal users are uploading files directly via the website,
An animated progress bar when you upload. You can use perl uberuploader, an open source script which you can integrated to your mod http://uber-uploader.sourceforge.net/
Would be nice to inform users the transfer speed, time left and total time passed by

rss feed

and of course convert the rsjelle vbulletin mod DownloadsII to your own mod.

rating system based on 1-5 stars or 1-10 can be used either way on admin panel,
Each download file can show amount of downloaded times, and based on the downloaded times and rating the popularity will be displayed... example on admin panel you can choose to show the download page an icon with flame icon displayed on the category page

the ability to sort the download page at category/sub category after, filename, ratings, popularity, date added, author in desc or ascending order

 

[Robbo]

heres my request
the biggest disadvantage with downloadsII is that if webmaster go big with the mods and only have example 3x 500gb you have little choice to do much. with downloadsII i have one 500gb that is almost full and members uploaded the file to the server which unfortunately was directed to my one 500 gb while leaving my other two 500 gb collecting dust
so what i did was just simply deleting 250gb files and ftp moved those 250gb files manually to my second and third hdd and the worst part was that i had to manually link all those 250gb files on my own. so i plead you to implement a good features that allows admin to select the location of the storage. example on admin control panel i can enter hard path /home/domain/hdd2 /home/domain/hdd3 so when members upload they get two option of which storage to upload at

Ok with this. What I would do is have in the ACP a list of paths that files are uploaded to. Then, since I will have all file sizes in the database, choose the path that has the least space used by the uploads. Would this be sufficient? I can also add a random option so it randomly picks a path.

Then I think a tool would also be needed with this so you can mass move files around on these paths, so if for some reason something gets filled up you can move them via the ACP. This will also support moving them via FTP. When uploading a file it will get a filename made up of {filename_when_uploading}-{data_id}.{ext}. So if you move a file it will simply detect it. Also, I use a file manager for this mod. So you select the download you are adding from an overlay file manager. Doing it this way allows you to have the option to upload via FTP and it will detect it. And because you use the mod on a user based level I will also be adding another feature to this. The file structure will now be /uploadDirectorySelected/user_id/. This way I will give the permission option for a user to select from all uploaded files when adding or just from the files they have uploaded themselves.

Ability to add multiple mirrors in one forum page(possibly ability to mass import download mirrors by just adding a storage path from a different server, it will cross reference with the current storage path and automatically add the mirrors)

I don't fully understand you here as I have never worked much with mirrors. Can you elaborate? Give an example?

mass import ability from rsjelles downloadsII to your xf downloads(you basically upload files via ftp, apply the server path details on admin panel and mass import it

Yes, a must.

Ability to add tags on each separate file page (same as ability to search the tags)
Based on usergroup on the user permission, he can upload bulk of files in one go. Aswell adopt similar admin import features from rs jelle(ftp upload)

Yep, yep.

having file description to read html and/or php depending on the admin(based on usergroup permission)

You mean for when submitting a mod? For example, in relation to the forums. It would be an option to allow people to use HTML or PHP in this reply box I'm typing in? I was just going to use bbcode, but if it is needed then I will add it with BIG warning labels.

When normal users are uploading files directly via the website,
An animated progress bar when you upload. You can use perl uberuploader, an open source script which you can integrated to your mod http://uber-uploader.sourceforge.net/
Would be nice to inform users the transfer speed, time left and total time passed by

I'll just be using the flash uploader? I'm sure all those things can be shown with it. If not I'll add additional ones.

rss feed

Yep, just don't let me forget.

and of course convert the rsjelle vbulletin mod DownloadsII to your own mod.

Yep.

rating system based on 1-5 stars or 1-10 can be used either way on admin panel,

I'm not a fan of star rating systems. So in addition to those I will add the option to use a like/dislike system as well like on youtube.

Each download file can show amount of downloaded times, and based on the downloaded times and rating the popularity will be displayed... example on admin panel you can choose to show the download page an icon with flame icon displayed on the category page

Yeah sure.

the ability to sort the download page at category/sub category after, filename, ratings, popularity, date added, author in desc or ascending order

Like I said in my first post, most things the forums can do this mod will be able to do. So all sorting will supported the same way as the forums and a category tree will be possible the same as the node tree.

Cheers for your post you have given me a lot more to add now I'll probably be contacting you to be a beta tester as well btw.

 

[maidos]

Ok with this. What I would do is have in the ACP a list of paths that files are uploaded to. Then, since I will have all file sizes in the database, choose the path that has the least space used by the uploads. Would this be sufficient? I can also add a random option so it randomly picks a path.

Then I think a tool would also be needed with this so you can mass move files around on these paths, so if for some reason something gets filled up you can move them via the ACP. This will also support moving them via FTP. When uploading a file it will get a filename made up of {filename_when_uploading}-{data_id}.{ext}. So if you move a file it will simply detect it. Also, I use a file manager for this mod. So you select the download you are adding from an overlay file manager. Doing it this way allows you to have the option to upload via FTP and it will detect it. And because you use the mod on a user based level I will also be adding another feature to this. The file structure will now be /uploadDirectorySelected/user_id/. This way I will give the permission option for a user to select from all uploaded files when adding or just from the files they have uploaded themselves.

I think that would be sufficent to let the script know which logical path to choose based on available space on respective hdd, at least for me. So if i add XX amount of server path to the script it will decide where of those to be uploaded, either way based on available space or randomize it totally, as two given options if possible?

Mass moving feature sounds good idea but the download links are saved on mysql though so this wouldnt be an issue with the mass moving feature via ACP? otherwise very good suggestion you brought up

Ability to add multiple mirrors in one forum page(possibly ability to mass import download mirrors by just adding a storage path from a different server, it will cross reference with the current storage path and automatically add the mirrors)

scrap taht suggestion dont think its a good one but basically what i meant is if you added 2 different server paths and you happend to have published one file from one server path. But if i uploaded a file after on second server path it will autoatically add the second link from existing file page on download mogs

Rating system, mostly i suggested the star system 1-5 or 1-10 is because it allows members to either rate negativ or positive. With like it only gives the possibility to give positive vote which can seem resstrictive. Unless theres unlike feature heh

You mean for when submitting a mod? For example, in relation to the forums. It would be an option to allow people to use HTML or PHP in this reply box I'm typing in? I was just going to use bbcode, but if it is needed then I will add it with BIG warning labels.

When members submit a file i will assume there will be
file name field
file description field.
I suggested enable html/php on desciption field/file name mostly to highlight some keywords etc. Of course this can be abused which is why it should disabled by default, and allow admin to enable it on respective usergroups.

I'll just be using the flash uploader? I'm sure all those things can be shown with it. If not I'll add additional ones.

Well, im thinking more that it requires flash installation and it could be a bit annoying for those who choses not to have flash for some reasn? perl is installed on server which doesnt require any third party installation from the endusers.

some new suggestions, add a suggestion box(ajax popup maybe?) when you enter a text on filename field, example it can suggest if therss already existing file page based on the text data you input on filename field
all in all, im excited that you are considering these features and defintly worth for a comercial product in my eyes and thanks would love to beta test it.

 

[Robbo]

Mass moving feature sounds good idea but the download links are saved on mysql though so this wouldnt be an issue with the mass moving feature via ACP? otherwise very good suggestion you brought up

Well with the way I described it won't be hard to detect the new place. Each file with have their unique ID appended to them and if it sees the file is missing it will search for that unique ID through all the other paths, if it doesn't find it it removes it. If it finds that it was move it simply updates its path info.

Rating system, mostly i suggested the star system 1-5 or 1-10 is because it allows members to either rate negativ or positive. With like it only gives the possibility to give positive vote which can seem resstrictive. Unless theres unlike feature heh

I will add 1-5 star options and like/dislike. And if needed 1-10 star as well.

When members submit a file i will assume there will be
file name field
file description field.
I suggested enable html/php on desciption field/file name mostly to highlight some keywords etc. Of course this can be abused which is why it should disabled by default, and allow admin to enable it on respective usergroups.

Okay.

Well, im thinking more that it requires flash installation and it could be a bit annoying for those who choses not to have flash for some reasn? perl is installed on server which doesnt require any third party installation from the endusers.

I'll start with flash and add others in future versions.

some new suggestions, add a suggestion box(ajax popup maybe?) when you enter a text on filename field, example it can suggest if therss already existing file page based on the text data you input on filename field

The way I am doing it is title field for public view and the file manager will see the original filename. So you can use a file twice if you need to for some reason... I don't see any use of showing other files that have been uploaded that are similar.
For your site I assume you check each download when they upload, the moderation queue will be used for this the same as on the forums. I can add there an option to check for files that are similar. Also I could make use of the spam cleaner to detect these things.

When I start getting the ACP sorted I'll give you access to my dev site

 

[Digital Doctor]

From a Pre-Sales member.

Hello,

I have a vBulletin Forum Script for providing PDF books since three years. It is a good forum software BUT is not good for uploading and downloading of files.

I have searched a looooooooooooooot but I cant find any script/cms/blog/etc which could accomplish some features of what I need. I tried Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and some others but...

Requirements:

I am going to start a new site which will have more than 800GB PDF files. I want to limit/restrict the bandwidth based on usergroups (e.g; Bronze, Silver, Gold). I dont want a user to become a Premium Member for a week and overload my server by downloading all 800GB within week.

After going through a lot, I have decided to ask here with the hope of getting suggestions.

 

[Robbo]

Looks like a nice idea. However it will require stuff on the server to track the user downloading as PHP doesn't have any way of doing this by default. Not that I'm aware of anyway...

 

[maidos]

Looks like a nice idea. However it will require stuff on the server to track the user downloading as PHP doesn't have any way of doing this by default. Not that I'm aware of anyway...

actually rsjelle downloadsII does have the feature to restrict based on the usergroups, there was two options there, one was to restrict amount of downloads per 24 hours and second feature was to restrict how much mb per day, digital doctor did your customer tried downloadsII?

you can check the downloadsII i sent to you via pm if you are curious how it works

 

[Digital Doctor]

digital doctor did your customer tried downloadsII?

Yep.
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/kindly-suggest-except-vbulletin.18061/#post-235290

 

[maidos]

forgot to mention, the ability to report deadlinks? i rather prefer the the reported links shouold be auto posted on a specified forum id, so it will automatically create a thread, this way we can choose allow who will be able to fix the links if its, staff or just regular members.

 

[Saeed]

Dear Robbo, you think you could perhaps drop a hint or two and kindly update us on the status of mercDownloads?

 

[maidos]

maybe we could bribe u with some donation to release it a bit faster?
sorry to sound demanding but one month been a bit over since you announced the planned release date

 

[Robbo]

I had real life issues and have had no internet for a while now. I am now working hard to meet a deadline for Savage: Rebirth so it can be released. It has my full attention at the moment. Second it my gallery and downloads mod so I can make some money to get my main internet service paid for and back online (using some slow mobile broadband at the moment). So I will only be working on this when I need break from SR. Once SR is done (we are pushing to get it all my stuff done in 5 weeks at least) then I will be working on this full time.

That's all I can give you :/

 

[Paul]

Any updates at all Robbo??

 

[Vicros]

This^^

 

[Digital Doctor]

forgot to mention, the ability to report deadlinks?

Dear Robbo, you think you could perhaps drop a hint or two and kindly update us on the status of mercDownloads?

For those interested in this thread, you may want to talk to Jaxel now about what you want and don't want in a Downloads Mod.
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/feature-requests-downloads-block-for-xenporta.20374/