Drain Hole Plugin
Drain Hole is a centralized download manager, with full monitoring and statistics, versioning, SVN support, and SEO download URLs (no more nasty query strings!).
In addition to it's monitoring abilities, Drain Hole has a run-time tag replacement feature that lets you embed special tags in your post which are replaced with information from Drain Hole. For example, you can embed download URLs, version information, last update times, and so on. Whenever you change a downloadable file it is automatically updated throughout your blog, without you needing to change anything else.
Features include:
- SEO download URLs - a unique feature that allows files to look like real links
- SVN support - attach a file directly to an SVN repository and have the contents automatically updated
- Versioning - maintain multiple versions of a file, allowing users to download older files
- Full download statistics, including number of downloads, access times, referrer, and download speed, available as CSV and Flash-based graphs
- Download security - permissions can be assigned to downloads (including Flash files), restricting them to WordPress roles
- Template tags - insert dynamic download data into posts, and into the sidebar as a Widget
- Hot-link protection
- Fully localized
Version History
- 2.1.12 - Allow for sites with open_basedir restrictions
- 2.1.11 - Update plugin base class
- 2.1.10 - Add file modification time
- 2.1.9 - Fix problem with truncated URLs on some sites
- 2.1.8 - Fix typo in mime type
- 2.1.7 - Fix spaces in version numbers
- 2.1.5 - Better custom 2.6 support
- 2.1.4 - Scanning fix
Installation
Installation is like any WordPress plugin:
- Download drain-hole.zip
- Unzip
- Upload drain-hole directory to
/wp-content/pluginson your server - Activate the plugin
- Use Drain Hole from the Manage/Drain Hole menu
You can find full details of installing a plugin on the plugin installation page. SVN access to the plugin is provided at the SVN repository.
General Concepts
The Drain Hole plugin makes use of two fundamental concepts:
- Drain hole - a base URL and associated directory where files are stored and downloaded from
- Files - a file belongs to a particular Drain hole
It is important to understand the mapping between a Drain Hole's URL and its associated directory. To do this you need to know two pieces of information:
- Where files are to be downloaded from (i.e.
http://urbangiraffe.com/download/) - Where files are to be stored (i.e
/users/john/download/)
This is a mapping from URL to directory:
http://urbangiraffe.com/download/ => /users/john/download/
All files inside the directory will be available at the Drain Hole URL. For example:
/users/john/download/myplugin.zip => http://urbangiraffe.com/download/myplugin.zip
It is preferable that your directory is not in a public location (i.e. in public_html) as Drain Hole may not then be able to function. Your URL must be part of your WordPress installation, but you should not create a directory for it.
Creating a Drain Hole
New Drain Holes require the following information:
The URL is the URL on your website at which to make the files available. The directory is the real directory in which the files exist. These two values do not have to match up and the files do not (and ideally should not) be publicly available.
Once a Drain Hole has been created you can then edit it from the list of Drain Holes:
Editing a Drain Hole will allow you to set additional options:
The Access Level is the minimum user level required to download files from the hole. This allows you to restrict download access to certain types of user. If a user does not meet the required access level then they will be returned a 404 error page or will be redirected to the configured URL.
The Stop Hot-links option allows you to stop external users from downloading files in the hole. This protection is achieved by analyzing the referring page for a given download - if the referrer is not from your site then the user is sent a 404 error page or redirect to the error URL.
Files
A Drain Hole can contain any number of files and sub-directories.
As with the rest of the plugin, columns are sortable, and data can be searched.
Each file allows you to:
- Edit the file configuration
- Manage version history (by clicking on the version number)
- View download statistics (by clicking on the number of hits or the charts link)
- Create a new version or update from SVN (by clicking on the branch link)
When editing a file you will be shown additional configuration details:
The filename is the actual name of the file and this may differ from the name, which is what will be shown in a download link. If no name is given then the filename will be used. As an extra function, you can insert $version$ into the name and it will be replaced with the file's current version.
The description is a free-form field allowing you to enter further details about the download. This can be shown when the file is displayed.
The SVN field allows you to enter an SVN repository. See the SVN section later.
When displaying a file to download, an icon can be shown. You can change which icon is shown when editing a file.
The MIME type allows you to specify a custom MIME type for the file. This may be useful if you want a file to open inside the browser. If set to 'automatic' then Drain Hole will try and decide what the file is.
Forcing a download allows you to override default browser behaviour and force the file to always be downloaded. This is useful if you have a file that a browser usually tries to open (for example, a PDF), but you want it to always be downloaded.
Forcing the access level is an advanced option that is useful if you are trying to restrict files that are used inside Flash. For example, you may have a video tutorial that you want to restrict to registered users only. The flash video player requires your video file to be available, but may not provide any restriction options. Storing the video inside Drain Hole and then forcing the access level will ensure that only allowed users can access the file, even inside Flash.
Adding new files
New files can be added by any of these methods:
- Uploading a file directly into the Drain Hole directory and 'rescanning'
- Uploading a file through the browser
- Creating an empty file which can be uploaded later, or which requires an SVN repository
Versions
Drain Hole allows you to retain old versions of files, either for archiving purposes or for user downloads. To modify a file's version you need to create a new branch:
You can enter details about the reason for the new version, and this will be presented to the end user. To retain an old version you must check 'retain old version'. This old version can be downloaded as follows:
http://urbangiraffe.com/download/myplugin.zip?version=1.2
SVN
Drain Hole provides simple SVN functionality that allows you to associate a file with an SVN repository. A file that uses SVN can then be 'refreshed' directly from the SVN repository, rather than requiring you to manually update the file.
SVN functionality requires that you have SVN installed on your host. You must configure the Drain Hole options and provide the full path to the svn executable. If you are in doubt you should consult your host for details.
When an SVN-based file is refreshed, Drain Hole will use SVN to retrieve the latest copy of the files. If a repository contains multiple files they will be automatically zipped.
As additional functionality, Drain Hole will detect if the SVN repository is for a WordPress plugin, and will automatically set the version according to the version information inside the plugin.
Note that no direct capabilities are provided for username and passwords. However, you can pass a username and password to SVN by including it on the SVN field:
http://svn.mysite.com/plugin/trunk/ --username=john --password=thing
Download Tags
The following tags can be inserted inside posts and pages to embed Drain Hole information. This information is generated dynamically, and will change whenever the underlying information changes:
[drain hole ID hits]- Displays the total number of hits from the specified hole ID[drain hole ID show]- Show a list of all files in the specified hole (change display code by copyingview/drain-hole/show_hole.phpfrom the Drain Hole plugin directory to the same directory path in your theme's directory and editing the file)[drain file ID show template]- Displays the download template for the specified file ID. 'template' is optional and can be ignored (the default template will be used)[drain file ID version]- Displays the version of the specified file[drain file ID versions limit]- Displays the specified number of versions from the file's history[drain file ID hits]- Displays the total downloads for the specified file[drain file ID url name]- Displays a URL allowing the specified file to be downloaded. 'name' is optional and is the text that will appear inside the download link (if not specified then the filename is used)[drain file ID updated]- Displays the update time of the specified file[drain file ID size]- Displays the size of the specified file[drain file ID icon]- Displays the download icon for the specified file[drain file ID href]- Displays the URL of the file
Where ID refers to the ID of the file or hole, as shown in the Drain Hole administration pages.
Download Templates & File Icons
A download template is a section of HTML code that is used to display all the information for a file download. For example, on this page in the top right corner is the download for Drain Hole itself. The icon and file information are all part of a download template that is re-used on each of the other plugin pages available from this site.
A download template is a file that is stored in your theme directory and contains standard HTML as well as special Drain Hole template tags:
$icon$$url$$version$$updated$$size$$href$
These template tags function similar to the post & page tags, but do not require an ID to be specified.
A default template is provided with Drain Hole. Custom templates are PHP files that are stored in view/drain-hole, inside your theme directory. For example, if you are using the default WordPress theme then:
/wp-content/themes/default/view/drain-hole/mytemplate.php
To use this template in a post you would insert the tag:
[drain file 5 show mytemplate]
This tells Drain Hole to use 'mytemplate.php' to display file 5.
Custom icons can be stored inside your theme:
/wp-content/themes/default/view/drain-hole/icons/
Statistics
Drain Hole provides full download statistics:
FAQ
If you have any questions or problems then please consult the Drainhole FAQ before posting here.
Support
Please direct all support questions to the Drain Hole support forum. Any support questions left on this page may not be answered.
Bugs & New Features
A full list of all bugs can be found in the Drain Hole issue tracker.
| Date | Current outstanding bugs | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Nov 2008 | Error 404 & Chart timeout |
A full list of all requested features can be found in the Drain Hole feature tracker.
| Date | Current requested features |
|---|---|
| 14 Sep 2008 | Multi-stage download |
| 07 Oct 2008 | Paypal access |
| 03 Nov 2008 | limited access to drain hole(s) |
| 08 Nov 2008 | Link to Amazon S3 |
Comments (page 14 of 31)
Nov 23, 2007 9:49 pm
Hi,
I am try using your Drain Hole Plug in.
but I having problem with the files. when I klik to download, there a error message, the request url not found.
I put the file in download directory, on the root.
my setting is :
url : /http//www.funkymovie.com/download --> is it right ?
directory : /home/okabija/download
i have rescan the directory, and found 1 file (I only put 1 file).
but why the file can't be found ? where is my mistake ?
thanks very much for the reply
Nov 21, 2007 11:45 am
All, Has anyone done any editing with the show_hole.php file to parse through the files and list them in two even columns? Before I go off and spend time figuring it out, I just wanted to make sure I am not reinventing the wheel.
Thanks,
Drew
Nov 21, 2007 7:19 am
I got it working eventually, sorry for the n00b spam.
(PS it might be worth saying explicitly in the documentation that you don't create your "downloads" directory, as opposed to the directory you are really storing your files in. That had me confused for a while.)
Nov 21, 2007 6:29 am
Update: I created a new drain hole and now am getting a different error:
WordPress database error: [You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '/filename.foo' at line 1]
SELECT * FROM wp_DLM_DOWNLOADS WHERE id=/filename.foo;
Download does not exist!
Is that a rogue backslash b0rking the download somehow?
Nov 21, 2007 6:12 am
Hello, I get the following DB error using the latest version of the plugin on Wordpress 2.2.3:
WordPress database error: [Unknown column 's' in 'where clause']
SELECT * FROM wp_DLM_DOWNLOADS WHERE id=s/filename.foo;
Download does not exist!
Deleting and reactivating Drain Hole did not work. My hole is set up with the correct paths (Drain Hole admin sees the files etc). Any advice as to what might be going on here?
Thanks,
SP
Nov 20, 2007 9:51 pm
Hey Guys,
I am eager to get drain hole working and to donate some money once I know it does what I need it to do
I have installed the plugin, and just tried to 'Add a file' using the 're-scan'
when I hit re-scan I get a loop of:
warning: escapeshellcmd() has been disabled for security reasons in /home/finitofi/public_html/wp-content/plugins/drain-hole/models/hole.php on line 327
any ideas?
Cheers!
Adam
Nov 19, 2007 5:24 am
Understood. DH is by far one of the best WP download managers around, just wanted to post up an FYI for anyone else who happens to be seeing the same problems when I noticed nobody else had mentioned it.
Nov 19, 2007 5:18 am
Rirath, I'm not denying you don't have a problem, or that it isn't caused by Drain Hole. However, I only have a limited amount of time to track down bugs, and in most cases the problem can be attributed to something outside of my control. As you can imagine this is a huge drain on my time. Given that I've reproduced the steps you described and saw no problem at all, and that no one else has reported this, then I can only assume something else must be involved. This may be a head-in-the-sand approach, but it's the only one that time allows.
Until I can reproduce the problem myself it's not something I can fix. In this instance testing on multiple computers wouldn't do anything other than prove that IE is consistent. Have you tested on a fresh WordPress installation? What environment is WordPress running under? Do you have a URL I can download from to test it myself?
If there is a problem with Drain Hole then I'm more than willing to fix it, and it will be a lot more preferable than forcing people to keep changing files everytime I update the plugin. If you can help towards making Drain Hole better then I do appreciate it.
Nov 19, 2007 4:43 am
John: it's your call of course, but I'm fairly certain of both bugs I've reported (tested on more than one computer, by more than one user), and I'm also fairly certain of the fixes. While the file appears to download fine, the headers are screwed up because of the no-cache line. This is a documented problem by Microsoft, though usually pertaining to PDF files. As for affecting other pages, I can only report what I find.
All I can say is if anyone else if having the same issues, commenting out the lines I mention works for me.
Nov 19, 2007 12:44 am
Erik, the plugin is WordPress 2.2+ only.
George, my name's John, not Daniel! I'm confused as to why you had to read all 130 comments. The above page is up-to-date and says nothing about needing the Redirection plugin. The comments are shown in reverse order, so the latest issues are shown first - there should be no need to start from comment 1 and make your way through the entire history of Drain Hole (which has changed substantially and will contain a lot of now-irrelevant information). You are correct that the description tag is not documented (it is now), but the hits one is detailed above. I've fixed an issue regarding hotlink protection.
Lee, Drain Hole does allow the URL and directory to be different (and doesnt require any redirecting). In fact, the whole point of the plugin is that they are different. See if the above hotlink fix changes anything for you.
Rirath, I've tried forcing files to be downloaded through IE and it works fine. Judging by the errors I would say that the problem is somewhere else - it should be impossible for Drain Hole to affect another page you browse to. You could try disabling all other plugins and see if anything is affecting Drain Hole
Tomsn, the .htaccess file has to be in the directory where your files are stored. This is only necessary if the directory can be accessed from public_html
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