WF-Downloads History This page will describe important feature changes based on versions. For a complete list of all bugs squashed and every single change please click on changelog.

Version 3.00rc1 & 3.10

- Performance and server utilisation improvements

  By rewriting a lot of those querries accessing the database the module should now perform significantly faster and cause much less load on your server.

- New mirror system

  A new way for mirror handling was introduced. Now you can have more than one mirror for every file. The mirrors are listed on a separate page and will if activated show if the server is up. It does also allow you to enter additional information for the mirror server like a title and location.

- Improved file security

  In the past your options to protect your files from being linked to were limited to the referrer check which caused problems for users that disabled referrers in their browser. With version 3.10 we introduce a new way of protection against other sites stealing your files. (actually two ways)

  First: Files are now stored under a different name internally if you upload them with the module. When sent back to the user the original name will be restored. The real link is not displayed to the user anywhere.

  Second: Files can now be stored outside of your website root. So there is no way of pointing to that file from the outside even if anyone would know the filename. To explains this a bit: Assume this is your server structure:

  - ..
  - example directory
  - htmdocs (containing your Xoops installation)
  -- uploads (containing your uploads)

  Now lets assume your domain www.sitexy.com is pointing to htmdocs. Now the first directory level accessible from the outside is htmdocs where your xoops installation is placed. No one is able to access the lower directories which are on the same or lower level as htmdocs. Beginning with version 3.10 you are now able to put WF-Downloads uploads directory anywhere on your server outside of htmdocs. Therefore it can only be accessed by the server now. Your folder structure could now look like this:
  - ..
  - example directory
  - htmdocs (containing your Xoops installation)
  - uploads (now outside of your Xoops installation)

  Please note that both features (if you are updating from a previous version) will only affect all new files from that moment in time forward. All currently existing files will still remain in the old uploads folder and be handled accordingly.

- Change in update routine

  Updating the module should now be aesier than in previous versions. Now you just upload the new module version and update the module in the Xoops module management and everything is done. If you want to convert from MyDownloads to WF-Downloads you install the module as usual and then click on Import data in the WF-Downloads admin area.

- Removal of some features

  In the process of the rewrite some features were removed from the module. This was done either to improve performance or because the features were relying on specific other module versions installed. Namely removed were: Add Discuss in this Forum? , Create News Story From Download and also file based permissions

- Change to only category based permissions

  In the past you could set group permissions for categories and then also for files. Now this has been reduced to only category permissions. If you used the file permissions in the past you will have to review your files and make sure the category permissions are set correct to determine access to the people you want. This decision was made mainly for performance reasons but also the fact that file permissions within an existing category based on permissions is somewhat overkill anyway and becomes rather confusing after some time.

- Bread crumb system added

  Similiar to the other Smart modules the bread crumb system was now added to WF-Downloads. For example if you browse through WF-Downloads you can now see your current path at the top. Example: WF-Downloads > Category 1 > Subcategory 3
  This will allow easier navigation within the module.