PunBB Forums — Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Frank H) — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 18:19:01 +0000

You can upgrade to new PunBB, but attachments won't work just yet, just make sure you keep the old attachments tables, so you don't loose any data ... and just add it when it's released (and the mod-upgrader will move the attachments from database to disk storage when installing it)
(and perhaps have a 'clone' of the old forum on a computer without access from outside, so you can fetch attachments from it if needed)

Edit: The updater works now, just tested it with 2MB of attachments ... and it looks ok aswell ... it's running similar to the prune Rickard had in earlier versions, javascript refreshes the page when X number of attachments has been converted. the PHP directive to make the execusion time longer, might not work, as Apache also has limits on CGI scripts, so I went with the javascript version (+ manual link if javascript isn't used, but then one have to sit by the computer to click a few times )
Found a couple of bugs aswell (simple ones, but still neccessary to fix), has fixed the documentation so I think it holds relevant and accurate information. I'm currently taking a cup of coffee and looking on all my querys ... hopefully it'll be expoit free when released

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (iku) — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 17:21:20 +0000

Hmm. Since there have been A LOT of vulnerabilities in punbb recently I cannot run the old version (1.1.x) anymore and I cannot upgrade since there isn't attachment mod available (which is necessary in my case). So the only solution is to disable it from the three hosts I'm running punbb and maybe re-enable it later on when new fixed punbb release is available with the attachment mod.

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (tandroy) — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 04:59:06 +0000

Eagerly awaiting this mod.

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Gardell) — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 22:29:38 +0000

Yeah, it would be great if we could get this soon.. Expected it for two months now..

We've been waiting for this since the PM mod came. In january we were about to start something up that folks have been waiting for.. but we choosed to wait for all the mods.. If we only had predicted this...

Oh, well. Thanks for what you're doin', love your work.

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Frank H) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 20:10:12 +0000

hopefully less than a year? ... nah kidding ... if it's not out within a month I'll defenetly let you all pick a stick and hit me with it ...

nah ... shouldn't be too long ... but univ takes first prio ...but I need to upgrade my forums ... so I need it aswell ... but I don't want to release something with huge bugs/security issues that can be used to destroy a complete forum ... so I'm trying to cover all those things ...

(and releasing betas etc usually just cause more work ... as if something needs changing one need to upgrade those things aswell )

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Dexus) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 19:16:21 +0000

Got it.
And when it will be released?
About week/month/couple_of_monthes/half_a_year/year?

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Frank H) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 18:38:41 +0000

install is the same for both ...just that those that used the old one need to run the upate script before opening the board public again (so that there won't be id collisions)

not as uploaded, they use random (and unique) names, the database handles what they are supposed to be called (as the mod goes through a php file for filetransfer, just like in the old mod, only difference is that the data is fetched from a file instead of a row in the databasetable)
(did it this way as if someone is stupid enough to put the files on a place where browsers can reach, it should be as hard as possible to bruteforce to find files, and if the files doesn't follow another pattern than random characters), and the files are also stored in subfolders named in random manner aswell...

"oier890325sd09345rwherwoier35s6y.attach" might a file be called on the filesystem ... but, the script opens that file and transfer the info over to the browser with the correct name

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Dexus) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:49:21 +0000

Frank, and what about those who haven't 1.0 version, and have no need to "upgrade". Just set it up on pure punbb... They could be able to use it before those who have a "migration script"

And one question about filename of stored files. How they will be named? As uploaded? If so, what if there is already that filename stored? If not - will they be renamed as template like '_post_'.$last_filenum.$extension and simply "select id, real_filename, author, date from attachment_list " table ?
This is "plugin/mod", people really need. So don't delay beta/release

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Frank H) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:11:55 +0000

Connorhd is right, everything was stored in the database in the first attachment mod, now the data is stored on disk, so I've needed to create an update script that will update the old mod to the new one ... so it will be compatible with the old one, so, no worries about loosing data (as long as you backup before trying to upgrade ) (the update script will take the old table data, and put the data onto a file, and put in the info about it in the new table 'version')

And also, this new way of storage will help ease backups ... as one only need to fetch new files (if attachments are deleted, the database entry is removed, and the file on disk is shrunk to 0 bytes... but the file is still there, so that no new attachments will use the same filename = only need to download new files when making backups )

And, if someone would like to make FTP storage instead of filestorage, I think it won't be that hard (need to replace one function for saving the attachment, and the script that downloads it needs to be fiddled with ... )... but I won't make it

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Connorhd) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:00:37 +0000

no, thats why the upgrade script is complicated as it will not store the files in SQL or at least thats what i thought

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (iku) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:48:53 +0000

Okay..

I assume from what you said that it will use the same method as the earlier version? One attachment per post that goes to SQL? So it's totally compatible with the old one?

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Frank H) — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 15:40:52 +0000

just because I'm quiet, doesn't mean it's not progressing... most hurdels are fixed ... had to skip using a plugin to update the attachments (didn't get $_GET variables to work with plugins) ... so I've written the updating script in it's own file ... fixed a couple of bugs, and rewritten the readme.txt (once again ) ... the updater isn't entirely finished, but I think all the important stuff in it is ok, but I must do some testing before I know it's ok ... one of my forums has about 350MB of data in ~1400 attachments, and I'll clone that and use it as a testbench for the updater ... fairly large, and enough of files to spot any problems... I hope

I decided that I won't 'update' forum rules, as I haven't figured out a good way to make sure the rules will be correct with the new usergroup system ... so all forumrules needs to be added after install...

Either way ... I've put in an effort to make this mod as complete as possible, and I'd guess that there won't be any new complete rewrites on this in the near future, probably most small updates, for more features (like supporting resume, for download managers(I skipped it in this release, as I haven't got any tools to debug it )), or ... hmm... something else

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (iku) — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 17:59:03 +0000

Frank: How about releasing the code as it is so someone can take over and submit the rest back to you or something like that? The mod clearly isn't progressing (or then I'm blind) and many people need it..

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (erissiva) — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:03:29 +0000

Connorhd wrote:

don't worry about it (but do force yourself to fix it )

*roffles*
Kind of like I need to force myself to get 1.2.4 with my hacks running on my test server.

Re: Attachment Mod 1.0.1 by Frank H

null@example.com (Connorhd) — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:00:05 +0000

don't worry about it (but do force yourself to fix it )