[Forum] Question about exporting or calling attachments from vbulletin

[Numbus]

I have a question for my fellow vbulletin users. I am unaware how many of you actually hold forums with bigger amount of attachments. But something has been bugging me for a while. I want to be able to create either an API link to the attachment database of my forum or even better find a way to export attachments (preferably based upon thread) in the their original format. So not .attach.

I been planning on doing this for a good 8 years now, however every time other things came in between so I never really fully investigated into this matter untill now. But I noticed that much like before in the vb 2.0 and vb3.0 there is still no actual vbulletin tool that allows you to export (or atleast I have not found it). Most suggest to just put the attachments in the database and call them like that or 'just' download the attachments you want to use. The problem with this is, is that my forum holds 1.500.000+ attachments collectively being 1.4TB in size. So just putting it in the Database ain't really an option, nor is just saving them off sadly enough (or I would).

Is there anyone here that knows by any chance a way to export these files (preferable on bases of a thread but can also be in general aslong the .attach gets converted to the right extension). Or is there anyway that knows or this is possible through the vbulleting API and just integrate another website with the attachments of vbulletin?

[AusPhotography]

The .attach file is in the original format, it just needs to be renamed.
Eg. the filename in the attachment table is the original file name.
The type is stored in the filedata table.

[Andy]

I want to be able to create either an API link to the attachment database of my forum or even better find a way to export attachments (preferably based upon thread) in the their original format. So not .attach.

When you say export attachments, what exactly would you like to do? Sounds like if a thread has say 20 attachments, clicking a link would pop up a window and you would be able to select a folder on your hard drive where the 20 attachments would be downloaded to. Is this correct?

[Numbus]

The .attach file is in the original format, it just needs to be renamed.
Eg. the filename in the attachment table is the original file name.
The type is stored in the filedata table.

So basically you even though saved as file data, just use the Database to pull the files up under another script (adaptions made to this of course) like a gallery script. As that is pretty much what the problem is right now, I want to get a better system, a tag system with thumbnails displaying for better searching of all the content. I can link the tags separately to a picture as long I can access the files properly as well. I will investigate this further.

When you say export attachments, what exactly would you like to do? Sounds like if a thread has say 20 attachments, clicking a link would pop up a window and you would be able to select a folder on your hard drive where the 20 attachments would be downloaded to. Is this correct?

Well in a way yes, you can already do that with the native attachment function of vbulletin like the paperclip (try loading a thread with 30,000 attachments that way lol). But more like a general dump basically. All the files exported in .jpg or compressed format based on a thread. In a unique folder (thread title for example)/filename. Is more like what I am looking for. Or like mentioned above, linking the vbulletin DB with another script that allows me to access the files uploaded on the forum and display them also in a gallery script for example.

[Andy]

Well in a way yes, you can already do that with the native attachment function of vbulletin like the paperclip (try loading a thread with 30,000 attachments that way lol). But more like a general dump basically. All the files exported in .jpg or compressed format based on a thread. In a unique folder (thread title for example)/filename. Is more like what I am looking for. Or like mentioned above, linking the vbulletin DB with another script that allows me to access the files uploaded on the forum and display them also in a gallery script for example.

I'm still confused what you would like to do. Please provide an example of how one of your members would use this function.