File Sharing

[Bacteria Man]

Is there a way (from the user's perspective) to view all file attachments uploaded to a forum? Also, is there a way to upload a file to the system without being associated with a message?

Any suggestions/comments on vBulletin's file sharing capabilities in general would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Floris]

No, currently this is not possible. Nice suggestion though.
A user can only view all the attachments he or she uploaded to all the forums, through the user control panel > view attachments

[Dennis Olson]

Also, is there a way to upload a file to the system without being associated with a message?

There are lots of FTP tools out there to push files up to the server. I have a directory (called "Mbrs_pics") where those kind of things are stored. They can then be referenced directly via a URL.

[Bacteria Man]

Thanks for your replies. I have a follow-up question.

My vB installation is configured (by default) to save attachments in the database. When stored in the file system, where in the directory hierarchy do files reside? Are they all lumped together or in individual folders? What's the naming convention?

[Dennis Olson]

They're all in one folder, the path of which you set in Options. The name is entirely arbitrary. Just make sure vB knows where it is...

[Steve Machol]

You need to specify the full path to a directory on the server that is chmod'd to 777. vB will then create subdirectories for attachments based on userids.

[Dennis Olson]

Really! Damn, I learn something new here every day. So all attachments are stored in subd's by userID?

[Steve Machol]

Yes. So attachments for user 1111, the directory will be:

.../attachments/1/1/1/1/

[Bacteria Man]

What prevents someone without the proper permissions of hot-linking a file? In other words, if they know the absolute URL?

[Dennis Olson]

Nothing.

[Steve Machol]

Actually they would have to know the exact location of the attachment on the serveer and since all the uploaded files have an 'attach' extension, it would not be obvious what it is they are downloading.

However it is easy to stop even this. Just place your attachment directory above the root web directory and it will not be accessible from the web.

[Bacteria Man]

Just place your attachment directory above the root web directory and it will not be accessible from the web.

That's a excellent point! I believe Apache (and probably most other web servers) can be configured to prevent hot linking as well.