Download Handler

User Manual

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General		Control Panel
Overview Quick Start File Size Publishing Download Count Lost Password		Set Up a Download Get Links Edit / Delete Statistics / Export Log Out

Entire manual in one web page.

Overview

Any file in the document root directory and subdirectories on the server can be downloaded with . The download file name may be different than the file name on the server. Each downloadable file has its own record so changes can be made easily.

Each download record may contain tags (keywords). Tags can be used to find records for editing or deleting and to select download records for statistics or download record exporting.

A private note can be typed into the record.

The control panel provides a copy and paste download link URL for each download setup. It also provides a quick count URL that optionally may be used to publish the total downloads for that downloadable file.

Each downloadable file has its own download count.

Using the admin control panel, download statistics and download data exports can be obtained for individual downloadable files or several as a group.

can handle dozens, hundreds, even thousands of individual downloadable files. There is no built-in limit.

Quick Start

Set up a file download record with the "Set Up a Download" menu item. You'll need to know the location of the file on the server that will be downloaded.

When the setup is completed, the control panel will display the download link URL and the quick count link URL. (Both of those can also be obtained with the "Get Links" menu item.)

Use the download link URL to publish the download link where people can click on it.

Using the quick count link URL is optional. It can be used to publish the total downloads for the specific downloadable file.

Use the "Statistics / Export" menu item to see how many downloads have occurred.

File Size

can handle reasonable download file sizes on most hosting accounts. Perhaps even what some would consider unreasonable sizes if your server is configured to allow it.

Generally, file sizes of hundreds of megabytes can be processed, perhaps even several gigabytes.

Two things determine the maximum file size that can be downloaded:

The download speed of the person's Internet connection.
The maximum execution time specified in the PHP configuration file.

If the file size is larger than the download speed multiplied by the maximum execution time, the download will fail.

Test the download link of large files with the slowest Internet connection you can find to see how the server performs.

Publishing a Download Count

When the "Get Links" menu item is used or when a download has been successfully set up, a download link URL and a quick count link URL are provided. This section is about how to use the quick count link URL.

The quick count link URL can be used in two ways, both optional.

The quick count link URL can be copied and pasted into a browser's address bar. Click enter/return, and the total number of downloads will be printed in the browser window.

Thus, you can use the URL for your own quick count or give it to someone with an interest in always having the total download count available.
The download count can be printed on a PHP web page if your installation of PHP is configured to accept http://... URLs in the readfile() function. Here is the code:
```
<?php readfile("_________"); ?>
```
Replace _________ with the quick count link URL.

To test whether or not your PHP installation accepts http://... URLs in the readfile() function, give it a try. Make a file named test.php with the above code in it, put it on your server, and see if it works.

If it does not work, your hosting company can change the PHP configuration file. Specifically, allow_url_fopen needs to be set to "1" in the php.ini file. Here is a reference, should they ask for one: http://www.php.net/manual/en/filesystem.configuration.php

Lost Password

Should the control panel password be forgotten, it can be found on your server.

In the /software/downloadhandler/screenshots directory (where is installed) is a file named DownloadHandler_config.php

In that file, look for a line something like this:

$PasswordForControlPanel = "PASSWORD";

Between the quotation marks, where PASSWORD is in the above example, is the control panel password.

Set Up a Download

Use the "Set Up a Download" menu item to set up a file for downloading. The set-up accepts the following information:

A title.

Give the download record a title. "Product package ZIP file" for example. A title is optional. However, it is easier to find the setup for editing and obtaining statistics when it has an expressive title.

Location of downloadable file.

This is the only required field.

The location of the downloadable file is where the file is located on the server, the directory path and file name.

The location can be determined by the file's URL. Remove the http:// and domain name and the location is left. Example: http://example.com/secret/file.zip is at location /secret/file.zip

Downloaded file name.

Optionally, specify a file name for the download, the file name the browser suggests when the user is prompted to save the download. The specified name may be different than the original name of the downloadable file.

If no name is specified, the file defaults to the original name for download.

Tags

Tags or key words may be specified to help find the setup record in the database for editing, exporting, or getting statistics.

Tags can help find records to group with other records for statistics or exporting.

Separate tags with a comma and optional space. (Maximum 255 characters and spaces.)

Private note.

A note may be typed regarding the setup.

Disabled.

After the setup has been created, a "Disabled" checkbox is provided on the record editing page that can be checked to disable a download without deleting the setup from the database.

Get Links

The "Get Links" menu item provides copy and paste download link URLs and quick count link URLs.

Determine the setup records to get links for by using any of the following methods:

Clicking the "List All Records" button.
Selecting the title of the record in a dropdown.
Specifying one or more tags associated with the records.

On the next page, copy the link URLs you want.

Download link URLs are used wherever the download link is to be published.

Quick count link URLs are used wherever the total downloads number is to be published.

The quick count is provided by the script DownloadQuickCount.php, which is a publicly accessible script.

To prevent the quick count script from being used, either

delete DownloadQuickCount.php from the server or
disable file DownloadQuickCount.php by renaming it with a non-executable file name extension. Example: DownloadQuickCount.php_disabled

To make the quick count script private, rename DownloadQuickCount.php to something not easily guessable. The resulting name needs to have a .php extension (name needs to end with ".php"). Afterward, when obtaining Quick Count Link URLs with the "Get Links" control panel menu item, replace "DownloadQuickCount.php" in the URLs with the new script file name.

Edit / Delete

Use the "Edit / Delete" menu item to edit a download setup or to delete setups from the database.

Determine the setup records to find for editing or deleting by using any of the following methods:

Clicking the "List All Records" button.
Selecting the title of the record in a dropdown.
Specifying one or more tags associated with the records.

On the next page, you'll see a list of download setup titles.

A title's "Edit" button can be clicked to edit the setup.

In addition to changing data previously provided, a "Disabled" checkbox is available that can be checked to disable a download without deleting the setup from the database.

When "Disabled" is checked, a URL may be provided where browsers and spiders shall be redirected to when they follow the disabled download link. The default URL is the domain's home page.

The title's checkbox can be checked as the first step to deleting it. The "Delete Checked Records" button needs to be clicked to finalize the deletion.

Statistics / Export

The "Statistics / Export" menu item provides download statistics and the means to export data in download logs.

Statistics and exports can be obtained for the download logs of one or more download files. Download date ranges can be specified. Downloads for duplicate IP addresses can be omitted.

Statistics include totals for each day downloads occurred and totals for individual web pages where the download links are clicked.

Exports are CSV files downloaded from the control panel.

Determine the setup titles to find for statistics or exporting using any of the following methods:

Clicking the "List All Records" button.
Selecting the title of the record in a dropdown.
Specifying one or more tags associated with the records.

On the next page:

Check the checkboxes of the titles to include on the statistics page or in the export file.
Optionally, specify a date range of the download log entries to include in the statistics or export file.
Optionally, suppress duplicate IP addresses by checking the "Yes, omit duplicate IP addresses from counts" checkbox. When this is checked, only the first download log entry of any IP address is applied to the statistics or included in the export file.
Click a button.
- The statistics button creates a page with various statistics.
- The exports button downloads a CSV file.

The Statistics Page

The statistics page contains the following numbers and graphs for each downloadable file. The numbers apply to any specified date range and may be adjusted if duplicate IP addresses were suppressed.

Total downloads: The total downloads.
By Date: A list of dates with number of downloads and bar graph for each.
By Traffic Source: A list of known referring URLs with number of downloads and bar graph for each.

The Export File

The export is a CSV file downloaded from the control panel. It contains data from each download log entry within any specified date range, minus any log entries of duplicate IP addresses if that was specified.

The downloaded CSV file exported from the downloads log contains this information:

Date and time
File name (downloaded file name)
File location (location of downloadable file)
IP address
Referring URL (if available)

The CSV file can be imported into Excel, OpenOffice.org, and other spreadsheet office computer software.

Log Out

When the "Log Out" home page menu item is clicked, the log-in cookie is removed from the browser, even if the "Remember log-in" checkbox was checked when you logged in. A log-in is required to return to the control panel.

Too keep the log-in cookie in the browser, check the "Remember log-in" checkbox when logging in and then do not click the "Log Out" home page menu item. Just close the window instead of clicking "Log Out."

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