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This announcement discusses a new download system being implemented on The GTA Place, please read through it thoroughly and leave any suggestions and comments you have. Thanks. The downloads system here at The GTA Place which we have been using for a good 3 years now is in need of a major overhaul. We are currently using a very heavily modified (by myself) version of paFileDB 3.1, a freely available script which has since received a number of upgrades to improve its features. We of course haven't upgraded, we can't, because I've modded it so much it would just break everything. Having said that, we do need to upgrade, but we are going to move away from paFileDB, instead we're going to take out what useful code there is (not a lot tbh) and then just code the rest ourselves. Now I refer to "we" rather than just myself... normally it would just be me doing all the coding, but I'm hoping that Jared can help us out with this project, and indeed he did start a few months ago on some coding, since then both of us have been too busy to carry on with it. By the summer I'd say we'd definitely be finished, just how soon before then I don't know. Below is a quick summary of the new features, followed by a bit about the current system and why we need to change, and then an in depth discussion of all the shiny new features. Summary of new features and improvements Integration with the forums Advanced searching options Quick download Author pages Improved rating system More detailed file pages Comment system Multiple screenshots for each mod Report broken mod form Submit your own mods The Current System (bad) At the moment the features we have are quite limited. So we have categories and sub-categories, and are able to add files to them, have a short and long description, author name, version number, 1 screenshot and 1 file. You can see the number of downloads it's had, the file size, and you have links to download it. On a separate page you can rate the mod, you can also email it to a friend. It's annoying having to go to a separate page to rate the mod, and the email to a friend feature isn't used very much (I think), as most people tend to pass links around in forums and on instant messengers these days. Occasionally I would dare say some people abuse the system and send to loads of people for no reason or spam it. When searching, you put in some text and it searches virtually every field in the file records, there's no way of narrowing down your search. Results are listed all on one page with just a category name next to them - This is not very useful at all. That's about all I need to say for that, on to the new system... New System (good) The way you navigate the downloads will be largely the same, but will be significantly more intuitive and a lot easier/quicker than before. Categories and sub-categories will all remain the same as there is nothing wrong with them. Game logo icons may be added to the main ones so it is clear which game you are browsing for (mainly useful for searches which return results for mods for more than one game). File Listing When viewing the list of files in a category, you'll have the option to "Quick Download" the file. A link you can click which downloads the file immediately, bypassing the file page altogether. Clearer Dates The current system uses American style dates and times which is confusing to most of our visitors from Europe and Australia-based regions and indeed many other countries which have the day first rather than the month. Instead we'll be using short dates (abbreviations). e.g. 6th Jan 2006, or something similar. File Rating The current system uses a number out of 10. We will be using a maximum rating of 5 in the new one (based on stars) and we will be halving all current ratings so that previous ratings aren't lost in the changeover. It will now be clearer how good a file is based on the number of stars it has (hovering your mouse over them will show how many ratings the file has received - So if you see it has 1 star and hover over it to find out it only has 1 rating, you know that this is just 1 person's opinion, whereas if you find it has 1 star but 20 people have rated it, you know that it is probably not a very good mod. Searching Searching will be far more advanced than before. Unfortunately it's the most complicated thing to code. However we are hoping for the following abilities and features: Search by file name, or description (using tickboxes to select which ones, or both) Search by author name Advanced options will include selecting a specific category or categories Sort options: by file name, rating, date added, author name, or # of comments. Ascending or Descending. Flood control for guests - if you are not logged in you can only do X searches every X seconds (probably 1 search every 60 seconds) After you've performed a search, the results will be displayed on pages (rather than one huge long list). A game icon will be displayed to the left of the file name, representing the game it is for (in the case of tools for multiple games such as IMGTool, a toolbox will be shown). The next column will be the file name itself which links to the file page and the description will be underneath. Each row will of course have a number of columns each with more details about the file, they will contain the following: Author name with a link to their profile page. # of stars (rating). Date added. # of downloads. # of comments. (# of screenshots/files - not sure about this one) Integration with The GTA Place Forums As you've probably realised from some of the things I've mentioned above. We are trying to get the system implemented to the forums, i.e. to use the member database etc. Some of the features members can do are the following: Leave comments on mods, just like as if you were posting on the forums. (comments will not increase your post count) Upload your own mods Edit your own mods (screenshots, file, description etc.) - this will come at a later date Author Pages Each mod author will have their own author page (and before you ask, mods with multiple authors will be able to have each author linked individually). This page will be based on their member ID on the forums, so for example, /downloads/author.php?id=2 would be the page for me (Chris) as that is my member ID on these forums. Mod authors who aren't members on the forum will also have a page but linked differently, you won't need to know about this. Each author's page will have the following: # of mods by this author (link to page of them) total # of downloads this authors mods have had Average file rating Some forum profile data (along with link to forum profile) Link to website (if available) File Pages Viewing a mod will be largely the same as in the old system, with a few more details, and a slightly modified layout making it all easier to read. New features and/or improvements are: # of file views. Rate file directly on the page (rather than having to click through to a new one - this should mean more people decide to vote, thus giving a better indication of how good the mod is. Multiple screenshots. Thumbnails will be shown of each one, linking to the full version. Remove email to friend feature Add 'Report this Mod' button (allows you to notify admins if it: contains a virus, file is corrupt, file doesn't exist etc.) And I think that's just about everything you need to know. If you have any suggestions or comments about it then please leave them here. Thanks! I'll try and post updates whenever progress is made. Checklist Main stuff Show categories Show files Show rating as stars View all files View statistics Quick download View a file View author profile View authors files View authors contributions Majorly Improved Search Engine (yay finally!) Rate a file (no AJAX yet) Comment system (this will be added at a later date) Show thumbnails of screenshots Report file Sort list of files by name/downloads/author/rating/date Thumbnail view option when browsing files [*]User CP View my files Upload a file Upload screenshots Add a file Edit my files [*]Admin CP Add/Edit/delete category Add/Edit/delete file Add/Edit author Upload file Upload screenshots Change settings Approve/Unapprove mods View/Update Reported Mods [*]Tutorials with Screenshots Install a GTA3 mod (manual) Install a GTAVC mod (manual) Install a GTASA mod (manual) Install a GTAVC mod using VCMM Install a GTASA mod using SAMI Install a GTA3 or GTAVC mod using GMI Install a GTA3 or GTAVC or GTASA mod using GGMM