vBulletin LTS

AME 2.5 - Media Embedding for posts, sigs, vm's, groups and blogs
Mod Version: 2.5.6, by The Geek

From the makers of the letters O and Yea comes the hottest 'must have mod' of the season: AME 2.5 - The Return of The Hot Mama.


AME is the multi award winning modification that smartly scans new and edited posts for URLs from a customisable variety of web sites (i.e. YouTube or Amazon or about 200 others). If it finds a match, AME will 'transform' the URL into inline embedded media without your users ever having to even think about it.

It was important for me to create a system that did not need updating (and subsequent reinstalling) every time one of the sites it supported decided to change the way it displayed its media (which is all the fricken time). Therefore I built a system in which the 'definitions' for each site could be imported, exported, tweaked and shared on a whim. This way, you only have to import the definitions that you want. It also allows the vB community to get creative and share definitions that I wouldn't of thought of!

Which sites are supported?

Included in the default installation is YouTube and Amazon. At time of posting this, I believe that there are over 180 sites supported that have been created by the vBulletin community. These range from sites that stream videos to Amazon referral links to locally hosted music and video files.

Check out the 'add ons' section of this post below to see availible add-ons.

For a total list of features and an FAQ, see click here

Spoiler (click to open)

I hate long first posts, so I thought I would reserve this one for the Features and FAQ

Features:

• Allows user to simply 'paste' in a URL (i.e. a youtube link) without needing to know any special tags. However instead of displaying just the URL, it will show the media embedded within the post
• is lightweight as it does all of her chores without the overhead of having 1 bbcode per pattern or trying to parse a post every single time it gets displayed with a bunch of patterns. AME radically reduces overhead and speeds up processing. The only time ame will kick in is after creating a new post or after editing an existing one (or if an ame tag is found)
• is extensible. She allows you to add, edit, delete, import and export patterns. That way you can decide which services to support, how they should look and then share them with others! At time of typing this, there are over 150 media sites that have been contributed by vBulletin.org members
• can extract the media title (requires your server to allow url wrappers with fetch_contents or ccurl)
• can extract embed code from sites whose URLs do not contain sufficient information to embed the video
• can rebuild your old posts to convert your 'other' mediaish tags into URL tags.
• can rebuild your old posts, blogs, comments, visitor and social group messages to convert URL tags into ame tags where needed
• can convert her codes BACK to url codes so you're not stuffed with a bunch of dead tags if you uninstall!
• won't uglify your site by having videos appear in quotes, php, code or html blocks (blech!)
• can be globally disabled
• can be excluded from forums
• can exclude usergroups
• can be toggled on/off per post, blog, comment, visitor and social group message
• would cook dinner for you if she had arms
• can wrap the output in a 'container' with original URL
• has a super comprehensive admincp help system. Yes, I actually took the bloody time to add all the info you need into vB's admincp help system. If you ask a silly question in this thread that is addressed in the help system, you will be taunted.
• is fully phrased
• has hooks around integral operations so you can extend it
• Supports embedding in vbBlog, Visitor Messages and Social Groups.
• Can be disabled in one or more of the following sections: Posts, vbBlog, Visitor Messages and/or Social Groups
• Validation ability. This will help prevent media being embedded that can not be embedded (i.e. youtube videos that the author has stipulated can not be shown off of youtube). This option requires the extraction option to be turned on and a valid validation regexp. I have included one in the default youtube version. When a video on you tube gets embedded, but the author doesnt allow embedding, a link (with icon) is shown instead.
• Ability to prevent non authorised usergroups from viewing (see Readme file in zip for more info)
• Usergroup permissions (edit usergroup to adjust edit/view permissions)
• Template driven system
• Signatures supported
• Different sizes and template configurations for each supported zone (posts, blogs, groups, visitor messages and signatures)
• A couple new hooks (Mainly to support a future add on for AME media in profiles)
• Notfication system (similar to vB's to check for errors)
• Definition keys for easier updating of definitions and to use in templates
• File caching system which radically reduces processing
• And more that I cant think of off the top of my head!

FAQ's

• Can you make me a definition for xyz? Personally, no - I just don't have the time, however there are plenty others that do (Digital Jedi being the grand champion).
• Can I use my definitions from a previous version? You should be fine with many of the definitions for AME 2.0 however many of the new features will not work until the definitions have been updated.

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For a post on troubleshooting, click here

Spoiler (click to open)

Troubleshooting

I keep getting 'doubled up' media or the media is all wacked out.
This is usually caused by duplicate definitions. Check you don't have duplicates. Duplicates are bad.

The video embeds fine, but when I click to start it, it says the video isn't available anymore. Yet, when I click the link, it is! What gives!?! Gief video!
This is because the publisher of the video has disallowed off site embedding. AME has a feature to help prevent this (see next point).

Media won't embed, it just gives the link with an icon after it.
This means that the publisher of the video has disallowed the video to be shown off site. Its actually a feature of AME to do that

I can't see me AME CP or I keep getting errors similar to:Warning: require_once([path]/includes/ame_bbcode.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in blahblahblah

This means that you have not correctly uploaded some (or ALL) of the files in the upload/forums folder. Simply FTP ALL of the contents of the upload/forums folder into your forum directory (as the per the readme).

Here is the file structure of the package:

Code:

+Upload
      + Forums
            + admincp
                  - automediaembed_admin.php
            + amecache
                  - index.html
            + clientscript
                  - ame.js
            + images
                  + misc
                        amazon_icon.gif
                        film_go.png
            + includes
                  ame_bbcode.php
                  + xml
                        bitfield_automediaembed.xml
                        cpnav_automediaembed.xml
                        hooks_automediaembed.xml

If you have tripple checked that the files are there are you are still getting errors, check that the server has permission to execute the files (they should really have the same owner as your other vB files)

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Though not tested on any version of vBulletin lower than 3.7.4, in theory it should work on versions 3.5 and higher (just dont quote this bit!).

Big thanks goes out to all those in the community that have supported this mod. Especially Digital Jedi who gives great support on this mod and has created over 160 definitions for this system alone!

Installation/Upgrade

• Upload the contents of the forums folder into your forums directory and import the product-ame.xml file into your product manager (if upgrading, choose 'yes' to overwrite previous installation).
• After installation, make sure that the system is on (admincp->AME CP->Settings)
• Then you may want to try to rebuild old URLs via the tools option.

Change Log

• 20/1/09 - Uploaded to vb.org
• 22/1/09 - v. 2.5.2. Adresses a couple minor issues and character sets
• 23/1/09 - v. 2.5.3 minor update: Fixed ksort error on import and nomedia display

  Spoiler (click to open)

  
  

  Updated package to 2.5.3
  
  This is a minor update which solves the ksort error some have reported while importing and a bug where non validated media wasnt showing the link.
  
  Upgrade as normal

  
  

  Close
• 3/2/09 - v. 2.5.4 minor update to address rare bug with some page titles

  Spoiler (click to open)

  
  

  Version 2.5.4 has been uploaded.
  
  This is a maintenence realease that addresses a rare bug with some page titles. Apart from version numbers in file headers and the product XML, the only file that has changed is includes/ame_bbcode.php
  
  You can simply replace that file, or upgrade as normal.
  
  nJoy

  
  

  Close
• 3/7/09 - v.2.5.5 minor updates to address rare bug editing media with brackets in name

  Spoiler (click to open)

  
  

  I have just uploaded AME 2.5.5 to address a couple of minor issues. Mainly surrounding editing of existing AME links that contain brackets inside the name. This could (in rare cases) also affect posts with multiple media URLs in them.
  
  I also added another hook to extend additional functionality for media that fails to validate (i.e. a youtube link that doesn't allow external embedding). I do not currently have plans to extend this area further than I have done, but its there
  
  Files changed:
  

  • forums/includes/ame_bbcode.php
  • forums/includes/xml/hooks_automediaembed.xml

  
  I have also updated the ame_nomedia template to add the phrase 'External Embedding Not Available' as the title to the link. This appears if the definition does not validate along with an icon. If you want to make it more obvious to the user that AME is working, but the video won't embed, I suggest playing with that template (or use the new hook).
  
  To upgrade:
  
  Download the latest package
  Unzip and upload the contents of the upload/forums folder into your own forums folder (be sure to upload ALL the files and folders choosing to overwrite existing files).
  Import the product_ame.xml file into your admincp product system (choosing to overwrite existing version)

  
  

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• 9/12/09 - v.2.5.6 minor updates youtubes validation process, a ccurl bug and rebuild not using the date like a good girl

  Spoiler (click to open)

  
  

  Just uploaded 2.5.6 which:

  • Removes Youtube's validation process. This was the source of a lot of fals positives 'no media' links appearing.
  • Fixed a typo which led to ccurl not being used if availible (another source of woe)
  • Fixed a couple other minor things

  
  Note regarding upgrading: If you use the file cache, you MUST rebuild your file cache after upgrading. To do so, upgrade then browse to AME CP > Tools > Resync File Cache.
  
  Regarding 4.0 support: There will be a new version of AME for vb4.0. In fact, I already have a prototype working. It still remains to be seen if as many features can be includeded in this series as the last, but the fundamentals will be there.
  
  v. 2.5.6 discussions start here

  
  

  Close

nJoy