General IP.Downloads Configuration

Displaying Approver Information
IP.Downloads has the option of requiring files to be approved by a moderator before they are shown to users. If you enable this setting, it will show all users who approved the file when it was first submitted.

Version Control
IP.Downloads includes a feature for version control. This allows you to keep a record of all previous versions of the same file. You can control how many previous versions to keep via the ACP as well.
Note: This feature is only supported when storing files on your local server in web accessible or non accessible locations. It is not compatible with FTP storage or database storage.
When enabled on your community, it will show as a sidebar block on the file information page, allowing you to download a previous version, delete a previous version, or restore a previous version as the main download.

Screenshot Popup Style
Files which include screenshots have two ways of being displayed - in a lightbox, or as a new window. A lightbox will load the screenshot as an overlay on the current page, whereas the new window option will pop-up a new browser window with each screenshot.

Configuring the Maximum Filesize
IP.Downloads contains two locations that maximum file size for uploads is defined - as a global default option, and also on a per-category basis. File size can be over-ridden for each category as needed, via the Category Options tab of each category settings page. Maximum file size formats are in KB - If you would like to convert this to MB, here is a helpful conversion tool for these units.

File Storage Locations
IP.Downloads has support for 4 different types of file storage for your files.

• Locally in a web-accessible folder: This is the best choice for almost all users. Unless you have reason not to use this type of storage, it is suggested to use this setting. Files will be stored in a web-accessible folder on your community, such as /home/public_html/files/
• Locally in a non web-accessible folder: Files are stored on the same server, but they are stored above the public_html or other web folder, so that average users cannot guess-and-check the file locations to attempt to download files without permission. If your community contains files for sale or files that are confidential, we suggest using this setting.
• Remote FTP storage: Files are stored on an external file server. This is useful if you have a CDN or other file-storage setup and wish to place download files on a different server from your main web server.
• Database storage: Files are stored in the MySQL database. As noted on the settings page, this option is a last resort, and unless you are sure you need to enable it, we do not suggest doing so. Storing files in the database uses less disk space on the server, however, it is less efficient and will create large SQL database tables.

Options number 2 and number 3 will require you to configure path directories, with paths for /screenshots and /files. These folders will need to have read/write CHMOD permissions (usually 777) so that they can be accessed and new files written to them. You will need to configure the remote file paths and URLs later in the settings before these will work properly.

Note that configuring this only configures off-site storage of IP.Downloads files - if you would like to store attachments and uploads offsite as well, you will need to configure that as well, by following this article.

Enable anti-leech
Anti-Leech systems attempt to detect users who are hotlinking your files from other sites, or are attempting to force downloads from your system. Unless your users are having trouble downloading, we suggest leaving this enabled.