Simple Download Manager for WP Document Revisions
David Decker - DECKERWEB By David Decker - DECKERWEB

November 12, 2019

Simple Download Manager for WP Document Revisions Plugin

Use the WP Document Revisions plugin as very basic & simple download manager with this additional add-on plugin.

ADD-ON PLUGIN for “WP Document Revisions” (WPDR)

Want to offer public file downloads? Just use “WP Document Revisions” plus this little add-on plugin! This small and lightweight add-on plugin just adds a few specific additions to the awesome WPDR base plugin which does all the heavy lifting for you!

For my own projects I needed a new but robust and future-proof plugin with a custom post type solution to replace an old, unsupported download counter plugin. With its many benefits I wanted WPDR as a base foundation for that. Now, that I’ve finally found my solution, I hope it may help you as well :-).

What this Add-On does – General Features

  • All the benefits of “WP Document Revisions” plugin! (see below)
  • Simple, basic download counter included!
  • Use “Downloads” wording instead of “Documents” (changeable via options); plus Downloads icon.
  • 2 additional taxonomies for download files: “File Categories” and “File Tags”.
  • 3 additional Widgets:
    • Display most popular/ accessed Downloads with “Popular Downloads”.
    • Simple taxonomy listings with “Download File Categories / Tags”.
    • To Downloads restricted search with “Search Downloads”.
  • Own plugin settings page.
  • Help tabs included.
  • Fully internationalized!
  • Fully Multisite compatible!

Special Features of this Add-On

  • Full German translations included, formal and informal versions – you can choose via options (default is ‘formal’).

Benefits of using “WP Document Revisions” as the base plugin

  • In general: fantastic plugin, awesome developer! 🙂
  • Really simple, yet very effective! Does just one thing, but does it right!
  • Really secure & robust!
  • Revision management by default.
  • Workflow Status management by default.
  • Uses known WordPress interface – just concentrate on file management :).
  • Extendable via Hooks & Filters – very developer friendly.
  • Support for “Edit Flow” plugin already included.

Requirements

Recommended Settings & Usage Instructions

Third-party compatibility included

  • Genesis Framework: For Child Themes – Display post meta on the frontend for the post type.

Translations

  • English (United States) – en_US = default, always included
  • German (informal, default) – de_DE – always included
  • German (formal) – de_DE_formal – always included
  • .pot file (wpdr-simple-downloads.pot) for translators is always included in the plugin’s ‘languages’ folder 🙂

Be a Contributor

If you want to translate, go to the Translation Portal at translate.wordpress.org.

You can also contribute code-wise via our WP Document Revisions Simple Downloads GitHub Repository – and see where you can help.

Documentation and Support

Liked WP Document Revisions Simple Downloads?

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Donate

Enjoy using WP Document Revisions Simple Downloads? Please consider making a small donation to support the project’s continued development.

Additional Info

Idea Behind / Philosophy: I just needed a simple downloads/ file manager plugin that used a custom post type for management. Since there are no such good download managers out there yet, but with the “WP Document Revisions” plugin there was an awesome solution. It only had few things missing in my opinion if used for public downloads/ file management. So finally, this add-on plugin was born. I hope you also find it useful somehow… 🙂

Credits

My Other Plugins

Installation

Minimum Requirements

  • WordPress version 4.7 or higher
  • Base plugin:WP Document Revisions, latest version
  • PHP version 5.6 or higher
  • MySQL version 5.0 or higher
  • Administrator user with capability manage_options and/or edit_theme_options

We Recommend Your Host Supports at least:

  • PHP version 7.0 or higher
  • MySQL version 5.6 or higher / or MariaDB 10 or higher

Installation

  1. Install using the WordPress built-in Plugin installer (via Plugins > Add New – search for wpdr simple downloads), or extract the ZIP file and drop the contents in the wp-content/plugins/ directory of your WordPress installation.
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
  3. Go to “Documents”/ “Downloads” > Download Settings to set a few options – or just be happy with the default settings 🙂
  4. Go and manage your downloas files 🙂

Recommended Settings:

Go the add-on plugin’s settings page (located under “Documents”/ “Downloads” > Download Settings):

  • Set downloads slug — via WPDR
  • Set upload directory for download files/ documents — via WPDR
  • Use “Downloads” wording instead of “Documents”
  • Use additional taxonomies and widgets
  • Set the preferred translations variant to load

Basic Usage:

  • To insert a download file link into a Post, Page or Custom Post Type, use the regular “Insert Link” feature, search for your Download/ Document file (searches for title!) and insert the actual link. Really simple, yeah!
  • To display Download files on the frontend you can also use the included widgets or the shortcodes of WPDR (see the WPDR Wiki for the shortcode documentation – scroll down a bit there…).
  • To update an existing file/ document just open the existing item and upload a new version (revision). The file/ document peramlink will always point to the latest revision! Yeah, it’s so easy 🙂
  • You can also use third-party plugins or widgets that support custom post types to query, display or do anything you want with the “Document” post type, that we use for the download files. Pretty simple again, yet very effective and standards compliant.
  • List of reccommended third-party plugins:

Other Stuff:

Own translation/wording: For custom and update-safe language files please upload them to /wp-content/languages/wpdr-simple-downloads/ (just create this folder) – This enables you to use fully custom translations that won’t be overridden on plugin updates. Also, complete custom English wording is possible with that, just use a language file like wpdr-simple-downloads-en_US.mo/.po to achieve that.

Deinstallation

If you ever want to uninstall the add-on (i.e. “WP Document Revisions Simple Downloads”) you can use your stuff like before. All will work like normal as this plugin does NOT make any permanent modifications! Good to know, right?! 🙂

Screenshots

  1. <p>Add-On plugin's settings page</p>

    Add-On plugin's settings page

  2. <p>Settings page - "Usage" tab</p>

    Settings page - "Usage" tab

  3. <p>Admin "Downloads" table with additional stuff added by add-on</p>

    Admin "Downloads" table with additional stuff added by add-on

  4. <p>Edit "Download" view with additional stuff added by add-on</p>

    Edit "Download" view with additional stuff added by add-on

  5. <p>Insert Download link via Visual Editor</p>

    Insert Download link via Visual Editor

  6. <p>Insert Download link via Text Editor (HTML)</p>

    Insert Download link via Text Editor (HTML)

  7. <p>Popular Downloads widget</p>

    Popular Downloads widget

  8. <p>Search Downloads widget</p>

    Search Downloads widget

  9. <p>Taxonomy Widget - used for "File Categories"</p>

    Taxonomy Widget - used for "File Categories"

  10. <p>Taxonomy Widget - used for "File Tags"</p>

    Taxonomy Widget - used for "File Tags"

  11. <p>Original "Recently Revised Downloads" (Documents) widget - by base plugin WPDR :)</p>

    Original "Recently Revised Downloads" (Documents) widget - by base plugin WPDR :)

  12. <p>Help tab user guidance included</p>

    Help tab user guidance included

FAQ

Why on earth do I need this plugin along with WPDR?

Good question, hehe :). — “WP Document Revision” (WPDR) already does all the heavy lifting for you, and in reality is your actual download manager! This add-on plugin here (a.k.a. “WP Document Revisions Simple Downloads”) does minor adjustments and additions for more comfort, even easier (admin) usage and provides specific “Downloads” specific wording/ translations. The add-on fully leverages the existing hooks & filters of its base plugin as well as from WordPress itself. So, in reality it does not make any (permanent) modifications. With this approach we avoid performance issues and load things only where and when needed. — Also, the add-on adds 3 nice little widgets which may help to improve your site/ download manager on the front end.

Alternatives for inserting downloads/ documents?

To insert download files (URLs) into posts, pages, other post types, sidebars or templates just use any of the following alternatives:

1) The easiest one: WordPress’ built-in “Insert Link” feature which is there in both editors, “Visual” and “Text”. — see screenshot 1, plus screenshot 2…

2) 2 base shortcodes of WPDR: [documents] and [document_revisions] — see Wiki for more info (scroll down a bit…)

3) 4 available widgets: 1 from WPDR, plus 3 from this add-on plugin.

4) Any third-party plugin or widget that does support custom post types by WordPress. I highly recommend one of these: Display Posts Shortcode – display a listing of posts or post types using the [display-posts] shortcode // Count Shortcode – simple count posts or post types

5) For developers: shortcodes can also be used with their template tag equivalent: <?php do_shortcode( '[your_shortcode ...]' ); ?>

What’s going on, “Downloads” or “Documents”?

You decide, which wording or which translations will be loaded! In my opinion it’s better to use purpose-specific and consistent wording throughout both plugins which will avoid confusions in day to day usage with your team.

The add-on DOESN’T modifiy the actual post type that’s used as the base. This post type is by WPDR and has the ID “document”, therefore some admin urls and such still reflect this ID. But in the end this just doesn’t matter :).

Is this plugin Multisite compatible?

Of course it is! 🙂 Works really fine in Multisite environment.

In Multisite, can I “network activate” this plugin?

Yes, you can! Activating on a per-site basis is also possible. — I recommend activating on a per-site basis in combination with “WP Document Revisions” plugin.

Where are the Hooks & Filters documented?

Currently as Gist on GitHub.

Final note: I DON’T recommend to add customization code snippets to your main theme’s/ child theme’s functions.php file! Please use a functionality plugin or an MU-plugin instead! This way you can also use this better for Multisite environments. In general you are then more independent from theme/child theme changes etc. If you don’t know how to create such a plugin yourself just use one of my recommended ‘Code Snippets’ plugins. Read & bookmark these Sites:

All the custom & branding stuff code above can also be found as a Gist on Github: https://gist.github.com/4395899 (you can also add your questions/ feedback there 🙂

More info on Translations?

  • English – default, always included
  • German (de_DE): Deutsch – immer dabei! 🙂
  • For custom and update-safe language files please upload them to /wp-content/languages/wpdr-simple-downloads/ (just create this folder) – This enables you to use fully custom translations that won’t be overridden on plugin updates. Also, complete custom English wording is possible with that as well, just use a language file like wpdr-simple-downloads-en_US.mo/.po to achieve that (for creating one see the following tools).

Easy WordPress.org plugin translation platform with GlotPress platform:Translate “WP Document Revisions Simple Downloads”…

Note: All my plugins are internationalized/ translateable by default. This is very important for all users worldwide. So please contribute your language to the plugin to make it even more useful. For translating and validating I recommend the awesome “Poedit Editor”, which works fine on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Changelog

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1.2.1 – 2018-12-14

  • New: Bring back the taxonomy filters (if taxonomy option set) – but now with non-breaking code
  • New: Successfully tested with latest WP Document Revisions development version from GitHub
  • Update: Improved function for optionally changing to “Downloads” wording – keep default post type support arguments — Thanks to user feedback (Topic)
  • Update: Few code formatting enhancements throughout
  • Update: .pot file for translators, plus German translations

1.2.0 – 2018-12-12

  • New: Brought the plugin back to life after more than six years, yeah! 🙂
  • New: Release on GitHub.com as well (for issues, development etc.), see here: https://github.com/deckerweb/wpdr-simple-downloads
  • New: Added plugin update message also to Plugins page (overview table)
  • New: Added plugins recommendations library by deckerweb to add plugin installer tips
  • New: Added uninstaller to remove plugin’s options when deleting (uninstalling) the plugin
  • New: Added composer.json file to the plugin’s root folder – this is great for developers using Composer
  • New: Added README.md file for plugin’s GitHub.com repository to make it more readable there
  • New: Added new plugin icon and banner on WordPress.org
  • New: Created special Facebook Group for user community support for all plugins from me (David Decker – DECKERWEB), this one here included! 😉 – please join at facebook!
  • Update: Completely reworked translation loading for the plugin itself, plus the optional feature translations for WP Document Revisions – all more standards compliant
  • Update: Changed admin icon to newest WP standard, using Dashicon
  • Update: Enhanced security
  • Update: Lots of code tweaks and improvements throughout the plugin; all code now properly hooked
  • Update: Updated all internal plugin links to current state, deleted the ones that were dead or no longer needed
  • Update: .pot file for translators, plus German translations
  • Update: Readme.txt file
  • Trivia fact: this plugin is already over 6 (six!) years old. Whoa, that’s a lot. 😉

1.1.0 – 2013-11-11

  • Unreleased – private beta version!
  • UPDATE: Fixed doubled notice when saving settings (was impacting other plugins…).
  • UPDATE: Changed and improved plugin’s own translation loading.
  • UPDATE: Minor code/ documentation improvements and tweaks.
  • UPDATE: Updated German translations and also the .pot file for all translators.
  • NEW: Added partly Spanish translations, user-submitted.

1.0.0 (2012-12-28)

  • Initial release
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Details

  • Version: 1.2.1
  • Active installations: 100
  • WordPress Version: 4.7
  • Tested up to: 5.3.18
  • PHP Version: 5.6

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