An Overview of the Plugins

There are two types of Plugins available with jDownloads:

1. the 'jDownloads' plugins that are an intgral part of jDownloads;
2. the optional 'Integration' plugins.

The jDownloads plugins work within the sphere of the jDownloads environment to provide additional facilities allowing Downloads to be shown in other content such as articles and similar.  These plugins, as well as various jDownloads modules, are automatically installed as part of the jDownloads Component installation/upgrade.

The optional Integration plugins extend jDownloads capabilities to work in co-operation with other components such as Community Builder.  Each of these has its own installation procedure.

At the time of writing the following jDownloads plugins are listed below.

Content - Allows Downloads to be shown in other content.

Button - A button which becomes available in Editors to simplify adding a Download in an article.

Search - Extends the jDownloads searching capabilities.

System - an essential plugin, jDownloads requires this plugin to be enabled in order to work.

Example - a 'skeleton' plugin to allow people to create their own plugin.

Actually the jDownloads System Module also supports several more plugins that implement the so called 'hide functionality' that allows different classes of users to see different content.  For more details see hiding information from selected user groups (opens in a new window/tab).

jDownloads plugins are installed automatically.  When you install or upgrade jDownloads then you will see the list of jDownloads plugins and modules that have been installed. The only extra aspect is to adjust the configuration parameters of each plugin to your needs.

As at October 2019, the following Integration plugins are available.  Of course the corresponding Component must be installed before installing any of these plugins.  Each of these optional plugins has its own specific installation instructions, in general they do not use the Joomla! Extensions Manager.

Community Builder, jComments, Komento and AlphaUserPoints & Alta User Points

This is the system plugin for jDownloads.  It must be Enabled as otherwise jDownloads will not work correctly!
As well as being an integral part of the way jDownloads works there are three optional features. 

1. One of these is used to prevent caching of specific items when Joomla! caching is enabled.  Usually set 'option=com_jdownloads' in the Caching rules.  

See [NEEDS REF] for further details on how to use this capability. 

2. Another very important setting is setting the limit, specified in number of days, for which the Downloads log data will be kept. It is strongly recommended that you set a limit for the period that log records are kept in the database. This avoids indefinite growth of the database table, which would eventually lead to problems.  The default setting is 93 days.  Checks are only made once per day to minimise system loading.

The jDownloads 3.9 series Content Plugin can display Downloads in other Joomla! content such as articles.  It is a very powerfull  and useful plugin as shown by the available commands listed below.

For further details and examples of using the Content Plugin see using the content plugin in articles and modules (opens in a new window/tab)

In the following
*DID is the ID number of the Download to be shown, eg 52.
*CID list is a comma separated list of the ID numbers of those Categories whose Downloads are to be shown, eg 3,12.
count==*N is the maximum number of Downloads to be shown from this category. If count==0 is specified then all Downloads in the selection are listed.

Note:  The plugins are used in practice with left  and right  brace characters but because this may inadverently action a nonexistent plugin then the characters [ and ] are used. The left and right braces shown in this document are actually images of the characters!

Show a Single Download: [jd_file file==*DID]
 eg [jd_file file==31] shows the Download with ID of 31

Show Downloads from a single or several Categories: [jd_file category==*CIDlist count==*N]
 eg [jd_file category==15 count==5] will list upto 5 Downloads from the category whose ID is 15.
 eg [jd_file category==15,2 count==0] will list all the Downloads from the categories whose ID is 15 or 2.
 eg [jd_file category==15,3,41,6 count==12] will list upto a total of 12 Downloads from those categories whose ID is 15, 3, 41 or 6.

Listing latest, top and last updated from any category: [jd_file latest==*N]  [jd_file hottest==*N]  [jd_file updated==*N]
 eg [jd_file latest==5] lists the 5 latest Downloads created.
 eg [jd_file hottest==4] lists the 4 most popular Downloads.
 eg [jd_file updated==5] list the 5 most recently updated Downloads.

Listing latest, top and last updated from specified categories [jd_file cat_latest==*CIDlist count==*N]is 12.
 eg [jd_file cat_hottest==12,4 count==5] lists the 5 most popular Downloads selected from the categories whose ID is 12 or 4.
 eg [jd_file cat_updated==17,3,15 count==6] lists the 6 most recently updated Downloads selected from the categories whose ID is 17, 3 or 15.

Listing latest, top and last updated from multiple categories
[jd_file cat_hottest==*CID1,*CID2,*CID3 count==*N] eg [jd_file cat_hottest==12,13,3 count==5] lists the 5 most downloaded Downloads from the categories with IDs 12,13 and 3.
[jd_file cat_latest==*CID1,*CID2,*CID3 count==*N] eg [jd_file cat_hottest==12 count==3] lists the 3 latestDownloads created in the category with the ID of 12.
[jd_file cat_updated==*CID1,*CID2,*CID3 count==*N] eg [jd_file cat_updated==17 count==6] lists the 6 most recently updated Downloads from the category with the ID of 17.

Selecting layouts
[jd_file onlinelayout==layout name] you can use this to select the which layout to use when showing Downloads in other content such as an article.
So it is possible to use specific layouts rather than the default activated layouts in the same content.
Example: [jd_file onlinelayout==Simple File List][jd_file latest==5]

Recall that in the above the [ and ] characters need to be replaced with and repectively.

The 'hide 'functionality' as shown in the Description part of the Content Plugin is very useful in some situations.  It allows different content to be shown to users in different User Groups or to an individual user.
It uses a plugin type approach as indicated in the examples below.
[jdpub]This text will only be seen visitors who are NOT logged-in [/jdpub]
[jdreg]This text will only be seen by logged-in users who are members of the registered user group [/jdreg]
[jduser:id] Only the member with the given ID can see this [/jduser]
[jdgroups:name] Only members from the given user group can see this [/jdgroups]

This is an adjunct to the Content plugin that creates a button in the content editor to allow easy addition of Downloads into articles or other content.

This plugin allows searching within the jDownloads Component.

This special Community Builder plugin allows display of Downloads within Community Builder. The plugin was originally created for Joomla articles by Krileon and then modified by Arno Betz for the jDownloads 3.2 and 3.9 series.

For more details and examples please see the article using the jdownload community builder plugin (opens in new window/tab)

JComments is an extensive comment extension for Joomla. This plugin allows users to add comments about individual Downloads.  To install download the file com_jdownloads.plugin.zip from [NEEDS REF]
Then unzip the file to get com_jdownloads.plugin.php and then copy this php file to: components/com_jcomments/plugins.
Please see the article enabling comments on Downloads with JComments (opens in new window/tab).
Comments are only shown in the Downloads details page.

The Komento Plugin allows you to use the comment component Komento with the jDownloads. Ensure that the option "Activate support for all Joomla content plugins?" is activated in the jDownloads configuration TAB: Frontend.  For more details and examples of using Komento please see the article enabling comments on downloads with Komento (opens in new window/tab).

Comments are only shown in the Downloads details page.

An OverviewAllows 'charging' for downloading.  Basically each time a user downloads then their AUP 'account' is reduced by a certain number of points.  This may be a fixed number of points per download or it may be  the amount specified in the jD 'Price' field associated with that Download. Users may gain points by creating a new Download.  Also points may be given to the Download 'owner' each time a user downloads one of their Downloads.

The original Alpha User Points seems to have disappeared from the Joomla! scene but Alta User Points gives all the required functionality.

For examples and more details please see the article using Altauserpoints in jDownloads (opens in new window/tab).

Colin Mercer April 2019 updated July 2023, November 2023