UserPoints Support in jDownloads -Nov 2024

Introduction

Become a Remository Observer

To Download User Points, you will need to create an Account on Remositry as a Remository Observer. 

As an Observer, User Points is free for downloading.

Go to Remository Membership (opens in a new tab/window).

Then Click on This takes you to a New User form.  So fill in the relevant details when done click on the .

Installation

The first step is to install the User Points component. 

Installation, and updating, is quite straight forward and is similar to installing  jDownloads.

To get User Points go to
 https://remository.com/downloads/A-Place-for-User-Points/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Scroll down to the 'Files in A Place for User Points' and click on 'User Points 4.0.6' or later.

The latest release of User Points from Remositry at the time of writing is version 4.1.11 .

Setup jDownloads for User Points

In jDownloads click om the  and select , which is top right, then go to the  tab. 
Then scroll down to  section "Settings for 'User Points' support (formerly: AlphaUserPoints/AltaUserPoints)" which needs completing.  Next set  "Use 'User Points' Rules " to Yes. This reveals two further settings as shown below.

1. Use 'User Points' rules?  Set to Yes if you want to use in conjunction with jD. When set to Yes it reveals the next two settings.
2. Use files price field for points?  Select No to use a fixed number of points per download or Yes to use the number of points per download as specified in the jD Price field associated with every Download individually.
3. The final item is setting the 'hint' if the user does not have enough points.  This supports multilingual sites.

Price Field For Points

There are three stages to setting up price/download. The first step is to set the 'Use Downloads Price Field for Points' to Yes in the tab.

The second step is to go to the jDownloads again, and select .  Next we select which User Group whose members will, in principle, be charged for a Download.  Generally I use thr 'Registered' User Group. Repeat for other User Groups as may be required. For example click on Registered to select all users in that Group.  Next after selecting  the  tab,scroll down to the 'tick box' region. In the  section ensure that option Price is set

The third and final stage is to set the price field in each Download individually. This is the first item in the tab of each Download.

The Downloads list shows the Price in UserPoints. You are also able to sort by price as shown on the far right. To avoid potential 'confusion' always include two decimal places, even if they are 00.

Viewing User Points

The next jD item to set is to ensure that the Summary page will be shown so that the user knows the number of points they are "paying".
This is set in jDowloads -  tab.  Scroll down to the Download Sequence.

Set  'Activate Direct Downloading' to No as shown opposite.  The other three fields may be set as required.  For more information please see the article Download actions: Direct, via Summary Page or via Download Details (opens in new widow/tab).

As noted above, the Summary page will inform the user of the cost of the Download in points.  In this example, as shown opposite, the cost is 1.75 points and the user's 'credit' is 5.00 points.  The Download button is shown.

Note: jDownloads shows a maximum of 2 decimal places.

However if the user does not have sufficient points then an advisory 'error' message shows the shortfall.

Also, of course, no Download button is present.

Another situation is where users are not logged in but the Download appears downloadable as a Download button is being shown. 

In this case because User Points is active and set up so that only logged on users may download then jD detects this and generates a message such as the one opposite.

Setting Up User Points

After installing User Points go to the  .  This has a large number of icons as illustrated opposite.

It may also have a message about Synchronising Users with User Points. But do not do this now.  Please first read the notes below.

The first thing to do with User Points is to click on the and then use the button which, in common with other Components, is located at the top righthand side of the  Control Panel.

Select the tab  as it allows setting the Format of points, and whether accounts are allowed to go negative.

Allowing negative accounts is generally a poor idea as it can lead to users being able to download multiple items at no cost!

Setting the default format is sensible if you are equating points to a financial charge.

Note that jDownloads only shows 2 decimal places with User Points items.

User Points actions are controlled by a set of Rules which give it a very wide variety of uses.

To access these click on the then on at the top.

There are presently 23 rules in UserPoints.

To modify the rule parameters click on the Rule name.
 

Give Existing Users Points

Click on  to show existing users.

As would be expected they have no points.

To add points select one of the users, jdx45-admin as shown below. 

Then click on the Custom Points button and enter the number of point to allocate to that user.
now click on the Save & Close button.
As shown opposite jdx45-admin now has 15 points.

Of course one could have selected all of the existing users and given each them the same number points.

Give New User 'starter' points

In order to give new users an initial grant of starter points then it is necessary to edit the appropriate rule.

To do this select the  and click on the on either or  .
There are 22 rules when jDownloads is installed.   Note that most of the rules are initially unpublished.

Scroll down the list of rules until you find the 'New User' Rule as illustrated below.  Make sure it is Published, that is it shows the User Points published icon .  If it shows 'Unpublished'  then click on the icon to change status to published.

Next click on the New User link which brings up the the details section of the New User rule such as shown opposite.

So if you are going to give all new users a starter number of points then edit the Points field as appropriate, say set to 5.00 as a 'welcome'.

Note this field has two decimal places like most "currencies".

Give Users Bonus Points

There are a variety of ways to give users points.  One simple method is to add 'Bonus' points after setting some value, 3.00 in this example, in the Bonus rule as shown opposite.

To give bonus Points to a user goto the  and select the users by clicking on the 'tick' box. Then click on the  button at the top of the view.

If you click on  again it shows that user jdx46-uploader now has 7.30 points, that is 3.00 more. You may of course select multiple users.

Adding jD Rules

Before adding the specific jDownloads rules  you must have enabled use of User Points as noted earlier in  jDownloads setup for User Points.

In jDownloads 4.0.40 and above the User Points rules specific to jD are already incuded within the code. So there is no need to download any plugins or similar from jdownloads.com

The next step is to activate the jD specific Rules.  This is also very straight forward. 
Basically one just clicks on the 'Auto-detect new rules'  button on the User Points Control Panel.  This should give you a message acknowledging that five more rules have been added . 
NOTE: There is no external plugin to be enabled as the relevant code is in the jD Component.

Setting Up jD Rules

The five jD specific Rules need to be setup.  So click on the Rules icon button  then on the Category pulldown , which is near the top left as illustrated immediately opposite, select the 'Other' type in the pulldown as illustrated on the far rigt image opposite.h
 
This then just lists the Rules in the 'Other' section, which is where the five jD rules are located.  So scroll down to find the jD specific rules.

Click on the name part of the rule to access the details.

The jD specific rules are noted below

• User Upload published Assign points to a user when one of their uploads is published in jDownloads (may also be negative to reduce points).  Access Rule and set points value.
• User downloads a file  Deduct points when a registered user downloads a file from jDownloads . Access the Rule to set how many points the Download will cost.
• User downloads a file (uses price) Uses the value in the 'price' field in the Download. Deducts the points specified in the Price Field of the Download when a registered user downloads a file from jDownloads. Also see note below about Download Managers.
• Uploader get points for downloaded files Assign points to the file uploader when a user downloads this file from jDownloads. Uses a fixed number of points as defined in this rule.  Access the rule to set the value.
• Uploader get points for downloaded files (use price) Assign points to the file uploader when a user downloads the file from jDownloads. Uses the 'price' field from the Download.

There are numerous parameters that may be set up in each rule.  For a full understanding consult the User Points documentation.

However in most cases the only part that needs to be adjusted is the Price field. 

As an exampe the image opposite shows part of the User downloads a file rule. 

Using a Download Manager

If you are using a download manager on your local machine then you might find that multiple 'charges' are being made against the user points. 

This is because many 'download managers' open multiple 'streams'.   Unless you set things up in an appropriate manner then each 'stream' appears as if it were a fresh downloading of the original file. 

Hence there is a danger of multiple download charges! 

The solution is to change the Method field of the 'User downloads a file (uses price)' rule so that the user is only charged once/day for downloading that file, or another appropriate selection, such as illustrated below. 

Example

When you get to the Summary view, there is now an additional message "This Download costs 1.70 points. You currently have 5 points."

As we have sufficient points then the download can proceed.

When you do not have suficient points Then a message appears advising you about the situation as illustrated opposite. 

There is of course no Download button.

Updating UserPoints

Get update key

 So after logging in to Remository, the Main Menu will show 'My Account' as illustrated in the first image opposite.  Click on Profile as indicated.
This will then show your personal update server key - which is in this example is partially blocked out!
Use Cntl-V or similar to take a copy  of the key.

Next  click on the UserPoints .  Next click on thebutton which is at top right.

Then in the General tab copy your personal key into the Update Key field as illustrated opposite. 

UserPoints Update

Click on the  button then in the  section.  Wait while Joomla searches if there are any Extension updates outstanding.

In this example there is one extension that has an outstanding Extension update available.

Click on  which in this example shows that there is an updated version of UserPoints.

So click on the tick and then on the link as indicated opposite.

Then click on the  button, which, if all is OK, will give a message such as shown opposite.

Joomla only checks for updates periodically, so if no update is indicated then as a double check click on  button.
This will take you to the Check for Updates page as indicated opposite.

So click on  Button.

Appendix - Uninstalling User Points

First click on , then in the  section click on the .  Then in the Search field enter userpoints as shown below and click on the search button.
This shows a view as illustrated opposite.

1.Select the component
2.Click on the  button which turns red when you hover over it.

After accepting an 'Are you sure' message, all parts of UserPoints, except the database, will be uninstalled.

Appendix - User Points for Joomla 3