Intro: It was quite disappointing to realize that an amazing CMS like Drupal failed to have a rich download system. I was expecting a rich downloads section with categories, download counts, rating, etc. The script that answered it all was “pafiledb“. This article explains how to integrate pafiledb into Drupal as if it were a drupal module in a very easy manner. This is a must read for anyone using Drupal.

View a demo of pafiledb.

Installing pafiledb:

• Unzip the file you downloaded from the paFileDB homepage.
• Open the “upload” folder, then open “includes” and then open the file “config.php”. You will need to edit that file to reflect your MySQL server information. You will need to edit the server, username, password and the database name.
• Make a folder in your drupal root directory called “downloads“.
• Open up the “upload” folder from the file you just unzipped. Copy everything, except for the “upgrade” folder from this folder into the “downloads” folder you just created.
• Navigate to the “downloads/install/index.php” folder using your web browser and setup pafiledb with any settings you want.
• Once you’ve done so, you will be prompted to delete the install folder and then you can easily view your pafiledb by browsing to your /downloads/index.php folder.

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