WordPress is one of the most popular and widely used web platforms for the creation of good looking websites and blogging sites across the world. WordPress is a kind of open source platform; free like Linux OS and community driven with many volunteers contributing to the content development in the form of plugins, themes and mobile applications.
WordPress is available in many languages. WordPress makes website creation such an easy task; the sooner you find the web host, download the latest version of WordPress and install it and join the millions around the world who have made internet their “home”. By reading the documentation you can become WordPress expert in no time.
The plugin directory is the back bone of WordPress platform and behind the content creation of websites with widgets, posts, admin tools, sidebars and many more. One of the important requirements of a website is the management of downloads by the visitors. The following plugins can make very useful companions of your website download management tools.
WP Download Codes
WP Download Codes is a plugin which will enable you to generate and manage download codes for .zip files. It has been created to facilitate free downloading of CDs and related records. Some of these records have their own dedicated codes written on separate cards or printed on the cover as release notes. The plugin is useful for creating and managing bundled zip files of downloads complete with download codecs. You can specifically mention the permitted number of downloads for every release.
You will have the ability to use a prefix for each code for every release and also create alphanumeric download codes. You can analyze the usage of download codes. When you want to use and distribute, the download codes can be reviewed and set to “final”. The present version of WP download Codes is 2.1, requires WordPress versions 2.5 and above and is compatible up to 3.2.1. While the plugin received four star rating from its users, but yet to see more downloads.
Risal Download
Risal Download has been created with a purpose to avoid unethical downloading by the user. Risal Download plugin will not permit the visitor to use download manager while shifting between sessions or browsers. Such acts are treated as misuse. Although rated five stars, the plugin is more suitable to Linux OS such as Ubuntu.
For installation, the ‘wp-risal-download’ folder needs to be uploaded to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’directory. Now you need to activate the plugin via the ‘plugins’ menu in the WordPress. Next you should go to plugins and configure Risal Download and register the files. The present download version is 1.6, compatible to WordPress 3.0 and above up to 3.3.2.
Download-Mirror-Counter
Download-Mirror-Counter helps you to know how many times a file had been downloaded. There is a provision to add 5 mirrors server for the files. It is available in Persian language as well. It is very easy to install and use. The settings are best viewed and you can have a simple download chart. The download-Mirror-Counter is currently running version of 1.1 compatible to WP 3.2.1 and above. Although saw less downloads, the plugin received 5-star rating from its users.
WordPress Download Monitor
WordPress Download Monitor plugin helps you to upload and manage downloads, track download hits and also display links. It has built in Download Page Function which has built in pagination, sorting and search facilities. It records hits for file download but does not take into account the downloads by the admin users of WordPress.
You can have the stats for downloads and a log for download viewing to know who downloaded and when it was downloaded. There is an editor button to upload and add a download directly from the post. It has custom redirects for downloads. Downloads can be added to the content, excerpts, custom fields and text widgets.
You can download tags and categories. There is localizations support. You can custom URL hider/URL’s using the mod_rewrite. It is available in other languages like German, Polish, Japanese, Italian, French and Brazilian. The WordPress Download Monitor is one of the popular download tools and has received over 400 thousand downloads, rated 4-star. The current version is 3.3.5.7 and compatible up to WP 3.3.2 starting from version 2.8.
WordPress Download Manager
WordPress Download Manager helps to track, manage and control downloads of files from the WordPress site. There is scope to set a password for the downloadable files from the WordPress site. Using this plugin, you can add or embed downloadable files by just putting the embed code into your post content. There is password protection. You can control the access for downloads. There is a download counter.
You can customize download link icon and link label. There is a short code for download link as well as direct link to downloadable file. There are new templates for file links, widget for new downloads. There are multi-level categories. There is a category embed short-code and an advanced server file browser. “Download Manager” to “Download Monitor” files importer is available. Currently available download version is 2.2.8 requires WordPress 2.0.2 or above and compatible up to 3.3.2. Rated 4-star and experience over 150 thousand downloads so for.
WP- Filebase Download Manager
WP- Filebase Download Manager can be termed as file manager for WordPress. Files can be structured in various categories, provides a template system for the creation of sortable, paginated file lists and you can also side load files from different websites. By using templates, the management of many files becomes easy and consistent. You can build photo galleries, using a template player; you can embed flash or other formats.
Downloads can be restricted for some user roles. You can upload files through the front-end via widgets. There is a built-in download counter, a file list widget and Ajax file tree browser. The template system can be customized. With the help of Visual Editor Plugin you can insert flexible short codes. The paginated file lists are sortable. There are bandwidth throttle and traffic limits, hotlinking protection, range download and search integration.
Automatic synchronization of database and file system exists. JavaScript download tracking can be customized. The plugin has clocked over 100 thousand downloads since its creation and rated over 4 stars. The ongoing version is 0.2.9.18, requires WP 3.1 or above and compatible up to 3.4.1
