Lester Chan

<h3>General Usage</h3>
<ol>
<li>You Need To Re-Generate The Permalink <code>WP-Admin -> Settings -> Permalinks -> Save Changes</code></li>
<li>To embed a specific file to be downloaded into a post/page, use <code>[download id="2"]</code> where 2 is your file id.</li>
<li>To embed multiple files to be downloaded into a post/page, use <code>[download id="1,2,3"]</code> where 1,2,3 are your file ids.</li>
<li>To limit the number of embedded downloads shown for each post in a post stream, use the <code>stream_limit</code> option.
<ol>
<li>Example: <code>[download id="2" stream_limit="4"]</code></li>
<li>This will only display the first 4 downloads for the post when rendered in a post stream, and display the full list of downloads when viewing the single post.</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>To sort embedded downloads, use the <code>sort_by</code> and <code>sort_order</code> options.
<ol>
<li>Example: <code>[download id="2" sort_by="file_id" sort_order="asc"]</code></li>
<li>This will sort the embedded downloads by file ID in ascending order.</li>
<li>Valid values for <code>sort_by</code> are: <code>file_id</code>, <code>file</code>, <code>file_name</code>, <code>file_size</code>, <code>file_date</code>, and <code>file_hits</code></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>To choose what to display within the embedded file, use <code>[download id="1" display="both"]</code> where 1 is your file id and both will display both the file name and file desccription, whereas name will only display the filename. Note that this will overwrite the “Download Embedded File” template you have in your Download Templates.</li>
<li>To embed files as well as categories, use <code>[download id="1,2,3" category="4,5,6"]</code> where 1,2,3 are your file id and 4,5,6 are your category ids.</li>
<li>If you are using Default Permalinks, the file direct download link will be <code>http://yoursite.com/index.php?dl_id=2</code>. If you are using Nice Permalinks, the file direct download link will be <code>http://yoursite.com/download/2/</code>, where yoursite.com is your WordPress URL and 2 is your file id.</li>
<li>The direct download category link will be <code>http://yoursite.com/downloads/?dl_cat=3</code>, where yoursite.com is your WordPress URL, downloads is your Downloads Page name and 3 is your download category id.</li>
<li>In order to upload the files straight to the downloads folder, the folder must be first CHMOD to 777. You can specify which folder to be the downloads folder in Download Options.</li>
<li>You can configure the Download Options in <code>WP-Admin -> Downloads -> Download Options</code></li>
<li>You can configure the Download Templates in <code>WP-Admin -> Downloads -> Download Templates</code></li>
</ol>
<h3>Downloads Page</h3>
<ol>
<li>Go to <code>WP-Admin -> Pages -> Add New</code></li>
<li>Type any title you like in the post’s title area</li>
<li>If you <code>ARE</code> using nice permalinks, after typing the title, WordPress will generate the permalink to the page. You will see an ‘Edit’ link just beside the permalink.</li>
<li>Click ‘Edit’ and type in <code>downloads</code> in the text field and click ‘Save’.</li>
<li>Type <code>[page_download]</code> in the post’s content area.</li>
<li>You can also use <code>[page_download category="1"]</code>, this will display all downloads in Category ID 1.</li>
<li>Click ‘Publish’</li>
</ol>
<h3>Download Stats (With Widgets)</h3>
<ol>
<li>Go to <code>WP-Admin -> Appearance -> Widgets</code></li>
<li>The widget name is <code>Downloads</code>.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Development</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/lesterchan/wp-downloadmanager" title="https://github.com/lesterchan/wp-downloadmanager" rel="nofollow ugc">https://github.com/lesterchan/wp-downloadmanager</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Translations</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://dev.wp-plugins.org/browser/wp-downloadmanager/i18n/" title="http://dev.wp-plugins.org/browser/wp-downloadmanager/i18n/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://dev.wp-plugins.org/browser/wp-downloadmanager/i18n/</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Credits</h3>
<ul>
<li>Plugin icon by <a href="http://www.freepik.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Freepik</a> from <a href="http://www.flaticon.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Flaticon</a></li>
<li>Icons courtesy of <a href="http://www.famfamfam.com/" title="FamFamFam" rel="nofollow ugc">FamFamFam</a></li>
<li>Download Icon by <a href="http://www.imvain.com/"" title="Ryan Zimmerman" rel="nofollow ugc">Ryan Zimmerman</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Donations</h3>
<ul>
<li>I spent most of my free time creating, updating, maintaining and supporting these plugins, if you really love my plugins and could spare me a couple of bucks, I will really appreciate it. If not feel free to use it without any obligations.</li>
</ul>


WP-DownloadManager

Adds a simple download manager to your WordPress blog.

Jeff Starr

<p>Simple Download Counter (SDC) provides a simple yet powerful way to count file downloads. Works with any file type that’s supported by WordPress (e.g., JPG, PNG, ZIP, MP4, TXT, and many more).</p>
<p><strong>Important / Please Read</strong></p>
<p>This plugin enables Admin-level users to add download files of any type, from anywhere on the server, or from any remote public location. Only Administrators are allowed to add download files. Please use caution and use responsibly.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This plugin is incompatible with WordPress Multisite.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>How it works</strong></p>
<p>Visit the plugin settings to add a download file. Then use the shortcode to display a download link on any post or page. The plugin will then count every download and display it in the plugin settings. You can also display the download count on the front end using a shortcode.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Simple and powerful download counter</li>
<li>Supports local and remote file URLs</li>
<li>Supports any file type supported by WordPress</li>
<li>Lightweight – entire plugin size is < 160 KB</li>
<li>Super fast and built for optimal performance</li>
<li>Clean code tightly integrated with WordPress</li>
<li>No Apache/.htaccess required</li>
</ul>
<p>Check out the screenshots below to get a better idea of the plugin settings and more.</p>
<p><strong>How is this better?</strong></p>
<p>There are numerous “download counter” or “download manager” plugins available, but none of them satisfy all of my specific, stringent requirements:</p>
<ul>
<li>Current with latest WordPress</li>
<li>Clean and simple code using WP APIs</li>
<li>Lightweight with minimal useless features</li>
<li>Supports all local and remote downloads</li>
<li>No automatically created posts or pages</li>
<li>No advertisements or weird admin notifications</li>
<li>No obtuse styling of default WP Admin elements</li>
<li>Download posts are visible only in the Admin Area</li>
<li>Descriptive error handling for upload files</li>
<li>No redundant or sloppy coding practices</li>
<li>No requirement for cookies or sessions</li>
<li>No requirement for Apache/.htaccess</li>
<li>No weird database shenanigans</li>
</ul>
<p>So I decided to build my own. Let me emphasize the utter simplicity of this plugin. It does one thing and does it well: counts the number of downloads for your files. And makes it easy to display download links and download counts anywhere on the front end.</p>
<p><strong>Privacy</strong></p>
<p>This plugin does not collect or store any user data. It does not set any cookies, and it does not connect to any third-party locations. The <em>only</em> thing this plugin does is count the number of times files are downloaded. So 100% privacy friendly for everyone.</p>
<p>Simple Download Counter is developed and maintained by <a href="https://x.com/perishable" rel="nofollow ugc">Jeff Starr</a>, 15-year <a href="https://plugin-planet.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress developer</a> and <a href="https://books.perishablepress.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">book author</a>.</p>


Simple Download Counter

Thanks a lot for this great Plugin. 
It does exactly what it is supposed to do, simply count how often a file is downloaded. And the plugin is very lightweight. The additional options in connection with the shortcode leave nothing to be desired.

Simply a great Plugin

Simply counts the number of times your files are downloaded. Display download links and counts using shortcodes.

WP-DownloadManager vs Simple Download Counter