Interested in learning

[CJ1985]

Too bad there isn't a "starter mods" tutorial. Something that shows them how to do some simple mod, and all process of how to go about doing it and what all needs to be done and so forth. That would definitely be helpful.

I don't know, I learn better by "visually" seeing it done. I hope that makes sense? lol

[Obsidian]

Oh, it makes sense.
Actually, that's how I learned to MOD phpBB...though I don't modify the core as much anymore, I prefer to extend it.

[CJ1985]

So where is the tutorial at that you used? lol

Maybe you should make a tutorial.

[Obsidian]

Ah, no, I didn't use a tutorial. Actually, I created a test board and constantly blew it up..learned a lot the hard way, but it's stuck with me.

If you want to learn to write MODs, install a few of them for a while. Learn to recognize what the code does.
Experience, for us modders, is "this does this", "this does that", and "if you use this, this happens".

As for wanting a tutorial...learning to MOD from a tutorial tends not to work. You have to find something that you want to change, and experiment. Ask questions! Get errors! Hit your head on the desk a few times and try to find out what went wrong!


Oh, FYI: There's a required language that every programmer must know. Profanity.

[CJ1985]

Ha, lol! I like the last part you wrote... profanity... nice! :p

So yeah. I'm trying. It'll take time. lol Why does there have to be so many different languages when it comes to coding? Why can't it just stick to HTML?? Wouldn't that be simpler? lol! You would think so anyways ha ha.



Anyways... I'm trying. I have created a test board, which is the web server thingy I believe ha through XAMPP. So I know I got one thing set up so far. Ha!

[Ganon_Master]

So yeah. I'm trying. It'll take time. lol Why does there have to be so many different languages when it comes to coding? Why can't it just stick to HTML?? Wouldn't that be simpler? lol! You would think so anyways ha ha.

It all comes down to how the web is built up. Back at the dawn of the internet there was no such thing as PHP, and everything was made of static HTML pages. Updating had to be done manually. Can you imagine what Wikipedia would've been like when all articles were static HTML and every one of them had to be updated manually?

[Obsidian]

Well, XHTML is for display, PHP is server-side scripting, SQL is database, CSS is for advanced styling, and JS is client-side scripting.

Personally, I excel at PHP/SQL, and the client-side and styling/display stuff (XHTML/CSS/JS) tends to be weaker.

But I'm getting better! Just takes time. Heck, last month I couldn't even code PHP5 OOP!

It all comes down to how the web is built up. Back at the dawn of the internet there was no such thing as PHP, and everything was made of static HTML pages. Updating had to be done manually. Can you imagine what Wikipedia would've been like when all articles were static HTML and every one of them had to be updated manually?

One word.

"Geocities".

Thank god that is going to die shortly.

Ha, lol! I like the last part you wrote... profanity... nice! :p

Well, it's the truth. Almost every programmer I know will begin to swear profusely when something goes wrong, so you'd think it a common requirement.

[CJ1985]

I have a wish list. If anyone cares. LOL

Wish List
1. A program that teachs, shows you how to work/code with PHP.
2. Coding to become easier.
3. Hair, because I've pulled all the last strains of what I did not have left.
4. Uhm, I don't know. lol

[Ganon_Master]

1. A program that teachs, shows you how to work/code with PHP.

If you find modding phpBB to hard to start with, then just try out some small PHP script on their own.

2. Coding to become easier.

It already is very easy; you just have to understand it.

3. Hair, because I've pulled all the last strains of what I did not have left.

Buy a wig.

4. Uhm, I don't know. lol

It is a mystery. ¯\(º_o)/¯

[CJ1985]

Ha ha ha! Thanks for the wig idea, ha! That will definitely stop people from staring at me. lol

I'm trying to learn it, but it's not going to happen over night. Ha

[Obsidian]

I'm trying to learn it, but it's not going to happen over night. Ha

No, you won't. I'd be surprised if anyone could.

Learning to code within the phpBB Codebase takes a lot of thyme.

[CJ1985]

Sometimes, too much time. lol

[CJ1985]

Okay. I am going to run an idea by with you guys, and see what you think. I've been thinking about this, and have been wanting this feature for a while now. I'm not sure how much work it would need or would be involved in this.

Bot Mod
Mod Description: A Mod that is added to the ACP, that allows for you to add 1 or more bots to the board assigning them to a site that pulls articles off the sites. There are additional options as well, read the features below.

Features:

• Create a bot account on your board, with just like anyone else has a profile and all.
• Can enable/disable mod through the ACP.
• You tell where to pull articles from, what kind of articles are allowed to be posted, and so forth.
• Amount of posts the bot can make a day.
• Assign the bot to 1 or more forums that it can post in.
• Give the option to enable/disable the post count. Meaning are the posts by the bot added to the total posts on the board.

This is all I can think of for right now. However, what do you guys think?? A lot of work, possible to do?

[igorw]

So will it pull rss feeds and post them to a specified forum?

[Obsidian]

• Give the option to enable/disable the post count. Meaning are the posts by the bot added to the total posts on the board.

I wouldn't use that as a feature, as you'll want to use phpBB's submit_post() function for creating posts if Igor is correct about what you're trying to do. It'd require some serious hacking of the submit_post() function, which would mean either copying the function (which restricts compatibility with older/newer phpBB3 versions, if changes are made to the function) or altering the function (which may disrupt the board or cause compatibility issues with other MODs).

As far as creating new topics/posts goes, I recently wrote a Bot Posting handler class, with some discussion on modders here, and also on STG here (read through the entire topic, there's documentation scattered all over).
You may want to use that.