phpBB architecture and other docs

[max_fl]

Hello!

I'd like to start as a phpBB developer. Are there any docs describing phpBB high level architecture, middle level architecture or some other docs that can help to start understanding of phpBB sources code?

Thanks.

[TerryE]

I am just a community member like you, but I am actively involved in another couple of FLOSS projects (VirtualBox and OpenOffice.org). I know my way around all three code bases quite well now. IMHO, the answer (for all three is "HaHa, you wish!". There is the source and that's all folks. No doubt the team did develop internal architecture documents during the design, but they're probably out of date and kept in-team. You will also find that were they do produce such artefacts they tend to focus on delta features, assuming a base knowledge of the architecture.

BTW, this is very much the same for OpenOffice.org and VirtualBox, so I am not having a pop at phpBB here. It's just how these FLOSS packages tend to be developed. Getting to know your way around the product and the source base is just a right of passage. At least there's only a couple of hundred thousand lines in the case of phpBB; there's over 2M in OOo

I did suggest on the support forum that the team encourage community contributions to help in this area. The answers were a mix of total disinterest to words to effect of "if you do that, then you'll only get a load of dumb Qs".

[codlet]

Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective on the situation.

I also have been looking for some kind of overview of the code structure. The closest I got was some phpxref pages put up by independent parties. I have been a bit surprised to find this lacking in many open source projects, and wondering about the reasons for this (lack of time and resources, not seen as worth the effort, better to just read and try the source code, no established practices, ...?)

I would be interested in participating in a community effort to produce an architectural overview, and at the same time learn about how to do it in the best way, since I find the area interesting but lack experience of it.

Does anyone know of open source projects that do provide architectural documentation? If so they could maybe serve as an example and starting point.

[TerryE]

My best suggestion is that there is a skeleton wiki already set up for this purpose. My best suggestion is to register and start developing some examples in your user page sandboxes. If the development team like your contributions then they might feel it worthwhile to give you feed back and encourage you to move your work from the User to the Main space.

[sumitkrdey]

Hello

I am new to PHBB .. I started with PHPBB3. I am trying to figure out the flow. How exactly the flow is happening.

I am stuck at a point where the data is pulled and then shown in the templates ..

for eg: the topics are being shown using "viewforum_body.html" using {L_ACTIVE_TOPICS} . I am not getting how is that getting populated after the flow entered "viewforum.php"

Could you please help.

Thanks

[A_Jelly_Doughnut]

Template variables prefixed with "L_" are auotomatically populated from the language system.

Code: Select all

{L_ACTIVE_TOPICS}

is automatically handled as if

Code: Select all

$template->assign_var('L_ACTIVE_TOPICS', $user->lang['ACTIVE_TOPICS']);

had been performed beforehand.

[callumacrae]

It's best just to mess about with the source code, asking on phpbb.com if you have any issues.

~Callum