Understanding PHP Forum code

Hi,

I do have some basic PHP understanding but I'm especially strong in programming languages like Java, C#, VB6, C++, ... And I do have a lot of experience with design patterns and best practices, but not in the field of website-development.

In the past I installed a PHPBB forum and build a kind of diagram-system around it. However, because I do not understand the basic design idea behind PHPBB, the code became a mess. Allthough the code worked the way it had to, I could not implement all what I wanted because I did not know enough about the structure behind the forum-code.

I've been looking for advanced documentation or tutorials in understanding php forum sourcecode, but without succes so far. A guide which explains which code is stored where and explains the directory structure would be a great start.

I was hoping maybe somebody in here has encountered something like this before? All links/help/guidelines are welcome. Thank you in advance.

You need to have a look at their development site. I do believe PHPbb has a plugin API; so it may be better if you consider using this rather than making any direct changes to the source code.

Development Area: http://www.phpbb.com/development/
Source Code Documentation: http://area51.phpbb.com/docs/code/

My mistake. Just checked, no plugin API.