Updating/Installing phpBB MODs

This article currently needs to be rephrased to be worded better for the RoboWiki environment. Please edit this page to improve the article.

Updating phpBB MODs can be a pain, but advancements in the phpBB code base and AutoMOD (which I highly recommend not touching until it is stable) will make it easier in due time.

It is very easy to to learn how to upgrade or install a phpBB MOD. After finding the MOD information page and downloading the compressed file, you can look at this page which will explain pretty much everything needed for installing or upgrading a MOD.

For more information on FTP, check here.

Backing Up

But before you install any MODs, I highly recommend that you back up all files on the server. Plus it is good practice.

• Backing up all forum files. This means FTP'ing into the site, and downloading the forums/ directory to your computer. All of it, nothing more, nothing less.
• Backing up the SQL files. This can be done easily and backups all the data in the forum; without this it is useless.
  1. From the cPanel page, scroll down the "Database" section and click on "phpMyAdmin"
  2. On the lefthand navbar, select "_phpBB3" (as of January 2010)
  3. In the right hand main frame, click on the "Export" tab.
     • Note: There is also a "SQL" tab which is used for executing mySQL/database queries which may be need by some MODs.
     • The default settings work fine. Make sure you select all the tables (just press "Select All").
     • At the bottom, check "Save as File" and select "Zipped" as the method of compression.
  4. Press "Go" and save the file to a safe location.

If all goes well, phpBB will work fine and not blow up. If it does throw a error back at you (which will either be just a blank page with a error or in-line with the forums), there are several forums to help you fix it (if you cannot figure out what you did wrong to begin with):

• phpBBHacks.com
• phpBB.com

Errors

Before going to a forum for help, just to prevent yourself looking like a idiot for missing something so simple, check this out:

• Double checking your file edits
  • Check you edited the right file
  • Check you modified the correct line in the correct place
  • Check you modified the line in the correct way
• Make sure you copied the modified files over the server
• Check you copied over any files that were included with the MOD that needed to be copied over
  • i.e. - Files that are custom created by the MOD author

Overall, you should be good with that. If in doubt, check the external links.

External Links

• phpBBHacks.com
• phpBB.com
• Installing Mods - phpBB.com