Plugin development

[TibiaPF]

Hello,

I've got the dBTech shoutbox, and I don't like some styling elements of it, so I'm looking to modify it. Unfortunately, I've come undone at the first hurdle. I've found the file product_vbtechvbshout.xml to contain what looks to be the code itself which specifies all CSS and HTML for it, but I can't seem to work out how to get changes to propagate.

So:

Can someone advise if this file is only propagated when the plugin is installed?
Does anyone know if modifying it will violate some license?

Finally:

Has anyone got any advice on how hard it would be to upgrade a VB4 plugin to work with VB5?

[Dave]

The import file is only used during the installation process. After that, you will have to edit the templates/hook files. You are usually free to modify the files to your needs, but you can ask the author of the plugin about that for confirmation.

[shimei]

The shoutbox is like DB info panels, you will make changes to the template files, and also additional_css. I have the shout box and info panels installed on my site and have tweaked the shoutbox but have disabled it. You can view the info panel customizations on my site using Vb5. The reason I don't use the shoutbox is because I have dedicated chat and the shoutbox for Db has missing features, which are to do with displaying posts and replies in vb5. When those features become available I plan to replace info panels with the shoutbox.

[TibiaPF]

Thank you chaps, answered my questions perfectly!