parentlist field question
 

parentlist -> [high]2[/high],[high]1[/high],[high]-1[/high]
what those highlighted values stand for? thanks.

2 = the forum's ID
1 = the forum's parent's ID
-1 = the forum's parent's parent's ID
And so on. (-1 stands for no parent, so you will always have -1 at the end)

thanks firefly for the clear answer.
in other order of ideas, if i do a clean install on my test board and i want to add a forum that will already be private (viewable only to admins and mods), could i do it olny by editing the install.php? or i have to edit the permissions after in CP? i wonder if there is a way to have it set from the install file.

i ask all this because i want to have a modified backup copy of my forums. the only backup that i would do will be the users and posts. so if i want to upgrade, all i have to do i run my "clean" install file and add to the database the users and posts. in this way, i can compare it with araxis merge first, insert the new code, then run the installer and bingo my forums have a new fresh updated version with all the hacks and html code updated automatically.

You could just insert two rows allowing the mods and admins to see the forums, its in forumperms table.

thanks scott. the problem is i still learn the proper usage of tables. VB is a good learning tool for me. could you give me an example? thanks alot.