Addons
 

Wouldnt it be a lot easier to have an Addons forum so that we an see which AHck/addons require no actuall hacing and we can see what wont be affected by upgrades?

How can anyone predict what files will be changed in the next upgrade?

I'm not quite following, addons are addons to modifications. Therefore they will always require code hacking

I believe what he is saying is that some mod's are released as a complete script that does not require hacking or template mod's. A statistcs module is such an example. In this case, one simply runs something like "./forum/statistics.php" as provided by the contributor.

This is most often mentioned in a new hack post, perhaps simply by saying "Files to modify: 0", but it would be better if the vb.org hacks database recorded such things.

While I agree that installing an addon wil not require you to retrofit a code change after a vB upgrade, it is a gamble that you will not have to fix/modify the addon after a new release.

Hacks released on vb.org do not use an API/SDK approach, so they make use of hundreds of assumptions regarding variable names and structure.

As a simple example, if vBulletin 3.1 were to change the structure of the navbar array, all the addons would break. That is because they build the navbar data "by hand". There is no vb.org API/SDK we can use to do such a task. If there were, then after a new release, all we'd have to do to fix most hacks/addons that used the vb.org API/SDK, is upgrade and re-release the API/SDK. An admin would install the new version of the SDK/API any hacks/addons affected by the upgrade would work again.

More simply put, if 100 hacks/addons used the function vbapi_make_navbar(), all we'd ever have to do is fix that single function when the underlying navbar logic was changed by vBulletin.

See related discussion here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=68028

Yes, im sorry i didnt clarify that:P Thank you