I had been browsing the article section for a bit, but I was looking in the wrong area. Found this one that explains using $vbulletin->db
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=119350
I can spend an hour looking...but as soon as I post the question I will stumble on the answer in 5 minutes
Do you mean reading the source files when you say "simply read vBulletin core files"? I would rather not be digging deep into the php files for what are probably simple questions and answers if possible.
Thanks for the feedback..now that I know where to look in the article section I will start reading up...need to learn how to add admin options and settings