[kh99]

Originally Posted by deadlySniper

I can make all my own PHP but have it pull in the necessary vbulletin files to make it work?

Plugins let you execute php code at certain points in the existing vbulletin php scripts, so you can modify or add to the functionality. In that case you probably don't need to worry about bringing in vb files. Another thing you can do is make your own php scripts, in that case you need to include vb files. Lynne wrote an article on how to do that: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=228112

I understand the XML part as far as for displaying purpose, but could I make my html and then convert it to xml?

Templates are like html with some added tags to provide conditions and variable replacement. So you definitely could write your html then copy it to a template.