[Wired1]

By George, I think I've got it! The code you mentioned that is hard coded doesn't go directly into the $forum. Somewhere along the line it gets turned into $forum['options']. Took ages, but I finally stumbled upon the sequence:

PHP Code:

$options = array(
    'displayorder' => 1,
    'daysprune' => 30,
    'parentid' => $parentid,
    'styleid' => '',
    'cancontainthreads' => 1,
    'active' => 1,
    'allowposting' => 1,
    'allowbbcode' => 1,
    'allowsmilies' => 1,
    'allowicons' => 1,
    'allowimages' => 1,
    'allowratings' => 1,
    'countposts' => 1,
    'indexposts' => 1,
    'showonforumjump' => 1,
    'warnall' => 0
);

$forum['options'] = convert_array_to_bits($options, $_FORUMOPTIONS); 


Here's the (I think) complete code to automate the creation of a forum:

PHP Code:

require_once('./global.php'); 
require_once('./includes/functions_misc.php'); 
require_once('./includes/adminfunctions_forums.php'); 
require_once('./includes/adminfunctions.php');

$parentid = 12;
$title = 'Some foobar title';
$description = 'Some foobar description';

$forum = array( 
    'displayorder' => 1,
    'daysprune' => 30,
    'parentid' => $parentid,
    'title' => $title,
    'description' => $description,
    'styleid' => '0'
);

$options = array(
    'displayorder' => 1,
    'daysprune' => 30,
    'parentid' => $parentid,
    'styleid' => '',
    'cancontainthreads' => 1,
    'active' => 1,
    'allowposting' => 1,
    'allowbbcode' => 1,
    'allowsmilies' => 1,
    'allowicons' => 1,
    'allowimages' => 1,
    'allowratings' => 1,
    'countposts' => 1,
    'indexposts' => 1,
    'showonforumjump' => 1,
    'warnall' => 0
);

$forum['options'] = convert_array_to_bits($options, $_FORUMOPTIONS);

$parentlist = fetch_forum_parentlist($forum['parentid']); 
$DB_site->query(fetch_query_sql($forum, 'forum')); 

$forumid = $DB_site->insert_id(); 
$DB_site->query(" 
        UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "forum 
        SET parentlist='" . addslashes("$forumid,$parentlist") . "', 
        childlist = '$forumid,-1' 
        WHERE forumid = $forumid 
"); 

build_forum_parentlists($forumid);
build_forum_child_lists($parentid); 

build_forum_permissions(); 


I'm pretty sure this won't qualify as a hack per se, but I hope this code will help out other vB module coders out there!

Now, does anyone see any potential errors or boo-boos that I might have missed? It is 5:10 AM for me after all