vBulletins plugin system

[Markowitch]

Hi vBulletin.org

I am a technical administrator of a board that is running a phpBB2 portal system with all sort of mods and hacks installed. I am really really frustrated with phpBB2 for one reason - the lack of a plugin system. That is why I am considering vBulletin. After having read the documentation for v. 3.5.1, I saw that products (or plugins as I would call them) are easily registered and deregistered in the administration part of vBulletin and there is a strait forward api for upgrading and uninstalling plugins

I never fully figured the difference between a mod and a hack in phpbb2 and I know this is not the place ask. But, commen to them both, is that they only can be applied in phpBB2 by messing with the core system php files. This "sollution" - if you can call it that - makes it very difficult to upgrade the site when security patches are released. Further, applying new mods becomes timeconsuming. The more mods, the more work patching - it is a nightmare and a recipe for disaster and takes alot of my time!! :angry:

I hope very much that vBulletin can be extended by only using plugins and the product manager. Thus making it possible to patch the core vBulletin system files easy because they are not tainted all over by hacks.

So my question is, can every extension of vBulletin be done in the framework of the plugin system, or do I have to modify vBulletin system files if I need e.g. a portal? If the answer is negative. How can I be convinced that security patching won't become a real time consumer?

ohh btw. Here is a quote from Fritz Onion that wrote a series of articles at pluralsight about MFC.

While this methods works, it violates the open/closed principle of leaving
code open to extension but closing it to modification.

Looking forward to read your answers