How to read vbulletin->options from database?

[Lionel]

The idea: I am releasing this slideshow mod found in my homepage
which auto updates: install and forget about it.
It's a dynamic flash slideshow that reads from an XML.

I decided to release it with 3 different layouts options. All was fine the way I did it with database, until I thought it would be neat to allow users to customize it to their taste. So in vb options they have 3 choices of layout. Plus they can make it the colors they want plus it uses phrases for the non english members..

So the plugins for when creating/updating/deleting a thread create an xml whenever there are actions in preset forums.

the template in database (lots of lines) so I am putting only this. $vbphrase are also involved.

etc... etc... <Background backgroundColor=\"".$vbulletin->options['cover_main_bg']."\" etc... etc...

So depending on user choice, I select appropriate template from db and create the XML on the fly.

And as described in first post, what gets written in the xml is the raw code, no matter what I try.