Minimun Tables for Global.php?

[ajhalls]

I have something written for vBulletin that I want to start to pull out and have it be a stand alone project that can be re-integrated with vBulletin, WP, or just run on it's own. We started building things little by little, but have become less dependent on the features of vBulletin and just want to simplify our code so it is easier to maintain with regular PHP guys instead of vBulletin experts.

I copied it to a dev server with all the associated tables for my stuff along with the following directories:
/admincp
/includes
/images
/js
/themes

This should all be temporary, I am just trying to get it working first, then start deleting everything I can, then when it breaks, go back and debug to find what things were dependent on vBulletin code so it can be re-written.

I realize it is going to need some tables during the transition till I get my own such as user, userfield, usergroup, datastore and such, I am just curious what would be the minimum list of tables to be able to pull up a page? Currently it keeps redirecting to the install area. (I think even if everything was there, there is something that is supposed to get changed for the new install location, I don't remember where off the top of my head. I don't want to run the upgrade.php script, I just want to stop throwing errors while I remove it piece by piece)

Sorry, I know this is a crazy type question, just trying to simplify things a bit.

[Zachery]

The minimum would realistically be the entire database.

[vBNinja]

There is no minimum, you're basically trying to create your own software so there should be as many as you need

[ajhalls]

Understand, I just keep getting errors with a page like this:

<?php

error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'flashcard');

$specialtemplates = array('flashcard_catcache');
$globaltemplates = array('shell_blank');
$template_hook = array();


require_once('./global.php');

define('IS_ADMIN', is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, 6));

$catcache =& $vbulletin->flashcard_catcache;

if (!$_REQUEST['do'])
{
	$_REQUEST['do'] = 'home';
}

require_once(DIR . '/includes/flashcard_functions.php');

$navbits['flashcard.php'] = 'Flashcards';



// ##### Homepage #############################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'home')
{
	$html = '<h2 class="blockhead">Browse Categories</h2> 
	<div class="blockbody">';

	foreach ($catcache AS $catid => $cats)
	{
		if ($cats['level'] > 3)
		{
			continue;
		}
		
		if ($cats['toplevel'])
		{
			$html .= '<div class="blocksubhead" style="font-weight: bold">' . str_repeat('--', ($cats['level'] - 1)) . '<a href="flashcard.php?do=browse&amp;catid=' . $cats['catid'] . '">' . $cats['title'] . '</a></div>';
		}
		else
		{
			$html .= '<div class="blockrow">[<a href="flashcard.php?do=start&amp;catid=' . $cats['catid'] . '">Take Quiz</a>] ' . str_repeat('--', ($cats['level'] - 1)) .  $cats['title'] . ' (' . $cats['questioncount'] . ' Questions)</div>';
		}
	}

	$html .= '</div>';
}
if ($html)
{
	$pagetitle = ($navbits['']) ? $navbits[''] : 'Flashcards';

	$navbits = construct_navbits($navbits);
	$navbar = render_navbar_template($navbits);

	$templater = vB_Template::create('shell_blank');
	$templater->register_page_templates();
	$templater->register('html', $html);
	$templater->register('navbar', $navbar);
	$templater->register('pagetitle', $pagetitle);

	print_output($templater->render());
}

In particular define('IS_ADMIN', is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, 6)); and also require_once(DIR . '/includes/flashcard_functions.php');. I assume I don't need tables like tag, reminder, reputation, but do I need settings, phrase, all the user tables, style, what about stylevar... You can't need every table for a simple page.

As our software got bigger, working with version control became more important, but with 1/2 the code in the database under plugins and templates it made it miserable and we gave up doing more than regular full backups. We need to step back from using eval() and ob_start() so much and need to find which tables are required till I can replace things like the $templater and stuff.

[Zachery]

If your page is actually that... do you mean you're seeing php being output as text? If so, that means PHP isn't installed/configured.

[tbworld]

In my opinion (trying to be helpful), you are going down the wrong path. Restructure and modularize your code on paper and then just rewrite your code to stand-alone -- while keeping in mind your desire to integrate with other products.

The approach you are taking will be too time consuming. I am sure you will have to learn a few new code structures before you are done, but you will always have your old code on vBulletin to observe it's execution.

My two cents.

[ajhalls]

Originally Posted by Zachery

If your page is actually that... do you mean you're seeing php being output as text? If so, that means PHP isn't installed/configured.

Sorry no Zachery, I was checking the apache log and those 2 things in red were causing problems.

Tbworld, You could be right, I don't consider myself to be a strong coder so I usually make very small changes at a time, save and see if I broke / fixed it. I am not sure how I would do that on paper. I do OK usually debugging things, it just seems I am chasing my tail on this and at the moment it keeps redirecting to the install area.

[tbworld]

Originally Posted by ajhalls

TBWORLD, You could be right, I don't consider myself to be a strong coder so I usually make very small changes at a time, save and see if I broke / fixed it. I am not sure how I would do that on paper. I do OK usually debugging things, it just seems I am chasing my tail on this and at the moment it keeps redirecting to the install area.

I do think the scope of your project, for you, is too ambitious at this time. Why not experiment or expand your current program under the vbulletin environment. This will teach you the ins and outs of vbulletin allowing you to see how to separate your code from the vBulletin environment/framework. All this time you are spending guessing on how things should be separated, could be spent on expanding your knowledge of programming. If you are working under vBulletin in a straight and forward manor you should be able to receive lot's of help here. Many of us like an easy project to assist with.

There is some great reading material out there that can assist you with understanding current code structures and frameworks. If you need references, just ask.