Project Compatibility
Written on July 22, 2008 by Mike Gerwitz
MyCustomBB was designed with the intention of integration into other systems. Forums are only one part of a website - therefore, it can only be assumed that the software will be integrated into other systems. It needs to be ensured that MyCustomBB does not conflict with such systems. This means that variables, functions, classes and constants must be named in such a way that they do not conflict.
Therefore, the following has been decided:
- All constants will be prefixed with “MCBB_”
- All core variables and functions will be prefixed with “mcbb_” (e.g. $mcbb_user rather than $user)
- All core classes will be prefixed with “mcbb” (e.g. mcbbTplSys)
This will, obviously, require a bit of code re-writing. However, considering I’m going through every file as it is to bring it up to new standards (some code is nearly two years old), I would rather do this now than later. It will also be tedious for developers to use the prefixes, but I feel it will pay off by allowing administrators to easily integrate MyCustomBB into their site.
I have also decided on a PHP version to push toward - PHP 5.1.x (hopefully 5.1.2). The minor version may change, however I will be sure to make any features that require higher PHP versions optional. I did not want to require 5.2.x because I am unsure how many web hosts use that version (hell, I’m unsure how many use 5.1.x). 5.3.x is tempting, but I’m afraid I must resist. No web hosts would support it for quite a while 
Posted in Development
