This repository is a historical archive of phpBB2 Plus 1.53a, a pre-modded phpBB2 distribution that was originally based on phpBB 2.0.21. Its official phpBB baseline and database version identity are 2.0.23. The preserved code is patched beyond that release with ten post-release changes from the phpBB 2.0.23.x branch, applicable changes described by IntegraMOD as unofficial 2.0.24/2.0.25 patch levels, CrackerTracker Professional 5.0.6, and later local compatibility fixes. These patch-level names do not represent official phpBB releases or a wholesale replacement of the 2.0.23-based product, so the database version deliberately remains .0.23.

The repository exists to preserve the software and its history. It does not represent an active continuation of phpBB2 Plus, and no ongoing development, maintenance, or support is implied.

phpBB2 Plus combines phpBB2 with a large collection of extensions and a shared administration interface. Major bundled features include:

• portal and forum-index layouts;
• category hierarchy, announcements, calendars, recent topics, and statistics;
• attachments, a photo album, a download database, and a knowledge base;
• a shoutbox, custom profile fields, user groups, and additional moderation tools;
• CrackerTracker security and logging features;
• seven bundled styles, including FI Subsilver Shadow and six responsive styles preserved from IntegraMOD;
• English and German language directories.

The public hacks_list.php page is seeded with the historical phpBB2 Plus component credits and the later integrations whose identity can be verified from the preserved source. The source tree and CHANGELOG.md remain the authoritative records of code-level maintenance changes, which are not presented as separate MODs. Licenses and versions of JavaScript, CSS, fonts and icons bundled with the responsive styles are recorded separately in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

This is legacy software. The original phpBB2 and phpBB2 Plus projects are no longer supported, and this archive does not provide maintenance or security support. The included compatibility fixes reduce some runtime failures but do not make the complete application equivalent to a current forum platform or safe by default for an untrusted public deployment.

Use backups, test changes in an isolated environment, and review all migration scripts before running them against an existing forum.

• phpBB2/ contains the deployable forum application.
• phpBB2/README.md summarizes the application tree and its supported runtime scope for GitHub visitors browsing that directory.
• update/ contains clearly named legacy upgrade paths plus the consolidated post-1.53a database updater and UTF-8/search maintenance scripts. They are not needed during normal operation and must not remain in a public web root.
• set-permissions.sh applies the writable Unix permissions required by the forum.
• folder+file-permissions.txt documents the same writable paths and the shared-hosting fallback modes.
• CHANGELOG.md summarizes the preserved changes after 1.53a and includes the original phpBB2 Plus changelog.

The original installation flow is retained for archival and maintenance use:

1. Copy the contents of phpBB2/ to the intended web root.
2. Create an empty database and open install/install.php in a browser.
3. Complete the installer with the database and administrator details.
4. Remove or rename the install/ directory immediately after installation.
5. Apply the required writable permissions as described below.

The installer is legacy code. Perform a fresh installation only in a test environment until the exact PHP and database combination has been verified.

The fresh-install schema already contains the restored Arcade, Nuffload and DB Maintenance database structures as well as the IntegraMOD-derived responsive style, social-profile, cookie-consent and optional StopForumSpam fields. No separate SQL imports are required for a fresh installation.

The standalone DB Maintenance Emergency Recovery Console at admin/erc.php is disabled by default because it can make extensive database changes. To use it, temporarily add define('DBMTNC_ENABLE_ERC', true); to config.php, open the console only for the required recovery operation, and remove the setting immediately afterwards.

Before replacing files or running anything from update/:

1. Back up the complete database and the complete existing web root.
2. Preserve user-generated data, especially album uploads and thumbnails, attachments, avatars, smilies, ranks, screenshots, and download uploads.
3. Confirm which source version each legacy migration script expects. Do not run every legacy path indiscriminately.
4. Test the full upgrade and login/posting/upload workflows on a copy first.
5. Remove migration and installation scripts from the public web root when the upgrade is complete.

The old upgrade paths now state both their source and target in their names. Use only the path matching the installed database, for example update_plus_152_to_153a.php, update_plus_153_to_153a.php, or update_phpbb_20xx_to_plus_153a.php. The separately named phpBB, Attachment MOD and CrackerTracker updaters retain their historical scope.

After the database has reached the original 1.53a baseline, preview every post-release schema addition from the repository root:

php update/update_from_153a.php

Apply it only to a tested copy after verifying current backups:

php update/update_from_153a.php --apply --backup-confirmed

The updater is idempotent and preserves existing current configuration values. As required by the original CrackerTracker 4.x-to-5.x instructions, it removes the incompatible 4.x tables and user columns after preparing the 5.x schema. The old CrackerTracker settings and logs cannot be migrated and are discarded; the mandatory backup confirmation therefore also covers this cleanup.

Admin Userlist 2.1 (including Color Groups compatibility), Log Actions MOD 1.1.6 with Enhanced Log Actions, and Registration IP 1.1.2 are integrated in the application and in both fresh-install and post-1.53a database paths. Their historical source-package copies are therefore not duplicated in the repository.

Registration IP stores an IP address as account metadata. Operators must document and retain that data according to the privacy rules that apply to their deployment.

Digests, Registration Spam, and Rules & Policies are intentionally not part of the application. The duplicate IM Portal package is also excluded: phpBB2 Plus already contains the authoritative Smartor ezPortal implementation. Responsive portal templates in the style directories extend that existing portal and are not an installation of IM Portal.

The Arcade plays locally installed SWF games through the bundled Ruffle 0.5.0 self-hosting runtime; no CDN or browser plug-in is required. Game files and historical scores are deployment data and are not included in this repository. The existing phpBB Arcade score protocols remain in place: ordinary newscore.php submissions, IBProArcade, vBulletin and pnFlashGames requests continue through the original same-origin PHP endpoints. A small bridge also exposes otherwise unknown FSCommand calls as a browser event for optional, game-specific handling without guessing a score protocol.

Ruffle is an emulator rather than an exact Adobe Flash Player replacement. Compatibility depends on each SWF and its ActionScript/API usage, and score submission can only work when the game already implements one of the supported Arcade protocols. Games tied to unavailable remote services, unsupported ActionScript behavior, DRM or external assets may still fail and require an individual port. Only install SWFs from trusted sources: Arcade games are allowed same-origin networking and script access so that their legacy score protocols can operate.

The included .htaccess registers the WebAssembly MIME type. Operators adding a Content Security Policy must permit the locally served Ruffle scripts and WebAssembly execution (normally script-src 'self' 'wasm-unsafe-eval'; older browsers may require the broader 'unsafe-eval').

Distributed text sources, templates, English/German language files and mail templates are UTF-8. Fresh MySQL/MariaDB tables and the MySQLi connection use the matching utf8mb4 character set.

For an existing installation, put the forum into maintenance mode and create verified file and database backups. Test the complete procedure on a database clone first. From the repository root, inspect the conversion plan with:

php update/migrate_database_to_utf8mb4.php

An isolated database on the same server can be selected with --database=clone_name. Apply only after reviewing the selected database and the complete dry-run output:

php update/migrate_database_to_utf8mb4.php --apply --backup-confirmed
php update/rebuild_search_index.php --apply --backup-confirmed

The migration may shorten indexed configuration-name columns after first checking that no value would be truncated. It clears derived search tables before changing collations because formerly distinct words may collide under a Unicode collation. ALTER TABLE and TRUNCATE TABLE auto-commit; restore the verified backup if a conversion stops part-way through. Finally verify login, posting, private messages, search, administration and album uploads. Older databases that already contain UTF-8 bytes in columns labelled as Latin-1 need individual inspection—an unchecked conversion can create mojibake.

MySQLi is the supported modern database driver. Existing config.php files which still name mysql or mysql4 automatically use MySQLi, so they do not call the removed PHP mysql_* extension on PHP 7 or 8. Fresh installations offer only MySQL/MariaDB through MySQLi; obsolete and unsupported alternative database-driver sources are no longer distributed.

Git cannot preserve arbitrary directory permissions. On Unix-like hosting, preview the required changes from the repository root with:

./set-permissions.sh --dry-run /path/to/phpbb/webroot

Then apply them with:

./set-permissions.sh /path/to/phpbb/webroot

The defaults are 0775 for writable directories and 0664 for writable files. See folder+file-permissions.txt before using the historical world-writable fallback modes.

phpBB2 is copyright the phpBB Group and is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2; see COPYING.

phpBB2 Plus incorporates many third-party MODs and assets. Their original copyright notices, author credits, and license statements remain in the source files. Some bundled components may carry terms different from the phpBB2 base; the presence of the GPL text must not be interpreted as relicensing every third-party file in this historical distribution.