UBB.Developers Forums UBB.threads 7 Development How Do I? Hack Installation

Well, I'm new to installing UBB Hacks, so I was wondering if you could help me.

How do you install them? Does it differ from hack to hack or is it all using the same method?

All you need is the hack instructions and a decent plain-text editor. I usually have two text documents open at once. One with the instructions and the other the specific UBB file I need to edit. I simply copy and paste the code mod from the instructions over to the UBB file.

Use editplus. You can have multiple documents open in the same program without having to open a new program each time...

Where can I obtain EditPlus?


Another Q, should I back-up my UBB everytime before Installation, and how do I do that?

The text editor doesn't really matter. Just go to http://www.hotfiles.com and do a search for text editors, or type in EditPlus for a search.

And yes, ALWAYS backup your UBB and/or site before making any changes. I suggest just using the tar command (UNIX-only) to backup your entire site, keeping the directory structure and permissions in tact. In fact, if you server has crontab, I would just set that up to tar your site every night and then set another crontab event to email the file to you automatically.

http://www.editplus.com/download.html

When you are asked to modify a file, just keep a copy of it from before it was hacked in case you have to un-hack.

BACKUP!!! I'm a little anal about this. For all the UBB's I maintain I have it mirrored (backed up) on my local hard drive THREE times. I'll have a "working" version, and "backup" version, and then a version to modify. The "backup" version is one that I save every 2-4 weeks, and is my emergency fall back.

Basically, when I go to install a hack, I start with 2 versions of the board on my HD....so I can rapidly re-upload when my stupid fingers mess up a hack!! LOL