Breaking Changes in v1.10.00

Customizing and migrating to v1.10.00 will require some new changes.

Queries

There are two main changes that affect all database queries in XMB.

Global $db Service Locator

Instead of providing a global variable named $db, XMB now offers two services named db and sql.

For a direct replacement of the global shared object reference, just add this near the top of your file:

$db = \XMB\Services\db();

If you need to create a 2nd database connection (to a different account or server) within your script, then use the revised class name instead:

$db2 = new \XMB\MySQLiDatabase(debug: false, logErrors: true);
$db2->connect(...);

Internally, XMB is starting to use methods of the shared sql service instead of direct or prepared statements. This results in cleaner and more secure code. For example, to get the shared service and check your inbox:

$sql = \XMB\Services\sql();
$vars = \XMB\Services\vars();

$msgCount = $sql->countU2UInbox($vars->self['username']);

If you wish to write similar query methods, the best practice is to create your own object class rather than try to modify the XMB service.

The X_PREFIX Constant

Instead of providing a global constant named X_PREFIX, XMB now stores the $tablepre variable from config.php as a property of the shared vars service. The direct replacement looks like this:

$vars = \XMB\Services\vars();

$statement = 'SELECT * FROM' . $vars->tablepre . 'ranks';

Example

Here is an actual query from the old cp2.php file:

require 'header.php';

$query = $db->query("SELECT * FROM ".X_PREFIX."restricted ORDER BY id");

Here is how it changed in the new restrictions.php file during development of v1.10.00:

require ROOT . 'header.php';

$db = \XMB\Services\db();
$vars = \XMB\Services\vars();

$query = $db->query("SELECT * FROM " . $vars->tablepre . "restricted ORDER BY id");

Templates

The template system has moved to the templates subdirectory of the website and is no longer stored in the database.

Deleted Functions

The loadtemplates() and template() functions do not exist in v1.10.00. They have been replaced by the shared template service. To render a simple template, the code now looks like this:

$template = \XMB\Services\template();

$output = $template->process('file_name.php');

Registered Global Variables

This will be the first version of XMB where it is impossible to pass a variable directly from user input to template output.

In older versions, it was possible and sometimes adequate to sanitize a global variable such as $fid = (int) $fid; and use it in the template without further consideration.

Starting with v1.10.00 it is required to manually register each variable with the shared template service or a separate instance (discussed later). Here is how we might handle the old $fid input:

$template = \XMB\Services\template();

$template->fid = \XMB\getInt('fid');

You might notice there isn't any defined property named fid in the underlying service. This is called a dynamic property and it was chosen as one of the cleanest styles available for coding.

Of course, most pages need more than one variable, so you might want to import the XMB function names or the entire namespace for an even cleaner look.

namespace XMB;

$template = Services\template();

$template->fid = getInt('fid');
$template->pid = getInt('pid');

Registered Shared Variables

To provide backward compatibility with old templates, the shared template service automatically registers four variables for you:

• $full_url
• $lang
• $SETTINGS
• $THEME

In addition to that, there are more services automatically registering some variables with the shared template service so that the entire header.php template is always ready to render.

There is one caveat: This works for old variables, not the obsolete ones. Due to the removal of all global variables, any array elements of the settings and theme systems are no longer registered individually. In other words, the obsolete $bbname must be expressed as $SETTINGS['bbname'] and the obsolete $bordercolor must be expressed as $THEME['bordercolor']. There are similar concerns with the $lang array elements if you are trying to migrate from an obsolete version less than v1.9.

Full PHP Syntax

This is the biggest change to the templates themselves. Don't worry, there is a conversion script available for anyone who needs to convert old custom templates.

Templates are now processed as full PHP. In older versions, templates were stored in the website itself and processed as string literals to prevent remote code execution.

The preferred style for variable replacement is short tags. So instead of $full_url you would write <?= $full url ?>.

Working With Multiple Templates

In most situations, it is okay to use the shared template service without worrying about performance or unexpected results.

The most obvious exception would be a template that is recursive in nature or that calls multiple other templates for processing. In this case, you do need to worry about variable name collisions in the shared service.

The next exception would be a reusable function that needs to process templates. In this case, there is no way to know if the caller already used similar variable names that would get overwritten by the custom function.

In any situation where it's easier to use a separate template processor, simply create one:

$template = \XMB\Services\template();
$vars = \XMB\Services\vars();

$other = new \XMB\Template($vars);
$other->addRefs(); // Add this method call when you need the theme array.

$template->fid = 10;
$other->fid = 20;

$forum10 = $template->process('forum.php');
$forum20 = $other->process('forum.php');

Beware the header.php template should always be processed by the shared service because that's where XMB populates those variables.

Example Script

Here is an excerpt of the old faq.php script:

require 'header.php';

if ($SETTINGS['faqstatus'] == 'off' && $page != 'forumrules') {
    header('HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden');
    loadtemplates('misc_feature_notavailable');
    eval('$header = "'.template('header').'";');
    eval('$featureoff = "'.template('misc_feature_notavailable').'";');
    end_time();
    eval('$footer = "'.template('footer').'";');
    echo $header, $featureoff, $footer;
    exit();
}

Here is the same code used in the development of v1.10.00. Notice the $footerstuff array is no longer set globally by the new version of the end_time() method. It must be passed to the desired template processor by the caller instead.

require './header.php';

$core = \XMB\Services\core();
$template = \XMB\Services\template();
$vars = \XMB\Services\vars();

if ($vars->settings['faqstatus'] == 'off' && $page != 'forumrules') {
    header('HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden');
    $header = $template->process('header.php');
    $featureoff = $template->process('misc_feature_notavailable.php');
    $template->footerstuff = $core->end_time();
    $footer = $template->process('footer.php');
    echo $header, $featureoff, $footer;
    exit();
}

Example Template

Here is an excerpt of the old footer template.

<br />
$footerstuff[totaltime]
$footerstuff[querynum]
$footerstuff[phpsql]
$footerstuff[load]
$footerstuff[querydump]
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Here is the same part of the new footer.php template in development of v1.10.00:

<br />
<?= $footerstuff['totaltime'] ?>
<?= $footerstuff['querynum'] ?>
<?= $footerstuff['phpsql'] ?>
<?= $footerstuff['load'] ?>
<?= $footerstuff['querydump'] ?>
</td>
</tr>
</table>