Throughout this chapter, you will be learning about and using a new skill that will be very useful to you as the administrator of a phpBB forum. You have already learned about some of the powerful configurations and features available through the Administration Control Panel, but there are many more that are not found there. These features can only be accessed (or in some cases, added) by editing phpBB’s files yourself. You must be careful to follow proper procedures when altering the files because phpBB is a delicate and complicated set of scripts. Doing so can save you a lot of headaches later, as many have learned first hand.
Note
You will be reminded of these procedures at several later points in the book. Try to follow them before manually editing any files, even if you are not reminded. This cannot be stressed enough, because these procedures can save you a lot of time when dealing with problems.
Before editing any file, the most important thing you should do is...