I've spent some time over the last 2 years trying to figure out if it's possible to archive posts acting as a regular user. Aiming for eventual recovery in a similar public forum, of course.
So far, the conclusion is that it is possible, but with some nuances.
phpBB generally has this data flow:
[Original Post Text] -> Transformation 1 -> [Database Representation] -> Transformation 2 -> [Browsable HTML]
And on Quote/Edit:
[Database Representation] -> Transformation 3 -> [HTML Form Fields]
Unfortunately, it turns out that all three transformations are many-to-many.
The reason is code evolution (upgrades, installing modules) and forum settings changes (posting while settings are in some state, editing/displaying while settings are in another state).
For those parsing the HTML code, I want to share an identified bug in the forum configuration.
The Hidden and Hidden=title BB tags are tranfromed to
- Code: Select all
-- HTML text
<div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;">
<div style="border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.9em; font-weight: bold; display: block;">
<span onclick=" ... long script ... "/> <========= a bug, see that the span tag is self-closed but is additionally closed later. Firefox ignores self-closure, php ignores later closure.
<b>Hidden Text: </b>
<a href="#" onclick="return false;">Show</a>
</span>
</div>
<div class="quotecontent">
<div style="display: none;">
<dl ...
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
--- Firefox parsed data
<div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;">
<div style="border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.9em; font-weight: bold; display: block;">
<span ...>
<b>Hidden Text: </b>
<a href="#" onclick="return false;">Show</a>
</span>
</div>
<div class="quotecontent">
<div style="display: none;">
<dl ...
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
--- php parsed data
<div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;">
<div style="border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.9em; font-weight: bold; display: block;">
<span .../>
<b>Hidden Text: </b>
<a href="#" onclick="return false;">Show</a>
</div>
<div class="quotecontent">
<div style="display: none;">
<dl ...
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
MD
