README

Icy Phoenix (IP) is a legacy CMS/forum platform based on phpBB.

Project summary
- Hybrid architecture: mostly procedural PHP with some OOP components.
- Main use case: community portal with forum, CMS pages, user profiles, PM, plugins, themes, and admin panel.
- Historical codebase: compatibility-oriented, with conventions inherited from phpBB/Icy Phoenix.

Core structure
- Root PHP entry points: index.php, forum.php, posting.php, viewtopic.php, search.php, profile.php, etc.
- Bootstrap flow: entry point -> common.php -> includes/* core services.
- Core libraries: includes/.
- Admin area: adm/.
- Plugins/extensions: plugins/.
- Presentation layer: templates/.
- Technical documentation: docs/ (including docs/ip_coding_standards.html).

Technology stack
- Runtime: legacy PHP.
- Web server: Apache (typically via XAMPP on local development).
- Database: MySQL/MariaDB through the internal DB abstraction layer.

Local development quick start
1. Start Apache and MySQL from XAMPP.
2. Open http://localhost/ip/.
3. Verify local DB credentials in config.php.

Coding conventions (high level)
- Use tabs for indentation and keep LF line endings.
- Preserve legacy patterns and avoid large refactors when applying fixes.
- Prefer request_var() for input normalization.
- Use internal DB layer ($db) and sql_escape() for string input in SQL.

Reference
- Additional historical docs: readme.txt
- Official legacy documentation: http://www.icyphoenix.com/docs/readme_english.html