Admin UI Guide
A walkthrough of every VaultBB Core ACP page on phpBB 3.3.x.
Admin UI Guide
Once VaultBB Core is installed and enabled, a VaultBB tab appears in the phpBB ACP navigation. Core itself occupies four pages under ACP → VaultBB → VaultBB Core. Additional entries are injected here by any other active VaultBB extensions.
Dashboard
ACP → VaultBB → VaultBB Core → Dashboard
The Dashboard is the at-a-glance view of the entire VaultBB ecosystem on your forum.
Notifications
If any active VaultBB extension has posted a persistent notification (e.g. a failed update check or a configuration warning), it appears as a dismissible alert at the top of the Dashboard. Clicking the dismiss button removes it from the queue permanently.
Metrics
A strip of metric tiles shows live counts:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Total Extensions | Number of rows in the registry |
| Active | Extensions currently marked as active |
| Inactive | Extensions registered but disabled |
| Updates Available | Extensions whose registry version is below the manifest |
Health Checks
Two status rows confirm that the required database tables exist:
- Registry table (
phpbb_vaultbb_registry) — Active / Inactive - Logs table (
phpbb_vaultbb_logs) — Active / Inactive
If either shows Inactive, the table is missing. Re-running the enable/purge cycle on VaultBB Core will recreate it.
Registered Extensions
A table listing every extension in the Registry, showing extension name, version, minimum Core version required, registered date, last updated date, and an active/inactive badge.
Updates
Below the extension list, a collapsible section shows update status for each registered extension:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Up to date | Registry version matches or exceeds the latest release |
| Update available | A newer version was found in the remote manifest |
| Unknown | Extension not found in the remote manifest |
Click Refresh Updates to immediately invalidate the update cache and re-fetch the manifest.
The Dashboard update check uses the cached result from the last manifest fetch. The cache TTL is configured on the Settings page (default: 6 hours). Refreshing from the Dashboard counts as a manual invalidation — the next load triggers a fresh remote check.
Logs
ACP → VaultBB → VaultBB Core → Logs
The Logs page displays audit log entries from the phpbb_vaultbb_logs table, newest first, with 30 entries per page.
Filters
Three filter fields narrow the results before querying:
| Filter | Matches against |
|---|---|
| Source | The log_source column (e.g. core, minpostchars) |
| Action | The log_action column (e.g. settings_updated) |
| Username | Looks up the user ID for the entered username |
Filters are applied together (AND logic). Submitting the filter form resets pagination to page 1.
Reading a Log Entry
Each entry shows the source (the extension that wrote the log), the action (what happened), the user who triggered it (or "System" for automated actions), the IP address recorded at the time, a formatted timestamp, and a collapsible context JSON block with the full payload. Click Show context to expand it.
Severity
The VaultBB Logger for phpBB does not use named severity levels — all entries are equal-weight audit records. Severity-style colouring is not applied in this version.
Settings
ACP → VaultBB → VaultBB Core → Settings
See the Configuration & Settings page for a full reference of every option available here.
Tools
ACP → VaultBB → VaultBB Core → Tools
The Tools page provides manual housekeeping actions. All actions are protected by phpBB's CSRF form key.
Clear Registry Cache
Immediately busts the object-cache entry for the extension Registry. Use this after enabling or disabling a VaultBB extension via a non-standard method, or if the Dashboard is showing stale active/inactive state. The action is logged under core / cache_cleared with {"cache":"registry"} in the context.
Clear Update Cache
Deletes the cached remote manifest response, forcing the next Dashboard or update-check page load to contact the VaultBB update endpoint immediately. Logged under core / cache_cleared with {"cache":"updates"}.
Purge Logs Now
Immediately deletes all log entries from phpbb_vaultbb_logs that are older than the configured Log Retention value. The number of deleted rows is shown in a success alert. The action is logged under core / logs_purged with {"rows": N, "retention_days": N}, so the purge itself is always recorded before the old entries are removed.
Purged log entries cannot be recovered. If you need to archive logs before purging, export the phpbb_vaultbb_logs table directly from your database management tool first.