NineChime forum

The code is quite a mess in this regard, but here's an outline of how things work:

Each picture has an entry in the database table, "op_oekakidta".  The file "index.php" reads each picture and prints all the information about each picture, including its filename, properties, and the comment left by the artist.  If the original artist is viewing the oekaki, or if the picture's password is the word "public", then the "Retouch" property is printed.  There's a lot of logic in the index file that handles various other special properties, such as the ability to edit the main comment or delete the picture.  This is mostly handled with the $OekakiID variable or information in the $flags[] array.  The values in $OekakiID and $flags[] are mostly defined in "boot.php".

After the picture and the artist's comment are printed, the board will retrieve all the remaining comments from the table "op_oekakicmt" using the picture's ID number.  In other words, the very first comment on the picture is located in the "op_oekakidta" table, while the rest of the comments are in the "op_oekakicmt" table.

Boot handles initialization, authorization, languages, and templates.  The header prints the banner and menu options.  The index has most of the logic for page numbers, sorting and views, and all the logic for displaying pictures and comments.  Most control data is handled by a dozen global variables and the $user[] and $flags[] arrays, all of which are initialized in boot, so they are pretty easy to spot.  There are no objects.  Also be aware that Wacintaki now requires all comments to be UTF-8 encoded.  The database includes flags to set the charset which isn't very obvious, and most comments must be UTF and HTML encoded manually.

I suggest you avoid making changes to any code that handles languages and templates, as there's a lot of horrible automagic variables all over the place and it's very easy to accidentally break stuff.  The database layer is also pretty bad, and contains a mix of inline, procedural, and object-oriented code.  Most of that code is more than 10 years old and hasn't been changed since I took over development from the previous coder.  Making stable mods for Wacintaki is not easy.

To make things easier, I recommend installing MySQL on your computer and using the MySQL Query Browser to examine the structure of the database.