DTLbb — Reference Manual

Preface

DTLbb is a Python desktop application that assists with the editorial administration of a phpBB forum through its web interface. It identifies the connected account, observes the forum structure, checks the posting rights actually granted, and places the creation of a new topic behind explicit human confirmation.

The product was designed for the NetDTL forum, whose address is offered by default, while accepting another compatible phpBB installation. It combines a bilingual graphical interface with a background Playwright navigation engine.

Origin and intent

The original need

Administrative posting on a forum involves several checks that are easy to conflate: the visible account must be the expected account, administrator status does not guarantee writing rights in every area, the destination must be unambiguous, and submission must never be an incidental consequence of automated navigation.

DTLbb was created to bring those checks together and reduce errors in a recurring task. Its role is not to replace phpBB, but to add a local layer of clarity, control, and confirmation around capabilities already provided by the forum.

How the need evolved

The NetDTL ecosystem contains several tools, each associated with a subforum. Preparing update announcements requires the state of many Git repositories to be reconciled with the forum’s editorial structure. DTLbb therefore also includes an English draft-preparation engine based on committed Git facts. This capability remains strictly separate from publication: it produces proposals for review without opening the forum or changing announcement state.

Guiding principles

• Human control: publication remains an explicit decision by the person at the screen.
• phpBB authority: permissions observed in the forum interface take precedence over assumptions derived from account roles.
• Least privilege: DTLbb uses the web interface and never accesses the MySQL database directly.
• Controlled traceability: useful diagnostic events are recorded without storing the password or exposing session identifiers.
• Preparation/publication separation: Git analysis creates drafts but submits no content.

Purpose and scope

Primary purpose

DTLbb serves as a cautious intermediary between an editorial administrator and a phpBB forum. It makes the session identity, administrator status, and per-forum writing rights visible, then retains a confirmation checkpoint immediately before any publication.

Secondary purpose

For the NetDTL projects known to the application, DTLbb combines Git references, declared versions, change statistics, and selected documentation material to produce structured release-announcement drafts. The result is editorial source material, not an automated publication.

Product boundaries

• DTLbb is a client of the phpBB web interface; it is neither a phpBB extension nor a server API.
• It does not manage users, groups, roles, or access-control lists.
• It does not change forum configuration or perform administrative operations in the ACP.
• It does not replace editorial review, version validation, or the forum’s security policies.
• It is not an autonomous continuous-delivery service and schedules no publication.

Architecture

Functional model

Functional capabilities

Forum observation

• Normalization and validation of a phpBB installation address.
• Confirmation of the actually connected identity and handling of a persistent session belonging to another account.
• Informative detection of ACP access, including cases where phpBB requires a second authentication.
• Extraction of the visible hierarchy of categories, forums, and subforums.
• Individual checking of the effective right to open a topic in every destination.

Controlled publication

• Preparation of a topic with a required title and body.
• Presentation of a preview before a decision is made.
• Submission only after explicit confirmation.
• Verification of the topic page returned by phpBB and rereading of the destination’s topic list.
• Removal of session identifiers from the retained topic address.
• Attempted logout after both inspection and publishing operations.

Git announcement preparation

• Analysis of projects associated with NetDTL subforums 2 through 20.
• Deterministic baseline selection and exclusion of uncommitted changes.
• Reading of the version declared in the current commit, commit counting, and changed-file summaries.
• Classification of changes among documentation, tests, build, assets, and application code.
• Production of English drafts and, when possible, a GitHub comparison link.
• Reporting of working-tree state without altering the publication-state file.

Safety and security assurances

Data and traces

Internal components

Invariants

• The account observed after login must match the requested account.
• A destination is declared postable only when the expected phpBB form elements are present without ambiguity.
• A non-empty title and body are required for every topic.
• A publication is considered confirmed only when phpBB leads to an identifiable topic.
• A Git draft is based on commits; working-tree changes are not incorporated.
• The preparation manifest retains the indicator that no publication was performed.

Known limitations

• DTLbb depends on the HTML structure and selectors of a compatible phpBB theme; substantial customization or a forum update may make some checks ineffective.
• Observing a posting form demonstrates practical permission at the time of the check, but does not replace full analysis of phpBB ACLs.
• The ACP check confirms visible access, but DTLbb does not inventory detailed administrative privileges.
• Logout is requested from phpBB, while the persistent Chromium profile may retain other browsing data.
• Git preparation knows a fixed list of NetDTL projects and produces English drafts only.
• README highlights are extracted heuristically and require editorial review.
• Preparation neither publishes drafts nor updates the last-announced reference.
• DTLbb cannot guarantee the availability of the network, forum, Chromium, or Git.

The version described is v1.0-20. The assurances in this manual correspond to observable behavior in this version and must be reassessed if phpBB structure, the draft model, or publishing rules change.

Glossary