Module development and code questions

Hi,

I just wanted to know, how to edit modules such as the forum and keep the module itself updateable.

In detail, I want to extend the forum on certain parts or delete some things, which I do not need, in my actual project. But when there will be some updates, the module and its functionality will surely be broken, if I change the files and later on, there are updates etc.

So how is it supposed to work. Some links might be sufficient.
My templateengine is phptemplate.

Thanks so much.
Druballer

I am trying to get gmap "feeds" [http://photo-tips.ca/gmapfeeddemo] working on my site. I have recently upgraded to the newer gmap which caused problems because the DB schema changed for location.module but i can't upgrade the location.module because when i load the module & goto site.com/modules I get a 500 error. I could update the DB in PHPMyAdmin but don't I need the API? If you've got this to work, please give me a hand.

Stuart

I've got the prepopulate module working, but if the user is not logged in they are forwarded to the login screen and then forwarded to the submission form. The prepoulate variables are lost in the process, so all of the form fields are empty.

I unloaded and installed this module. But, I can not see it. The CCK module is installed and working.

I would like the fields created with CCK to be displayed in a row, instead of a column:

i.e. this: field1 field2 field3

not this:

field1
field2
field3

Thanks.

Are there any plans for Checklist module for 5.x?

Thank you.