TalkPHP - Creating a vB plug-in

I was just wondering if someone could help me get my head around plug-ins with vb :-)

To start off with I thought I would try something simple, just pull in the latest posted threads into the header of thread pages.

I guess the first thing I need to find is a hook location
2nd, I need to know the query
And third, I need to display the results of that query.

1 + 2 I think I can manage, it's 3 that stumps me!

Hook location:

'showthread_start' (or is there a global header one for all pages?)

Query:

PHP Code:


		
			
SELECT threadid, title, dateline 

FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread 

WHERE sticky=0 AND visible=1 AND (forumid = '16' OR forumid = '17' OR forumid = '18')

ORDER BY dateline DESC

LIMIT 10

That will show me the latest 10 threads from forums 16,17,18, that are visible (ie not deleted) and not stickies.

Display:

I think I need to create a custom template for the block, and a custom template for the indvidual results (that goes inside the block template)... but I'm kindof stuck on the exact php code to use :'-( (html is not a problem tho)

Each returned result would simply go into a list item, something like this - but I'm not sure how to get the results in there:

PHP Code:


		
			
<li><a href='showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$[threadid]'>$[title]</a></li>

Can anyone help me with this please? I think it may be useful to other vB users too 8-)

Thanks in advance!