and the background colours etc can be changed by editing the style.css in the modules/system/ folder
mithrandir
Usually, when calling the database in a handler class, the database object is referenced in a class variable $db - which is used with $this->db->functionName()
In functions and browser-called files, the $xoopsDB variable is usually used with the similar $xoopsDB->functionName().
$this->db is usually set in the handler class constructor (or its parent's constructor)
For more information on $this->something, please refer to the PHP manual on class variables.
include_once '../../mainfile.php';