bbPress

After the release of 1.0-RC-2 there was a lot of great feedback both in the support forums and on Trac. Some new issues came up around WordPress integration, caching and SQL query performance which were simply too important to leave out of the final 1.0 release.

After taking careful aim at these issues I’ve decided to make one last release candidate available. There is still a little cosmetic work to do in the admin area, but you will find a few new improvements there too, like better handling of .htaccess auto-generation and full timezone support, including automatic daylight savings switching.

1.0-RC-3 is available now from the download page.

Yesterday we pushed the first release candidate for bbPress 1.0 out the door. You can grab it from the download page.

Over the next few weeks there will be a (relatively) rapid progression of “RC” releases as we move towards a final release of 1.0

bbPress is almost stable enough to use on a live website, but I can’t recommend that yet. If you want to try it out on your existing data, then I suggest you make a complete copy of your site and then upgrade. If you just want to take a look and see what’s changed then try a fresh install (some independent testing of the installer is always useful).

If you find a problem please report it in Trac so I can get onto it as soon as possible.

Many people have already noticed that Automattic has soft launched TalkPress. TalkPress was mentioned and explained some time ago in the bbPress forums, but there is no harm in restating our intentions here.

It has been public for a while that Automattic was going to launch a hosted forum service based on bbPress and the decision was made early on to not call it bbPress.com for three reasons.

1. It avoids the sort of confusion users experience trying to distinguish between WordPress.org and WordPress.com
2. bbPress is not a particularly good product name for that service
3. The bbPress.com domain name is already registered to someone else

The last reason is fairly conclusive.

So the name TalkPress was chosen. As a joke we put up a phpBB forum at TalkPress.com for a while, which we all found quite amusing until it got heavily spammed, so down that came!

In the meantime we have been preparing bbPress to accommodate many of the needs that this new service would require, specific functionality has included preparing bbPress to handle the huge user tables of WordPress.com – some of this work is already available to bbPress users (even if it’s only really useful if you have millions of users).

The architecture behind WordPress.com demanded that we make bbPress play nice with the HyperDB extension for WordPress. This neat database load-balancing and redundancy tool is now fully compatible with bbPress. So if you want to run your bbPress site with redundant MySQL databases in multiple datacenters then that’s possible now too. bbPress now has a pretty enviable set of advanced options for MySQL connectivity.

Finally, the secret sauce of TalkPress.com is an extension called “bbPress Channels”. bbPress Channels does for bbPress what WordPress MU does for WordPress, except that it is a single file that is simply included in a standard bbPress install rather than being a complete fork of bbPress.

I call it an extension, because strictly speaking it isn’t a plugin. Some of you may have noticed the “BB_CHANNELS_INCLUDE” constant floating around in bb-settings.php, this is where that file gets included. The bbPress Channels code is not ready for release yet, but it will be released as open source code at a later date.

TalkPress itself is not open for public signup at this stage. Currently we are bringing on a few “VIP” partners so that we can run-in the platform in a more controlled way. The pioneers on the service are Time Inc. who are incorporating a TalkPress forum into their Health.com website. I’m happy to report back to the bbPress community that TalkPress (and thus bbPress) withstood their rigorous security testing with flying colours. This testing incorporated, amongst other things, comprehensive XSS and SQL injection tests.

As for bbPress, some movement has occurred in the priorities leading up to a final 1.0 release. Some of the more fundamental changes that were planned are being put on the back-burner so that these aims can be achieved:

1. Full compatability with both WordPress 2.7 and 2.8
2. Easier integration steps for WordPress MU
3. Retaining compatibility with the existing catalogue of current plugins

This means that some things, like the planned re-factoring of the rewrite methods, are being postponed until some future version or even removed from the radar completely.

The next Alpha version of bbPress is imminent and will likely be the last bbPress 1.0 Alpha version. From there we will move into Beta and hopefully quite quickly through to Release Candidates for 1.0 in the next couple of months.

Today we are releasing a new version of both bbPress 0.9 and bbPress 1.0-alpha.

The 0.9.0.4 stable release includes a security fix to stop a potential XSS attack on login pages with Internet Explorer 6, so it is highly recommended for all users.

Additionally, the 0.9.0.4 release includes a significant MySQL speed-up fix for front pages and forum pages that was discussed in the forums. Thanks to anotherdan and _ck_ for their efforts on that one.

The 1.0-alpha-5 release also includes the above fixes as well as an important fix to WordPress integration. Namely, automatic synchronisation of user roles should now work as expected.

You can get them both from the download page.

Hot on the heels of 1.0-alpha-3 comes 1.0-alpha-4.

I’d like to say that there are significant differences between the two releases, but this is basically a bug fix release, and more specifically a release to fix one major bug!

Download from the download page is now available.

Today bbPress 1.0-alpha-3 was made available via the download page.

A couple of major improvements include new re-added support for “deep” integration and a new notification system that will report fatal errors in plugins on activation. BackPress is now also up to scratch with the code it borrows from WordPress 2.7, meaning a lot of bug fixes in those files.

I need those that are interested in the “deep” integration with WordPress to do some pretty hefty testing to ensure that it is robust enough to remain as a supported option. Keep in mind that some of the existing login and cookie integration issues remain.

You can view the changes in bbPress between 1.0-alpha-2 and 1.0-alpha-3, as well as the changes that have been made to BackPress between revision 161 and 178.

Hackers out there should note that a lot of filenames have changed in the bb-includes directory.

It’s about time everyone was let in on the progress we have made towards version 1.0 of bbPress.

I expect the next alpha release to be made sometime in the next two weeks. This release will include our first implementation of Pingbacks both to and from your bbPress installation. The first draft implementation of this is now in trunk.

Also to be included in the next release is an implementation of the pseudo cron feature from WordPress. This will allow plugin developers to schedule jobs in the future or on a regular basis. It is 100% compatible with the WordPress implementation, so the existing documentation is all you need to get started with using it.

To enable cron I’ve included the very new WP_Http class in BackPress. This new class is a robust HTTP fetcher which is meant to replace the Snoopy class in WordPress. This will allow all sorts of RESTFUL services to be utilised within bbPress plugins, like fetching data from other pages, embedding search APIs and even pulling data from WordPress via RSS or XML-RPC.

On the drawing board is the beginnings of an XML-RPC publishing interface. This will make it easier to use bbPress as a data store for more exotic clients like custom flash applications and XML-RPC desktop clients. It also opens the door to creating an iPhone app for bbPress much like the existing WordPress iPhone app.

An alpha version of bbPress’ new export/import format and tools has also landed in trunk thanks to our Google Summer of Code student Dan Larkin. You can read a little more about that at the BBXF website.

There will also be several fixes for bugs found by our courageous alpha testers.

There are a few changes in 0.9 which plugin developers need to be aware of. So here are some notes to help you get your plugins running under the new release.

(more…)

Most of those who follow the tech-blog-o-sphere* will be aware of the recent financial news regarding Automattic, the company that more or less stewards bbPress’ production.

For the rest of you here are some links that cover the story.

Some people may be wondering what this news means for bbPress. Well, for a start this funding has already impacted on the project as it made my full-time employment with Automattic possible three months ago when the arrangement was in it’s early stages. But more importantly it now allows Automattic to have the financial security to back bbPress into the foreseeable future.

We have some awesome things in the pipe including improvements to the bbPress core, the bbpress.org website and, in the not too distant future, the launch of a hosted community service by Automattic based on bbPress.

In the meantime, we will be ramping up the pace of development and attempting to bring out some of the new features that have been on the “to-do” list for far too long. Features which we hope will help to differentiate bbPress from the crowd and make it a truly useful tool for building online communities.

* NB: Not an actual word

With the introduction of the new BB_Query_Class in bbPress 0.8.3, the old method of adding custom “views” to bbPress has been removed. You should no longer directly manipulate the $bb_views array, nor does the bb_views hook work.

To add a view, you should instead use a new function: bb_register_view(). Also available is bb_deregister_view() for removing the default views or views added by other plugins.

function my_plugin_views() {
/*
  bb_register_view(
            $view_slug,
            $view_title,
            $bb_query_argument_array
  );
*/

  bb_register_view(
            'more-than-5',
            'Topics with more than five posts',
            array( 'post_count' => '>5' )
  );

  bb_register_view(
            'old-timers',
            'Topics started before 2005',
            array( 'started' => '<2005' )
  );

  // Remove default 'Topics with no tags' view
  bb_deregister_view( 'untagged' );
}

add_action( 'bb_init', 'my_plugin_views' );

If you really need more complicated queries, you have the following filters at your disposal, just by registering your view in the above fashion (assuming the $view_slug is “my-view”).

• bb_view_my-view_distinct
• bb_view_my-view_fields
• bb_view_my-view_join
• bb_view_my-view_where
• bb_view_my-view_group_by
• bb_view_my-view_having
• bb_view_my-view_order_by
• bb_view_my-view_limit

If that sounds complicated, it probably is Most plugin developers will never have to do much besides filter a join or where here and there.