However, it is very important that the forum integrates somewhat with my Joomla template.

Has anyone done this? Is there a good guide? What is the best way to integrate bbPress with my Joomla template? It doesn't have to be perfect but I want it to look unified.

Thank you!

Looking forward to check back in some months for such an addon.

1. Choose the input source
2. Configure the import
3. Verify what you're about to import looks good
4. Perform the import

My experiment was to import a fake phpBB 2 forum (3 users, 2 forums, and maybe a dozen or so posts). All looks good. I would value other sets of eyes on the project though. What would be awesome would be other people to write some importers for other platforms. The framework is there in the plugin, it just needs extension into the other platforms.

conversion methods and tools for both CMS platforms and forum software conversion "preferably from "phpbb, smf, vb, vanilla" to bbpress of course ..

any ideas and suggestions are welcome

One thing is that the best communities I have ever seen are based on forum specialized software (not going to mention these here, you know them). So in order to establish a well performing online community I suggest that you use one of these software (bbpress seems to be one of these).

The other thing is that the community will help protect the community, so unless you build it and it grows, you won't be able to keep it clean and tidy all by yourself.

Right now on the forums, I have major categories like tacky lamps, tacky decorations, tacky parties, etc. The members can post comments and photos. In Joomla, I've also linked the users with photogalleries they can create using Coppermine. I have set up moderation to approve people before they can join because they spammers were atrocious.
I've used Community Builder to coordinate user registration, postings, and their galleries. I used Fireboard as the forum plugin and it integrates with Community Builder.
A couple of problems I noted is that there was no way for the community to report bad posts or spam, which made more work for the moderator (me) having to approve posts until I got to know the people.

What I'd like to have is a self policing community, spammer protection, and some automated filters for bad language and the like, with the ability to report abuse to the moderators. Then I'd like the members to be free to create as they like.

So, I'm hoping to duplicate these features in a WP environment...
Aside from that, there would be articles and news by editors that would be normal WP stuff.

Maybe I should wait for WP 2.9?
Jeff

I've done 3 sites with Joomla and about 40 sites with WordPress, and 3 bbPress forums. I would never recommend Joomla to anyone either.

Drupal had too steep a learning curve for me, and with 2.9 WordPress is adding custom post types, which was a strong point for Drupal in the past.

http://technosailor.com/2009/11/11/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-wordpress-2-9/

I would use WordPress. But before you install bbPress, define what you want in your forum installation, and post that here. Integration is not a strong point with bbPress and WordPress right now. If you desire integrated logins between WordPress and bbPress, you might want to consider a WordPress forum plugin instead of bbPress.

Fortunately, I can check these names against known forum spammers:
http://www.stopforumspam.com but it is not automatic.
I am so disgusted with this labor that I'd like to move to what seems to be more secure: WordPress. The interface would be easier to use for my wife.

But I have a few questions:
If you use a Forum on a WordPress site, are you any better off or are you going to encounter the same spam/hacker problem that will require constant manual oversight?
Is there a way to preserve and transfer your valid user database and forums and posts to the new service?

I wonder if joomla is targeted more just because it is a known security sieve...

Or would anyone recommend Drupal or something else instead for some of these issues?

After this experience, I would never recommend Joomla to anyone. What a time waster.

Thanks
Jeff

http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/help-out-with-bbpress

You have told it yourself, just turn bbpress into a wppress plugin. Actually, you can turn wppress into a forum with plugins like tdo-mini-forms. So, you could be including a forum with the next version of wp in a matter of minutes with a couple of silly tweaks. I've been on the point of doing this myself several times, I don't know why I keep on struggling with bbpress integration.

Or, the user could set it in bb-config.php:

define( BB_DEFAULT_THEME_DIR, 'path/to/default/theme/directory' );

I don't really like either of those two options. Your average user gets confused enough as it is. Trying to tell them to input PHP code can cause headaches sometimes.

As far as I know, there's no way to filter the default theme directory either. I'm open to ideas though. If anyone could offer a solution with a few lines of code, I'll be happy to give it a whirl.

Ideally, the constant BB_DEFAULT_THEME_DIR would be based off the theme's Template line in style.css. Or, bb_get_default_template() would recognize the Template line.

Open up a BB Codex like we have with WP. How are we going to get more devs to start hopping on the bbPress bandwagon? While many of us enjoy sifting through code when we get the extra time, good documentation is always helpful to get people started. Heck, even some better inline documentation would do wonders right now.

Seriously, when was the last time this page and its subpages have been updated?
http://bbpress.org/documentation/

I've got more work than I can possibly handle, but I'd be willing to develop things for the bbPress community. I just don't have time to spend reading through all the code, line by line, to see how things work.

Give developers a chance to make the platform shine.

The success of WordPress comes from the vast number of add-ons (themes and plugins) for the system. Without them, WordPress probably would've died a long while ago.

The lack of documentation is probably turning a good number of developers away from the system, developers that could be creating plugins for many of the features that users want.

This is the area that needs the most improvement. Let's work on documentation first. Then, we can start thinking about other things bbPress needs.

Themes

I've seen a handful of decent themes I'd use, but (as far as I know) there are no major theme developers in the bbPress community. Documentation would go a long way in helping here. This is especially true for designers that don't know all the ins and outs of the platform's PHP code.

I'd personally start coding bbPress themes if it supported the same type of parent/child theme setup that WordPress has. I'd be happy to port all of my WP themes like this.

[...] I don't think it is really using much (if any) MySQL specific code.

bbPress uses a lot of SQL statements not working with Oracle and is highly optimized for MySQL. To make it independent from the RDBMS will not be easy, and coding a RDBMS independent layer and not using "JOIN", "LEFT JOIN", "MATCH" and "FULLTEXT INDEX", "LIMIT" would degrade the performance of bbPress, which isn't exactly the thing wanted for it.

This is something Matt said a while ago about MySQL and Oracle:
http://ma.tt/2009/04/oracle-and-open-source/

There have been discussions before of using different databases, or abstracting the whole thing, but I still feel there are many other bbPress features that need work before they tear out something that is working completely fine right now.

PHP supports Oracle so why should bbPress be tied to just MySQL. I don't think it is really using much (if any) MySQL specific code.

This is one of the main selling points of PHPBB - it supports FireBird, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL and SQLite.

You're very welcome. I should be thanking you for keeping bbpress.org on the up and up. I'm happy to help on the this side of things too and I'll pop in from time to time to check in on BuddyPress integration questions, etc...

http://buddypress.org/blog/news/doubling-up/

MySQL is the defacto database for open source blogging, CMS and forum software, with Postgres right behind. I think there are bigger fish to fry than supporting Oracle databases.

The other thing is better, easier integration with existing user database tables and site features for sign-in/out, registration, change password, etc. Most everyone using bbPress probably already has the rest of their site already setup.

You don't users to have to have two logins, two registrations, two login pages, and two registration pages ,and two records in the database with the same info. This type of integration needs to be dead simple and straightforward in bbPress but it is not. If this was done properly, the most common site integration (bbPress with a WordPress blog) wouldn't be the mess it is today.

Also, support for Oracle databases would go a long way to helping adoption.

The main problem I/folks met when choosing between BB software and taking bbPress as a possible solution, is it's lack of real BB features, like already mentioned quoting, nice fluid design themes... classic stuff which makes a forum software look accordingly.

I do respect the WordPress choices when it comes to design (including software designs and tehnologies), but if you want bbPress get over FluxBB (ex PunBB, which was sold and it is it's main competitor), forget about Joel Spolsky's thoughts, people are looking for something they got used to already. Bring options to core and hide them under checkboxes, but don't apart them in plugins (at least until bbPress has no such plugin installer like WordPress has).

Dunno why, but bbPress still looks much like it was first time released by Matt after a weekend of smart coding. Time to grow up a bit. :)
Just my 2 cents...

http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/talkpress

"how to integrate bbPress better with WP, ... as to where bbPress goes in the future, I'd be curious to hear who wants to help with that. "

Answering to that question with some questions can be helpfull :
* bbPress today ? (point A)
* WordPress today ? (point A')
* Can they meet at some point ? (point B)
* What is the code in common between WP(µ), bbPress ( and BuddyPress) ?
* Is there somewhere an underlying FrameWork with some engines inside (blog(s), forum (social networking) engines) ?
* Could we imagine in a future to come to install a Framework and plug into it a blog(s) engine, a forum engine, (a social networking engine, ) all of them at the same time ?

ready to help

arena

1) documentation, examples, and more documentation - from plug-ins to core. it is very difficult to ramp up and extend the functionality of bbPress when you have to spend considerable time researching how to hook into things. php is not my first language but i'd be more enticed to extend if there is something to fall back upon.

2) cohesiveness of technologies used in other automattic products - bring bbPress into the fold and create a common experience; UI. why do we have a scaled down editor in bbPress for example. IMHO, it should be the same as WP - if i'm using another automattic product, i'd like the same experience as those are the reasons why i use it. ...i understand the lightweight approach (which i like) but its also important to consider the expectations.

2a) IntenseDebate - to me this is just a forum add-on to a blog post (topic). frankly the feature subset of ID is what a lot of forum administrators like (Comment Threading, Reply-By-Email, Email Notifications, Moderation/Blacklisting, Reputation Points & Comment Voting, +openid/etc login). again, just common experience of automattic.

3) the whole standalone, bbpress => wp, bbpress <= => wp thing (if i want bbpress and wp to talk to each other, this should be a core level thing instead of a plug-in to cross pollinate content - sometimes it is just easier to shy away from bbpress and opt for ID - in this instance buddypress is too much for a small community) but i need another cup of coffee before i can touch further on this subject :-)

I just realized that i miss a "quote" button in bbPress =)

There's <blockquote> actually :) bbPress uses regular HTML syntax, not bbCode.

The future? Optional integration, but DEEP integration. If I didn't have to re-theme my forums every time I make a change to my blog, I'd be happy. Honestly, it works as much as I need it to right now, but the reason I picked bbPress has jack to do with integration and all to do with simplicity.

I came from the Invision/phpBB/SMF world and I was always turning off options I didn't use or want. Much like WordPress, the best thing about bbPress is that it's little and you can add on if you want.

That said, much like how people can (and do) port Akismet to other platforms, bbPress has to decide if that's it's future too. To whit:

Is bbPress going to be a sibling to WordPress (intended to be used with it, but available as stand alone) or a cousin (available to be used with or without WordPress)?
Right now it's a kissing cousin (legal only in the backwoods), trying to be both. If we keep along the currently available integration path, it will become the cousin. That said, if it moves on to the sibling, being tied in like ... Akismet (available from the get-go, but optional), then you'd probably get a lot more pick up from WordPress users.

Integration with WordPress, knowing that WP and WPMU are in route to becoming the same thing (unless the rumors are a lie, it's just what I heard), would really make things like BuddyPress be a home run.

Of course, if we get better integration, we need better user management. A way to flag users as bozo is nice, but banning people would be even better.

I'm going to get more coffee and think more about this. Mostly, I'm happy we're not forgotten.

But does it work out-of-the-box already? It doesn´t for me.

When did you last try? This is new to 1.1 and works for most people with one click.