bbPress support forums Tag: newbie

bbPress support forums Tag: newbie http://bbpress.org/forums/ bbPress support forums Tag: newbie en Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:57:57 +0000 wystan1000 on "Installation problem - database name" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/installation-problem-database-name#post-16950 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:20:31 +0000 wystan1000 16950@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Yes, yes, newbie, here. Sorry about that before anyone bumps me or deletes me for duping or just raises their eyebrows and walks swiftly on. I have used google and other searches frequently. But I still can't work out this database name, database user and password issue. I have copied the unzipped files into website.com/htdocs/blog1 where NetworkSolutions put Wordpress for me. So now BBpress sits at the same level as Wordpress. Is that right? Now I have copied the values from the WP_config file (did it make those up on install?) but I still get "There was a problem connecting to the database you specified. Please check the settings, then try again." I'm surprised these bear no relation to my actual Wordpress password and user name. I haven't changed any settings from Wordpress since I installed it. Is there a permissions issue? Thanks (please) Michael RonJRoy on "Some general questions!" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/some-general-questions#post-10587 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:58:01 +0000 RonJRoy 10587@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Absolutely brilliant! Your assistance has been perfect. I have things changed and my site is ready to publish. I will leave it to you to critique! Thanks RJ... chrishajer on "Some general questions!" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/some-general-questions#post-10581 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:12:37 +0000 chrishajer 10581@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Do you have a file called <code>/my-templates/ronjroy/screenshot.png</code> ? AFAIK, it needs to be a png, it needs to be called screenshot.png and it needs to be in that directory. If it is, then I'm not sure what the problem is. That works for me. Mine is 300x225 also, not sure what happens when it's smaller or larger than that. RonJRoy on "Some general questions!" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/some-general-questions#post-10572 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:40:36 +0000 RonJRoy 10572@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Thanks for the great explanation. Now I have things in place but the screen shot is not showing up in the current theme display. I saved a copy to the css folder and one to an images folder in the css folder. Don't know if this is the problem. My images are not showing up either on my forum. This was more work than I bargained for. chrishajer on "Some general questions!" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/some-general-questions#post-10473 Sat, 25 Aug 2007 03:03:38 +0000 chrishajer 10473@http://bbpress.org/forums/ I guess after re-reading, you are not sure what files to modify. Each of the php files in the template folder are used to display SOMETHING. When I first started out, I had no idea what file was used to display each page, or view, or whatever. So, I usually found a page I didn't like the look of, just by looking at it in the browser, then I found a word on that page that seemed distinct enough that I could grep through all the template files for that word. In a lot of cases, I would find one file or maybe 3 files where that word occurred. That's how I knew what page to modify. I'm sure someone with more knowledge could tell you that forum.php is used to display a single forum, or that topic.php is used to display a single topic. One thing I did right off the bat to see which php pages were actually displayed and not called from other php files was to look in the template folder for something called header.php. There's always a header.php and a footer.php, it seems. So, there is indeed a header.php. Now, since that is the header for each page, that has to be called from any page that is displayed in the browser. So, I grepped through all the php files in the template folder for <code>header.php</code> and found there are no files called header.php. I know they have to call header.php somehow, maybe it's a function. So, I grepped through all the files for <code>header</code> without the php, and it returned a ton of files with <code>header</code> in them. <pre><code>shell:~/forum/my-templates/mytheme > grep -i header *php edit-post.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> favorites.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> forum.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> front-page.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> header.php: <div id="header"> login.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> memberlist.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> password-reset.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> profile-base.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> profile-edit.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> profile.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> register-success.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> register.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> rss2.php:<?php header('Content-type: text/xml'); ?> search-stock.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> search.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> stats.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> tag-single.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> tags.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> topic.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?> view.php:<?php bb_get_header(); ?></code></pre> OK, so they call the header with a function called <code>bb_get_header</code>. I grepped again for that, to eliminate the other places the word header appears (div id="header" for example.) Now, I have a list of every page, I think, that's used to display some content to the user in a browser. If you are trying to change the structure of a certain page, it's going to be one of those php files listed there. If you're just trying to modify the look (not the actual structure) you might just be able to make a change to the style.css. Find the id or class of the element you want to change (view source in your browser to see what's being used currently) then change that element in the style.css. One thing I did right off the bat was styled the blockquote. By default (when I installed a year ago) there were no styling rules for blockquote. No indent, no different font, no border, no color change, nothing. So, I added a definition to the style.css for blockquote. In some cases you'll be modifying existing rules, in others you'll be created new ones for things that might be unstyled. I find Chris Pederick's Web Developer Toolbar add on for Firefox invaluable for modifying CSS. <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60" rel="nofollow">https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60</a> You can make a change while viewing the page and see the effect right away. Then, you can make the change permanent by modifying the style.css. The changes made in with the web developer toolbar are local only, they're not saved. Play all you want there, you won't break anything. Make a change you like, then make it permanent in the style.css. chrishajer on "Some general questions!" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/some-general-questions#post-10472 Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:45:24 +0000 chrishajer 10472@http://bbpress.org/forums/ > A few silly questions: > Changing or adding hot tags. Whats the procedure? When a topic is added, the user can add tags upon creation. I think each user can also delete tags they have added themselves. As admin, you can add or delete tags on any topic when viewing the topic. So, you can delete or add a tag. Was there something else you needed to do? > Looked through dashboard and can't seem to find how > to change or add new topics. Forums can be added but > don't know about topics. To create a new topic, just create one as a user or as the admin user. There's no specific place in the admin panel to do it. It's just done in the forum. > Last query: Again I ask about the changes made to > structure in the html. I looked through all files and found > nothing. Many scripts I have used in the past have one > file called index or something that can be access to the > html. Just creating or changing the style sheet does not > allow for the changes I want to make. I like the default > but some changes to reflect my website is key. I guess it depends what you are looking to do. I know from other posts you have seen what other people have done to change the look of their forum. So, anything is possible. You want to avoid changing core bbPress files so that when you upgrade those changes aren't lost. You start by changing the template files. Default template files are found in bb-templates/kakumei/. To create your own template, create a directory called /my-templates/ (on the same level in the filesystem as bb-templates). Then, in there, create a folder which will be the name for your template, so maybe something like ronjroy. Your directory structure would look like /my-templates/ronjroy/ . In that folder, put a copy of whatever file you want to modify, or put a copy of all the files from the default theme. I think at a minimum you need to have a style.css in this folder. IMPORTANT: modify the name of the theme by changing it at the top of the style.css file. Maybe you want to call it "Ron J Roy". Change this line (at least) at the top of style.css: <code>Theme Name: Ron J Roy</code> (I copied all the files over from the default theme, but I know now that's redundant. If you are not making a change to a file, you don't need a copy of it. You need style.css and then any file you want to modified. The file present in my-templates/{whatever} override the stock files. If a file is not present in your theme, the stock one is used.) Now, select your new theme in your admin panel (Presentation > Themes, or navigate to bb-admin/themes.php). If it's not showing up in the admin panel, then something is wrong in the files you copied over. Maybe you made a mistake in editing the style.css. Now, you should see your new theme there by name anyway. Select it. Now, because your theme is just a copy of the stock theme with a new name, the screenshot is identical (you just copied over screenshot.png), and when you use your new theme, the forum will look exactly the same as the stock theme. That's OK. The files in the my-templates/ronjroy/ are being used to display the template, but they're unchanged from stock, so they look the same. At least you're using your new theme. Now the fun begins. Pick a file, any file, in my-template/ronjroy. Make a change to the HTML in a PHP file or to the CSS in style.css. Save it. Now refresh your forum. It should look different. If you broke something, fix it in your theme, or just change the theme back to stock and go back to stock, then figure out what you broke. These are not official docs by any means. It's stuff I figured out from using the software in the past year. Some of it may have changed in new versions since I started. One thing I have learned about installing forum software though: if you find that you can't understand the software enough to modify it, move on to another project. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean, if you're not able to do the things you want, the way you want them, then why bang your head against the wall? Just install something else. It's not worth the hassle. The hassles I was having with other software is why I ended up with bbPress. I grok it, I like it, and we get along fine. (haha - longer reply to a long question) RonJRoy on "Some general questions!" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/some-general-questions#post-10471 Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:07:51 +0000 RonJRoy 10471@http://bbpress.org/forums/ RonJRoy on "Some general questions!" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/some-general-questions#post-10469 Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:36:04 +0000 RonJRoy 10469@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Hello, A few silly questions: Changing or adding hot tags. Whats the procedure? Looked through dashboard and can't seem to find how to change or add new topics. Forums can be added but don't know about topics. Last query: Again I ask about the changes made to structure in the html. I looked through all files and found nothing. Many scripts I have used in the past have one file called index or something that can be access to the html. Just creating or changing the style sheet does not allow for the changes I want to make. I like the default but some changes to reflect my website is key. Excuse the lengthy text, but I find looking through the documentation much like chasing my own tail. Thanks to those who have replied to earlier queries. I have made some changes and it looks good so far. devils_advocate on "Installation problems" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/installation-problems#post-734 Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:01:09 +0000 devils_advocate 734@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Sure. I guess I'm confused what the plug ins are supposed to do and how they act within wordpress and bbpress. I opened up and looked at both plug-ins (changed the ".php" to ".html") to see. And I realized that what I'm seeing in the installation pages in bbpress IS the plugin content of "display-name.php" preceding the regular Installation content. And in Wordpress - when I "activate" the "bbpress-integration.php" plug-in I can no longer browse any part of my Wordpress blog - the only page I get - regardless of where I try to go in the wordpress blog shows me the contents of the "bbpress-integration.php" plugin. I'm looking at a Trac page. With the wiki link, etc...all links not working because they are using my domain as root of the url. so - I've been trying to make this installation work without the plug-ins...and I get stuck at the first bbPress screen [login in the header all correct; my first post -1hour<--saw the post on this> etc] and am not able do anything from there. so far I've inched through a little progress every 2nd or third installation try...but right now I'm stuck I'll try your first suggestion - I figured the other one "true" NOT! out on my own.... thanks! devils_advocate mdawaffe on "Installation problems" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/installation-problems#post-718 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 18:59:03 +0000 mdawaffe 718@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Some of your settings aren't quite right. $bb->domain = 'http://domain.com'; $bb->path = '/cms/forums/'; $bb->wp_prefix = 'wp_'; // or whatever the prefix is. It should not be <code>true</code> Try that on, and let us know. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by the links being broken in the bbpress-integration WordPress plugin. Can you explain it differently? devils_advocate on "Installation problems" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/installation-problems#post-712 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 18:02:55 +0000 devils_advocate 712@http://bbpress.org/forums/ got past the styleshhet issue - and all - got bbpress installed. when I click on the link for the first post, I get this error... "Too many redirects occurred trying to open “http://mydomain.com/cms/bbpress/topic.php?id=1”. This might occur if you open a page that is redirected to open another page which then is redirected to open the original page." anyone have any clues to help? devils_advocate on "Installation problems" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/installation-problems#post-629 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:42:57 +0000 devils_advocate 629@http://bbpress.org/forums/ ok - I found the ultimate guide and it got me 95% through... I'm still having a problem (that is likely in my WordPress set up) and a problem seeing the (default stylesheet).... ideas? devils_advocate on "Installation problems" http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/installation-problems#post-608 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:52:12 +0000 devils_advocate 608@http://bbpress.org/forums/ Hi. I've a settled and happy little wordpress (version 2.02) community that I want to add a robust Forum software to. Seeing as how Wordpress.org recommends (and uses) bbPress, I thought I'd give it a go. I've read through the (available) documentation <--that which I understood, and made changes to the "config.php" file as I believed all should be. I know I have something wrong, because I can't seem to get the Forum to work with the WordPress installation I have. My problems are less now than the first install (I keep going into the database and deleting all the 'bb_' instances before try to run the install each time (6 times now) - but I still have a few issues I can't seem to put my finger on and would like to pick some brains - or be led down a truer path of enlightenment. #1 - I am not a php programmer (an illustrator by trade) but pretty sharp so you don't have to speak to far down to me =0) #2 - I took the info for the top 3 lines of the "config.php" from my wordpress install. that is I left the 'BBDB_Name', 'added my DB name' left 'BBDB_USER', 'added MySQL username' and then the database password #3 - the bbPress will reside within a "forums" directory inside directory named "cms" which is in the root of the site. I'm a mite confused about the blog and domain paths requested I thought I had them correct but everything lacked the WP template look (no css) and all the links for the "bbpress-integration.php" <-is this really a release plugin?), ahem...all of the links in the window this plug-in generates are two directories higher (on the root) instead of in the same directory as the forum. (more on this in a bit) This is what I have here: // If your bbPress URL is <a href="http://bbpress.example.com/forums/" rel="nofollow">http://bbpress.example.com/forums/</a> , the examples would be correct. // Adjust the domain and path to suit your actual URL. // Just the domain name; no directories or path. There should be no trailing slash here. $bb->domain = 'http://domain.com/cms/forums'; // Example: 'http://bbpress.example.com' // There should be both a leading and trailing slash here. '/' is fine if the site is in root. $bb->path = '/cms/forums/'; // Example: '/forums/' respectively - and believe they are wrong - but unsure. #4 - named the forum 'forum name' ; added my email address 'devils_advocate@mac.com'; left pretty permalinks to false; topics to 30; edit-lock to 60; offset time zone -5; used my actual akismet key # (is that correct?) and then got to the serious stuff - the three items for integration with Wordpress. #5 - set $bb->wp_table_prefix = true; // 'wp_'; // WordPress table prefix. $bb->wp_home = <a href="http://domain.com/cms;" rel="nofollow">http://domain.com/cms;</a> // WordPress - Options->General: Blog address (URL) // No trailing slash $bb->wp_siteurl = <a href="http://domain.com/cms;" rel="nofollow">http://domain.com/cms;</a> // WordPress - Options->General: WordPress address (URL) // No trailing slash And since this site isn't loading Wordpress with bbPress (being that Wordpress is the primary site) I left that alone. #6 - then I create a folder/directory in the 'forum' directory called "my-plugins" and add the "display-name.php" plug-in to it (it gets calls for error on line 15 which is "search") everytime during config and I turn on the plug-in added to WordPress - (/cms/wp-content/templates/plugins) "bbpress-integration.php" (which opens immediately in "raw format" - even before I run the bbPress install. But these two plugs are recommended for us non-techies - so I go with it. #7 - run the config.php follow the link to Step 1 [and get the same page shown with the "bbpress-integration.php" plug-in (links wrong) at the top, at the bottom a path error on headers and then the regular "Step 1" information to fill in. Repeat for step 2 Finally, when it appears to be complete I have a login page that is without css (no template integration); links two levels up toward root than where the forum resides 'domain.com/link' instead of domain.com/cms/forums/link' and not wp integration what-so-ever...none of the users/passwords are recognized (over 200) etc... what, what, what in gods name am I doing wrong? =0| thanks for any insight in advance..... devils advocate.