bbPress.org

A new version is finally here, and ready for download! The biggest news is better search and compatibility with WordPress 2.3, but it also fixes a lot of bugs.

read on…

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.

WordPress 2.3 is now available.

I mention that because the current version of bbPress (version 0.8.2) is not compatible with WordPress 2.3 if you are loading both scripts at the same time. If you’re not loading both scripts at the same time, everything is fine.

A new version of bbPress will be coming out in a day or two as soon as we get done testing it, and that version will fully compatible with the latest version of WordPress once again.

bbPress has twenty or so functions that select groups of topics or posts from the database. Some of them do very specific things, and some of them do something only slightly different from another such function.

Maintaining this large group of functions and keeping them all consistent was beginning to become a nuisance. Additionally, it was annoying to have either to write a whole new function or to hack filters into and onto an existing function every time a new database query was needed.

To help alleviate both of these problems, the next version of bbPress will come with a BB_Query class, which all of the above referenced functions will use.

Details and Cool new user features

bbPress 0.8.2 introduced a new way of counting how many pages worth of information there were to display (how many pages worth of content, for example, there are to display in a user’s profile): MySQL’s FOUND_ROWS() function. It works very well for most bbPress sites.

It cripples large sites.

Read more →

As awkward as it is to issue a new release less than 24 hours after the previous one, here it is: bbPress 0.8.2.1.

We recommend all users download and upgrade now.

Details and Upgrade Instructions

A new release! bbPress 0.8.2 has a quite a few changes and features. While you’re downloading, check out the cool new stuff.

Hierarchical Forums

Forums can now be grouped hierarchically (that is, forums can have “children”). To organize your forums, go to Content -> Forums in your bbPress’ admin panels, click “Edit Forum Order” and drag the rows around: up, down, left and right.

Make sure to “Save Forum Order” when you’re done.

“Slug” based permalinks

No longer are you constrained to topics and forums with permalinks that look like http://example.com/topic/14/. By turning on slug based permalinks, your URLs will be generated from the forum’s or topic’s title like http://example.com/topic/see-you-in-hawaii/.

Also, all of bbPress’ different permalink structures (/topic.php?id=14, /topic/14/, /topic/see-you-in-hawaii/) are interchangeable; you can switch to whichever structure you like and all your old links will still work (but see the upgrade instructions in this post).

Plugin Management

Plugins can now be activated and deactivated with the click of the mouse in bbPress 0.8.2. Just go to Site Management -> Plugins in your bbPress’ admin panels. To be activated, however, every plugin must have a “plugin header” that includes at least the plugin’s name. Here’s an example.

/*
Plugin Name: Name of your plugin required
Plugin URI: Plugin's website
Description: Short description of your plugin
Author: Your name
Author URI: Your website
Version: Current version number of your plugin
*/

As a bonus, “hidden” feature, plugins whose file name begins with an underscore (_) do not need to be activated; they will be loaded automatically and do not require a plugin header.

A few small things

Here a sampling of some of the other minor changes in bbPress 0.8.2.

• More tag cloud formatting options
• Improved consistency in tagging
• bbPress’ default Kakumei theme combines the list of “Your Tags” and “Others’ Tags”.
• No more annoying feed: before all of your RSS feed links. The feed: psuedo-standard was a clever idea, but never really caught on.
• Moderators and Admins are considered “trusted” and will never have their posts marked as spam.
• Admins can change other user’s passwords.
• More filters and actions for plugin authors
• Faster database queries

Upgrade instructions and techy info

The meetup yesterday was really enjoyable, lot’s of good ideas about how bbPress is going to evolve in the future. Doug Stewart has a pretty thorough write-up of the night, including the movie interlude afterward. Hopefully like R. Kelly, bbPress development will no longer be trapped in the closet.

As Matt points out, he and I will be at San Francisco’s Chaat Cafe for the first (EV4R!) bbPress meetup on the evening of Monday, June 11th.

I’m excited to meet Sam Bauers and Doug Stewart (who are the catalysts for the meetup) in person and all of the rest of you who can make it.

w00t!

Perhaps more excitingly, this blog (and bbPress itself) will see much more frequent updates in the near future. Good times ahead.

A small security and bug fixing release, bbPress 0.8.1 is now available for download.

Read more →