kevinjohngallagher (@kevinjohngallagher)

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  • kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Well this is going to look like a shameless bump either way, but as i’ve had 3 different people on the forums ask about a plugin that i’m building that’s been stalled on this i thought i’d check to see if anyone else can shed alight on it.

    Thanks


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi PierrottorreiP,

    May i first suggest that the first step be to not do this sort of testing on a live environment?

    This is probably the way forward in my opinion:

    – Install them all on the same databse as your wordpress instal.

    – Use different table prefixes for each one.

    – Make people register on wordpress, with the redirect going back to the forum they came from.

    – Do a little dance.

    – Make a little love.

    Also, there’s not need to post a link to your site here man, if it’s not something wrong with a specific page we can see, it’s just a random link that’s not helpful.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Rather than using the crazy structure of BBpress’s header.php file – actually while i’m on that can i ask why BBpress DID NOT use the same div nesting as WP so that integration was simple? madness – if you use this one, your BBpress forum should automatically look 90% like it’s in your WordPress page if you use the default theme, default K2 or sandbox.

    You will have to tweak bits of course, this isn’t fool proof, but in terms of the basics, it makes life alot easier.

    I mentioned these changes back in October, so i’m used to the copying and pasting of them now as it doesn’t look like making thing easy for the end user is part of the goal here; hence the plugin. I too hope we get an answer on the bug soon :)


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Vernal,

    In terms of integration in a software sense, you have to answer yourself this:

    1) Do they need to look the same?

    2) Do I need shared login ?

    3) Do i need shared wordpress functions (menu, sidebar, otehr cool wordpress stuff) ?

    If you answered yes to 1) and no to 2) and 3) you only need to make your style sheets and HTML look similar and dont need any integration.

    If you answered yes to 1) and 2) and no to 3) then you should be able to use the latest alpha and latest wordpress and all should be fine. Personally, i’d not ouch with with a bargepole and i’d use BBpress 0.9 and WP 2.7.1 with _ck_’s Freshly Baked Cookies plugin (link coming up in a bit).

    If you answered yes to 1) 2) and 3) then you need to use Ann’s plugin (again link coming up).

    In terms of fixing your BBpress to integrate into your wordpress theme easily, that one is simple. Replace the code in your header.php file with this:

    <body id="<?php bb_location(); ?>">
    <div id="page">
    <div id="wrapper">
    <div id="header">
    <div id="headerimg">
    <h1 id="blog-title"><!-- PUT YOUR WP LINK HERE --></h1>
    <div id="blog-description">
    <div class="description">
    <!-- PUT YOUR WP DESCRIPTION HERE -->
    </div> <!-- #description -->
    </div> <!-- #blog-description -->
    </div> <!-- #headerimg -->

    <!--
    K2 USERS
    THIS IS WHERE YOU PUT YOUR MENU CODE
    -->
    </div>

    <div id="access">
    <div class="skip-link"><a href="#content" title="Skip to content">Skip to content</a></div>
    <div id="menu">
    <!--
    SANDBOX USERS:
    THIS IS WHERE YOU PUT YOUR MENU CODE
    -->
    </div>
    </div><!-- #access -->

    <div id="container">
    <div id="primary">
    <div id="current-content">
    <div id="content">
    <div id="post">
    <div id="main">

    <h1><a>"><?php bb_option('name'); ?></a></h1>
    <?php if ( bb_get_option('description') ) : ?><p class="description"><?php bb_option('description'); ?>
    <?php endif; ?>

    <?php login_form(); ?>

    <?php if ( is_bb_profile() ) profile_menu(); ?>


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi GGwarpig,

    It is possible with my “themer” plugin, which has an option to dynamically load a different header/footer file or just a different stylesheet depending on the domain you’re looking at. While this doesn’t load in an entirely different theme, it incorporates most of the changes you’re looking for.

    Sadly it can’t be released until we get an answer to this (what appears to be) bug in the core: https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/overwriting-template-functions


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Chris,

    I’ve actually made a plugin that makes theme integration between BBpress and WordPress an absolute breeze (one click!), but it used to require one of my customized baseline theme’s.

    Last week I converted it to work with any standard BBpress installation but alas hit some bugs in the BBpress core. I have posted about them, but have had no reply yet. You can find the post here: https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/overwriting-template-functions

    Basically all of my original customized themes have a far more usable div nesting in the header and footer, so that it matched 3 of the most common wordpress theme’s (standard, sandboz, K2); thus anyone loading up an integrated BBpress would see their own website styling/menus etc. While not 100% accurate, it saved me a great deal of time when customising.

    But then last week i converted this into a much better plugin. It reads the directory of the wordpress theme you are using and automatically outputs the WordPress theme’s header and footer files with the necessary BBpress code injected. It effectively encapsulates your BBpress forum inside wordpress pages for seemlesss moving around (basically like simpleforums).

    But the whole thing’s on pause until we can get answer to https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/overwriting-template-functions . On a side note, as someone who is attempting to build plugins for BBpress, getting answers to questions like these to help development is really difficult, and the standard answer of “read other plugins that’s how i learnt” really doesn’t help when you come up against something new. Maybe we should have a plugin developer section (as the current plugin section has become a request section)?


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    So 7 hours later and i can’t find a solution to this.

    The weird thing is that ‘some’ functions can be overwritten with filters or added to with actions but others are refusing to play ball. Here’s the code that i have:

    //works

    add_action(‘post_ip_link’, ‘output_what_i_want’);

    add_action(‘topic_pages’, ‘output_what_i_want’);

    // does not work

    add_action(‘post_form’,’output_what_i_want’);

    add_action(‘bb_post_header’,’output_what_i_want’);

    add_action(‘bb_get_footer’, ‘output_what_i_want’);

    When that code runs, the first 2 add_actions’s run fine, but the bottom 3 don’t. For some reason i can’t overwrite those functions.

    Now to the filters:

    // Working

    add_filter(‘post_ip_link’, ‘output_what_i_want, 11’);

    add_filter(‘topic_pages’, ‘output_what_i_want, 11’);

    add_filter(‘post_form’,’output_what_i_want, 11′);

    // Not Working

    add_filter(‘bb_post_header’,’output_what_i_want, 11′);

    add_filter(‘bb_get_footer’, ‘output_what_i_want, 11’);

    This is where it’s a bit weird, as POST_FORM can be added to via a filter (great), but can not be overwritten. BB_POST_HEADER and BB_POST_FOOT cant seem to overwritten or added to via a filter.

    So in the short term, i’m looking for a solution to overwriting the BB_POST_HEADER and BB_POST_FOOT functions. I’ve a plugin that’s stalled due to it.

    Moving on from there though, i think this is something we need to look at and maybe get some documentation/information posted about somewhere. Because as far as i can tell there are only a few options here:

    1) My code is wrong

    2) Some functions cannot be overwritten

    3) Some functions cannot be added to with an action

    4) There’s a bug at play.

    Any help would be really appreciated.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    “You are attempting to log out of AscenDance Radio

    Please try again.”

    ah, right, i can help you here. First read my reply to ashfame who him a similar issue yesterday. What you want to do is close teh browser and clear the cache and cookies entirely. You’re loading up /wp-login.php?loggedout=true – but that page’s sole purpose it to remove the cookie which it cannot find in exactly the format it wants – so WP freaks out.

    You need to supply us with the answer to the following questions before we can help:

    1) Are you using Ann’s plugin to make WP2.7.1 cookies compatible with BB0.9 ?

    2) Are you using _ck_’s plugin ot make BB0.9 cookies compatible with WP2.7.1 ?

    3) Are you trying to integrate WP2.7.1 to BB0.9 without either of these plugins?

    btw, if the answer to 1 & 2 is NO and 3 is Yes, then i have to tell you it won’t work.

    May i also suggest two things which should help greatly? 1) set everything up at home or on a development environment first, that way you’re not getting these issues on a live website. 2) Take off the Maintenance Mode plugin. There’s no point in asking for help with an issue when it’s quantified by “i also have a plugin which hides almost all of the data useful to help debug”.

    Lets see if we can’t get your sorted :)

    In reply to: Why Was I Bozoed?

    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Chris,

    As someone who has suffered from mysteriously disappearing posts before i feel i should ask, do you think BBpress should in some way tell the user when something like this happens?


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Ashfame,

    Sorry to hear you had problems with my instructions, but i think i know the issue.

    You missed out one of the key steps i had mentioned.

    When you click to activate Ann’s plugin, you need to manually change your url to “/wp-login.php?action=logout”. this is because the url it tries to redirect you to is the one that shows ann’s plugin activated, but as you now have a different cookie than it recognises it puts you to the log in page, which puts you to the one that shows ann’s page plugin activated (and so the loop goes on).

    So as i said: “It then automatically boots you our of the WP admin area. you have to go to/wp-login.php?action=logout and then entirely clear your cache and cookies. Then re-log in. The cookie WP sets will now be recognisable.”

    I learnt the hard way that skipping steps (especially when there’s only 4 of them) makes it very difficult to work.

    That said, if you won’t ever need 1 single solitary wordpress function then _ck_’s plugin is definitely the way to go. It installed like a dream and is super easy. that said, i’ve installed Ann’s plugin on 4 site’s i’ve upgraded to WP 2.7.1 and it’s worked every time on them by using the above instructions (but you must change the url to /wp-login.php?action=logout and then clear your chache and cookies ).

    Good luck

    In reply to: How Do I Do This?

    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Robert,

    I re-brought this up (and provided a solution and a theme) in October.

    If you check out my profile you’ll be able to find it, if it’s not been deleted (a number of my threads have been deleted in the past few months)


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Ashfame,

    First: i feel your pain in integrating WP2.7.1 and 0.9, i’m sure alot of us do – that said though, it’s definitely possible.

    Second: it’s definitely possible to achieve site wide login using either _ck_ or Ann’s plugins. Without a doubt using _ck_’s is far easier, as Ann’s comes with no documentation and there are steps required that no-one’s written out. It took me about an hour of searching and playing with Ann’s to get it to work, but once it did, it worked brilliantly.

    Basically follow the steps given on the 3rd page of the integration forum posts (hey dont expect documentation for something a sought after as this to be on an actual page – like the integration one – or even at the start of a post so it’s easily found). Then add in

    define(‘COOKIEPATH’, ‘/’ );

    define(‘SITECOOKIEPATH’, ‘/’);

    define(‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, ”);

    to both the WP and BB configs. Obviously you can change the values.

    The other thing that really helped me, after alot of trial and error, was to set up WordPress first. Activate Ann’s plugin. It then automatically boots you our of the WP admin area. you have to go to/wp-login.php?action=logout and then entirely clear your cache and cookies.

    Then re-log in. The cookie WP sets will now be recognisable.

    Install BB AFTER this step to make life alot easier; as bbpress will recognise the admin cookie right form the word go :)

    Third: Ann’s method overwrites the ‘new’ wordpress cookie method, so the theory is that it’s future proof. at least throughout this WP2.7 branch. The bad news is, according to an automattic post i read yesterday, that the OpenID integration in WP2.8 may require a rewrite of all authentication in WordPress. If this happens then there is a good chance that all authentication in Automattic systems will have tot change, there’s just no way of future proofing against a company wide re-write. But if that doesn’t happen, then Ann’s plugin should work for a long time.

    Fourth: A the risk of reading form the _ck_ bible, there’s very little reason across the board to upgrade from WP2.5.1 to WP2.7.1 . There are no known security issues in 2.5.1. I’ve yet to come across a WP plugin that doesn’t work for 2.5.1, it’s a damn site easier to use, and it’s faster and more lightweight. Obviously, you may have different requirements that we don’t know about, but I would look long and hard at not using 2.7.1 if i were you.

    Good luck, Kev


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Txanny, it’s hard to say as you’re talking about 6 months down the line, but if it was me i’d leave BBpress until the end of your development cycle. We’ve no idea what the 1.0 alpha is going to look like in 6 months, as the next release is going to break 2/3 of all plugins and none are being updated for some time, and _ck_ herself has stated she’s not fixing any of hers until 1.1 .

    Given that 1.0alpha came out in September 16th last year and isn’t anywhere close to being out of alpha just now (some 6 months later), I’d suggest not making a decision on which BBpress version for quite some time yet, at least until 1.0alpha7 and we can see what the plugin fall out is.

    If it was me though, i’d go with 0.9. it works well, the plugins work, development on it can continue, and it’s stable.

    In reply to: Plugin @ ForumMatrix

    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hey _ck_,

    Thought i was the only one here at this time of night (sometimes i forget that it’s earlier/later/not 3am in other places). I wasn’t in any way having a go at the plug-in section, it is what it is, but as i just finished my own set of plugins and the next forum i’m fixing needs some of the things that ForumMatrix thinks we have, i thought i’d double check before opening the PHP book.

    Cheers, kev


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Ipstenu,

    Once again you are spot on mate.

    I’m not in anyway suggesting that the mods/owners don’t have the right to close / delete a forum post, in fact i respect their right to do so. But i also think if someone’s taken the time to write a constructive post then there should be a common decency to at least tell them why it’s been closed and then deleted within 5 minutes of it being posted. Respect kinda has to go both ways.

    I doubt the post is being “mulled over” though, as it’s been deleted and not closed. I know this because i went to fix a typo less than 2 minutes after posting (there’s a typo in the firs paragraph) and it was closed. So who every closed it, did so without reading the post. It was deleted not long after.

    I’m not going to flog a dead horse, or push a personal agenda; the mods have a right to do what they want – but i would like to reiterate that if people still refer to this as an open-source project and us contributors as a community, then we have to accept that there will be voices out there that don’t 100% agree with us on everything. Deleting posts that detail such opinions only makes the consensus of a view point insular and narrow.

    BBpress has amazing potential, I hope it succeeds, i want to help make it succeed.

    If _ck_ isn’t updating her plugins for any of the alpha or beta releases, then we’re effectively given a free-er reign here to not worry about backward compatibility (as lets be honest, _ck_’s plugins are freaking’ awesome); then surely now is the time to ask the hard questions.

    I am not, in any way shape or form, suggesting a complete rewrite or anything like that. But if we put our BA or PM heads on and ask ourselves:

    1) Is BBpress moving in the right direction?

    2) Is the legacy code from before Sam took ownership causing issues?

    3) If we had a clean slate and unlimited time, what would be fix?

    Now the answers may be 1) Yes, 2) No, 3) nothing it’s all working fine. And if they are that’s cool, but sometimes there is a big difference between am end-user view, a developer view, owner view and a Project Manager view. Even if everyone is in complete agreement (unlikely in any community), the right and ability to question can only help but guide the project and give reassurance to its contributors.

    It might also end all of these timeline/compatibility/development/plug-in questions we’re getting (and going to get more) – thus making the lives of the mods alot easier.

    BBpress has amazing potential, I hope it succeeds, i want to help make it succeed.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    I think we all love _ck_ for her plugins, and her attempts to help the community before and after she was made a Mod, but if she and other Mods have “had it up to here” with the same posts being made and the same questions being asked all the time; maybe it’s time to change the website which gives this the false /conflicting/confusing information?

    We can’t tell people to look at Trac for info on bugs/releases/roadmaps, and then complain when they get confused by the conflicting information.

    I’m also don’t find Joel’s blog too helpful, but that’s not to say that some project management isn’t necessary simply because it’s an open source project. But rather than taking the comments about leadership/ownership of the project on the chin, it’s apparently easier to discredit/deflect from the man making the comments – i mean, seriously, who cares if wikipedia doesn’t list Joel as a developer? Does that mean the man doesn’t know that keeping Trac/Gantt chart/documentation/bug list etc up to date greatly increases productivity and keeps a project focussed?

    Or is it because he worked for “Microsoft, so he couldn’t be more opposite in thinking to open-source web based code development”. Are we just presuming now that if you happen to take a wage that you’re fundamentally against free or open source software? I take a wage for a company that wont be releasing it’s software, am i now in the “couldn’t be more opposite in thinking to open-source web based code development” simply because of my day job? Or is it easier to shoot down people making comments based on presumptions moderators have about anyone who places feeding their wives and children above working a 9-5 for an open source software foundation?

    I see, it’s cos it’s easier to shoot down questions and comments rather than have a discussion.

    (btw _ck_, the guy left Microsoft over 9 years ago. 9. years. maybe we can let that one go.)

    @Ipstenu:

    Hey dude, can i ask where you got his info from:

    Now Lorelle (from Lorelle on WordPress, a name many folks may be familiar with) has intimated that this will be a ‘big’ year for bbPress.

    It seems great news, but in the same way that Sam lets us know that he’s been focussed on non-BBpress projects 7 replies down a random forum post; it worries me that finding out this cool info is getting harder and harder.

    Follow the bbPress blog. You’ll get your answer when you do :)

    I kinda hope that’s tongue-in-cheek , with 5 posts in 6 months (and 3 of them within 3 days of each other), the BBpress blog isn’t quite the bastian of information you might think. All it does it tell us when there’s a new release. It’s not not a blog as much as a list of release dates.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Thanks Chris,

    I’m not sure who did or why (and dont really want to get into ‘who’ did, as mud slinging never got anyone anywhere). But i do reiterate my point that even after re-reading in the cold light of day, the post has some really valuable points.

    Given that I can’t find any posting guidelines to confirm what i might have broken, i can only assume it’s someone on a power trip. “tell us what you are thinking?” as long it’s something we want to hear apparently. Shame.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Apparently the post has now been removed also, which i must say is really odd.

    For those interested, it was at…

    https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/how-to-help-us-help-bbpress


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Last but not least I think there should be an incredibly strong warning to people that there is no downgrading from 1.0 to 0.9 once they upgrade because of the db changes.

    Can i second this?

    this is the sort of communication and information that would be really really helpful to people, and also maybe minimise any possible support issues.

    In reply to: bbPress Facebook page

    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    I’m really disappointed in this response actually. _CK_ is without a doubt the person who carries the most weight around here these days given her exceptional and continued support and development.

    Whenever we, as a community or an individual, say something that is negative about BBpress it is because we want to make it better. You said yourself in October that Sam wasn’t on the forums much, and as time goes on, mostly because of wordpress moving forward, BBpress has looked more and more stale/abandoned. I appreciate it’s a perception rather than reality, but surely you can see by the response that Sam’s first post in months was met with this reaction, is down to that feeling that’s been growing in the community for months now.

    Its not an attack on Sam, as a person, in anyway. It not an attack on BBpress or its code, its people who read one thing (or multiple things) and then find them out to be not true. its people who read new posts daily about “wordpress integration”

    “I’m not sure how many more times I can repeat that bbPress is pre-release software.”

    We know this, we don’t expect everything to work, we expect bugs, and we’re trying to report them back and be helpful. But we’ve been reporting 1 particular ind crucial bug back for over half a year now, with no info being forthcoming.

    “Every part of bbPress is subject to completely change and break overnight”

    We get this too. But, um, it broke over half a year ago!

    If it broke last night, last week, or last month then yeah i’d get it.

    But it broke a long long time ago.

    “there are no feature or bug priorities”

    Sam said there is (read up).

    You said there was last month (about XMLRPC – will find link to post).

    “If that bothers anyone, or they feel the need to rant about it, please stop using it asap”

    TO Be Honest, that sounds childish in my opinion.

    And not what i’d expect _CK_.

    “Integration is tricky because it was not a priority for bbPress”

    It wasn’t? wow.

    Ok, it wasn’t. Can we ask why?

    Again, it seems like the most asked about thing on the forum. Not just in terms of how often people ask, or that fact that there is a sticky on it, or that it’s the biggest word on the tag cloud by miles or… (i could go on, but i think we all know the point i’m getting at).

    “there is no such thing as a “standard” wordpress install”

    Yes there is. Download wordpress. input your database and password. hit install.

    Famous 5 min install remember.

    There is a standard wordpress install!

    “The radical changes to WordPress security in the past year have not helped at all with integration ease”

    We get that _CK_, we do, and we totally understand.

    But the change happened in WP2.6, then we had 2.6.1, 2.6.2 , 2.6.3 . 2.6.5, and now 2.7.

    BBpress / Automattic have had 7 month (minimum) to realise and fix this issue.

    I mean, and correct me if i’m massively wrong, but did security change in 2.6, or did it change drastically in every release? If it changed drastically in 2.6, 2.6.1, 2.6.2 , 2.6.3 . 2.6.5, and now 2.7; then yes i can see how that would be a huge issue and a moving target. but if it has stayed the same for 6 months (in all the WP2.6 releases) then frankly, it seems crazy to me that NO-ONE at automatic can be asked how security has changed.

    “So weigh your options and either stick with it or move on but please don’t rant against the very people trying to help the project”

    We’re not ranting against the people _CK_, there is nothing personal here.

    We want to help.

    We want to use BBpress, spread the word, fix bugs, make it better.

    But with this HUGE issue over our heads, we can’t, and thats what we’re trying to put across.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi vannak,

    If the forum you’re reffering to is the one linked to in your profile, then it seems to be running nicely.

    If you like showing off the fact that your server rocks,

    1.298 – 35 queries

    That said, if you think it’s running slowly the best bet is to do a few things:

    1) delete any plugins that you are not using (i know they shouldnt have any effect but always better to be safe than sorry, wordpress 2.6.1 had a similar bug)

    2) deactivate plugins one at a time, and see if you notice any difference.

    3) use Yslow to see what is taking the time to load from the front-end.

    4) try disabling the adverts on the website. they shouldn’t have an effect, but sometimes Flash banners can do that (though they should only slow it down after the page has loaded)

    5) Ask godaddy for the server logs and error logs, or ask them exactly what page/script is slow.

    BBpress isn’t perfect, but the code is well written and generally very very fast.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hey JJJ,

    its my understanding that all functions, including those that have the template hardcoded into it, require a plug-in to overwrite.

    This sadly cant be kept in the template folder, nor turned on as default.


    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hey we can put the bug in trac and link to it now though ;-)

    In reply to: bbPress Facebook page

    kevinjohngallagher
    Member

    @kevinjohngallagher

    Hi Ipstenu,

    I’m going to disagree with you a little mate, and try not to take it off topic too much.

    Yes, each adjective is subjective to ones perspective. “easy” and “alot” etc. can mean different things to different people. That said, lets look at them a sec.

    “extensive plugins?”

    There are just under 120 plugins for BBPress.

    Over 1/3rd haven’t been updated in a year. I’d wager a good few of them don’t work anymore.

    And the ones with latest comments 6-12 months ago, usually don’t work either.

    Also from what i’ve seen about 1/4 of them are redundant or useless in 0.9 / 1.0alpha.

    So we’re looking at maybe 40-50 plugins.

    Does anyone think that’s “extensive”?

    I know it’s subjective, but, um, well you can make up your own mind.

    “You CAN redesign the hell out of a bbPress site”

    To a certain extent i’ll agree and disagree with it. To redesign a bbpress forum so that it doesn’t look like this theme actually takes a bucket load of work. I’ve done it for 3 websites, and every time it’s involved me writing full on plugins just to output the right code, or W3C acceptable code, or overwrite the damned code thats stored outwith the templates (why is that btw?).

    Can i stop and ask that? WHY does a theme designer NEED to write alot of non basic php code as a separate to their theme plugin, just to over write HARDCODED design output? Since when was hardcoding design output into the core of a theme-able piece of software a good idea?

    What you can’t do with bbpress, is hand a Designer/ HTML coder your template files and expect to get anything back that’s not a flat output of a table. It’s a point I raised a while ago (and i’ll not bang on about it) but BBpress works at doing one thing. Outputting a flat list from a database.

    In terms of your all forums kinda look the same , i have to agree in this instance. Most forums, ipb/vBulletin/phpBB etc do all look the same. but guess what. bbpress doesn’t look much like them. I’ve stated before BBpress’s horrific handling of parent/children with categories etc. is bloody woeful; but if you’re talking about usability, then bbpress starts to fall down a little.

    What it outputs is simple, yes, to the user, but it’s not very perceptive. Finding a specific post or vital information (say that 0.9 = WP2.5 – you know , something you’d expect to be on the documentation or download page but is actually on page 3 of a topic started 1 year ago) , is a disaster. It’s reliant on the user

    who posted the content using TAGS appropriotely and ofc it requires a better search function.

    Lets not forget that ‘tags’ are fairly new, and really only web savvy people use/know about them. A huge chunk of this software’s cross-pollination and iteration is taken out of the developers hands and placed smack bang in teh hand of the end user (whom we know nothing about nor can reply on).

    Just because something is simple/plain, does not make it inherently usable.

    Think Boo.com.

    ================================================

    Anyway, there are a number of things we’d all like to see fixed in bbpress. Some more vital than others. we’ll all agree and disagree on many, but my over riding feeling is this:

    Our Clients, customers, friends, colleagues, schools, own sites, will at some stage like to, nah need to, be updated to the latest version of WordPress. it will vary from person to person, but at some stage you know that a wordpress upgrade is probably in the pipes.

    But if you’re using BBpress, then you’ve been forced to hold off upgrading for over half a year. We will be/are a whole version behind, and surely someone can see that it’s got to be an issue.

    I suppose what i dont understand is, and maybe i’m the only one, so please 100% feel free to explain it to me like an idiot.

    if The most requested topic on this website is “wordpress integration”, and the singular fail point of the software is “wordpress integration”, and teh company that owns this software also own wordpress, and it happens to be your singular initial selling point of the software, um, well, WHY THE HELL HAS IT NOT BEEN THE ONLY PRIORITY AND FIXED IN THE 3 MONTHS SINCE 1.0ALPHA CAME OUT?

    We’ve had other fixes, new code, new features, a facebook page (see i hadn’t forgotten), but yet without even a hint of when this base level feature might appear, we’re told it’s a moving target.

    Please, explain it to me like a 5 year old, that hasn’t read the blog posts linking to the $29 million dollars investment, that also lead to Sam being taken on as a full time developer on bbpress (i.e. dont say no time/resources).

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