It is all done on bbPress.
I’ve considered making a free theme to get my name out there. But if I do I will most likely wait until the new version is released (the WP plugin). It would allow me to simplify the code somewhat I think. As it stands right now the theme and plugin is a bit of a mess as I was learning and adding features as I went.
Well I wrote one fairly large plugin to handle the image uploading and added a few template functions to then display them. I also made a few modifications of existing plugins to achieve the views and rating functionality. My original post echoes most of this in more detail.
Aside from some small modifications to the profile page code (why isn’t there a template for this?!) all of the additional functionality has been achieved through plugins and theme code. I wrote most of the functionality into a plugin I am called bb-gallery. I am also using ajaxed-quote (detective), bb-ratings (mdawaffe), bb-topic-views (wittmania, _ck_), my-views (_ck_), and front-page-topics (_ck_, mdawaffe).
Its amazing that only four people are behind WordPress, plus some new ones now. To me, it seems like WordPress is a company on the level of Apple. I imagined there would be hundreds of employes behind WordPress. They really give the impression of being the most professional people in the business of cloud-computing.
Welcome to open source software development Marius 
What you are saying is *sort of* true. There have only been 4 main code “committers” in recent years but there are actually a lot more people involved in making WordPress what it is.
WordPress is “owned” by a company called Automattic. Everything they produce is open source and therefore free to use and/or modify. It’s not a huge company but it’s not tiny either. They are comprised of 40+ developers, designers, engineers, etc who all work from their homes spread around the globe. They make their money mostly from WordPress.com which sells WordPress hosting as a service.
The beauty of it, since it’s all open source, if you decided you wanted to become a developer and you came up with a great idea for a new feature and coded it up as a plugin – Automattic might decide that they want to incorporate it as a core feature and implement YOUR code. This is exactly how the new menu feature in 3.0 came about. People had been making plugins that worked in a similar fashion for years.
I guess I wasn’t involved with the community long enough to feel the burn from the back and forth decisions you mentioned. That does sound pretty shitty!
This is just pure speculation here but maybe the information from Automattic was so inconsistent because they weren’t sure what direction they were going themselves. I don’t know the whole history of BackPress but it sounds like it was a pretty big undertaking that would have had implications for WordPress as well. Going off my knowledge and what Matt said in the keynote it sounds like the BackPress project just didn’t work out in the long run but it was too late to take it back from bbPress.
Again, thats pure speculation so treat it with a grain of salt
BTW Taeo, I miss not being able to recommed your UI 
Heh sorry about that. It was too much work to maintain between patches 
I’ve posted some new stuff on my new website ( http://www.wowuigallery.com/topic/taeo-333-ui ) but it doesn’t have all the auto-config bells and whistles of the original.
For an good looking, easy to setup UI I usually recommend TukUI to people. I helped him build his site (WordPress and bbPress of course).
He even admitted that right now, it would be better off to use another plugin rather than bbPress.
I agree that this seems very insulting but you have to keep in mind Matt’s target audience. Matt and Automattic are concerned first and foremost with WordPress. And the vast majority of WordPress users are not the people involved in this thread – they are bloggers and publishers with very little knowledge of code. For them, the easiest forum solution is a WordPress plugin. We know better here at bbPress.org but we make up a very small (albeit vocal) minority.
Knowing this, it is difficult to imagine the future of bbPress (under Automattic) as anything other than a “core” WordPress plugin. I think your concerns with this, Zaerl, and Kevin, are completely reasonable. It will absolutely be less lightweight than bbPress is now. I have no doubts of that although I am confident the WordPress team will minimize the hit in every way possible.
However, for me personally, the good outweighs the bad. I basically make a living off of customizing WordPress templates for people and I will be very happy to have an easily implemented and officially supported forum solution to offer my clients. I am almost sure this is how the majority of WordPress users also feel.
Unfortunately for those of you who want bbPress to remain a standalone solution I think your time is limited. Even if Automattic wanted to keep bbPress as a standalone solution I don’t think they have the developers to do it. If this is what you really want I think the only choice is to do it yourselves. Whether that means forking or taking some of the core and rebuilding completely – one of you will simply have to take charge on your own and forget Automattic.
I know that sounds harsh – I’m not trying to mean – I totally understand where you guys are coming from. I just think this is the unfortunate state you are in.
You all have good points – some that I think I overlooked a bit. I guess I’m more of a “glass half full” kind of person. I’m at work right now but I’d like to take the time later today to respond to each of you.
Dreamweaver has a bad reputation among the developers I know/work with as an elaborate, bloated, WYSIWIG editor responsible for a large number of do-it-yourself abominations on the net.
Reading back through that I realize it’s kind of harsh! But that is the attitude I get from people towards it. Personally I don’t use it because its auto complete likes to do wonky things with my code. Also when many times you just want to text edit a few lines who wants to wait for the program to load?
I use Notepad++ as well with the “Ruby Blue” theme.
After using Visual Studio for .Net at work I’ve found myself badly wanting to find a full featured IDE for PHP as well. Unfortunately I’ve tried several and always end up coming back to plain old Notepad++. If only I could have Visual Studio’s “goto method” feature in Notepad++ I would be set forever!
That said, of all the IDE’s I’ve tried, PHPStorm, which Paul mentioned, has been my favorite so far. I might still be using it right now if only I could find where the hell to download their themes! I became so frustrated trying to find the themes that they advertised that I simply gave up.
I have spoiled myself with light-text-on-dark-background themes and I am simply unable to work for long periods of time on a white background. If anyone could point me to a place where I might find a light-text-on-dark-background theme for PHP Storm I would be extremely grateful!
I searched a little harder and found some responses to the same question. Sorry for not looking before! I am going to try setting the time zone for bbPress to match that of my server’s.
Did I say Dan? 
It was late. I meant to thank Tom! lol
Thanks for all the compliments!
And thank you Dan for pointing out my mistake! Doh! I’m sure there are a few other things I’ve missed along the way.
Btw, less than 48 hours since it has been live and I’ve already seen over 1,400 unique visitors
bbPress does not have a built in “get_sidebar” function like WP but you can use a regular PHP include.
include ‘sidebar.php’;
I’ve opted to include my sidebar within my footer template but I can imagine that might not always be doable with a more complex layout.
@Michael888
Thanks! I will definitely share once I am done.
I am not so sure about releasing it as a stable plugin. Alot of what I have done is very specific to the goal I am trying to accomplish! Not to mention I haven’t really made an effort to make it play nice as a plugin (table needs to be created manually, queries have hardcoded table names, etc).
If the 1.1 revival of BBPress goes through and my site does well I may consider it. Regardless I would release it as is to anyone who wanted to tinker with it.
What a coincidence. I was just trying to see if there was already a function in place to do this as well! Thanks matveb!
Mine is at http://www.taeoui.com/forums
Theme matches the rest of the site.
I’m also working on another project with BBPress to create a gallery where users submit their work in a placer where others can view, rate, and comment. So far I’ve been able to achieve all of the functionality in the form of plugins (both my own and modifications of existing ones) however I had to modify the core to make the register page look nicer (why is there a template for that?!). It’s been a great learning process and BBPress, like WordPress, is great to work with.
I have a WordPress site with a bbPress install on the side. Design has been integrated.
http://www.taeoui.com
Hi Mujtaba,
I don’t know about a custom 404 but have you looked into the ISAPI ReWrite module? It provides mod_rewrite functionality for IIS. Works great.
http://www.isapirewrite.com/
