[_ck_]

Oh… you’re hacking the core, that’s easy but not good.

I am desperately trying not to touch the bbpress core which was a huge mistake I did with wordpress and made it impossible to upgrade even when there were critical security fixes.

bbpress is in such a state of flux right now it would be crazy to hack the core, updates with major changes can be expected almost every other month.

I’ll put this on my scary growing list of things to look at. To be honest it’s not a huge priority but you might want to seriously consider my idea of messing with the topic_status flag. You already are halfway there.

[_ck_]

I am pleased to announce a new bbPress Polls plugin.

Your members can now add polls to their topics, or optionally you can allow *anyone* to add a poll to *any* topic, within a specified time period (hours) since the topic was started.

bb-Polls allows single answer or multiple answer polls.

No template edits of any kind.

There are no additional db tables added, it uses bbpress topicmeta only. Only one entry is created per poll, regardless of size or options (this allow very easy cleanup if desired for some reason).

This is a *very* early beta, however should be functional except for:

1. missing admin menu (coming soon – edit plugin directly)

2. missing administrative editing of existing polls.

3. missing some visual tweaks (plural case, etc.)

4. missing some more deluxe options (poll ending time, etc.)

5. missing multi-language support (coming soon)

If you can live with these limits and would like to help test and give me some useful, constructive feedback, please download:

http://ckon.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/bb-polls.txt?v010

(rename .txt to .php, install, activate, start a new test topic)

The beta is set so only moderators and above can create/see the polls. This will allow you to test without disturbing visitors.

Please note the visual styles may be WAY off for the default template or your own template. Unfortunately I am using a very customised template. You’ll probably have to edit the built in css which is kept clearly at the top. (the default styles will be fixed soon when I get a chance to do a trunk install this week)

Upcoming features include the ability to display all polls and the ability to display a poll anywhere within bbpress templates.

ps. I need to know if this works as in in the trunk version – I don’t see why it wouldn’t but you never know…

[so1o]

If you integrate bbpress and wordpress.. you can use openID plugin for google on bbpress as you will be sharing the users from wordpress on bbpress..

[_ck_]

I’m looking at how openid is done and I think I’ll make the login even more simple for users – I’ll let them choose from like the top five or ten providers in a dropdown, ie.

1. aol

2. livejournal

3. wordpress

4. ??

5. ??

and then tell then to enter their username on that service – that way they don’t need to figure out it’s username.website.com

[_ck_]

I wonder if I force all my bbpress logins through wordpress if I can just use that openid plugin there and it will work on bbpress…

only one way to find out I guess…

[MaryJane]

Well i knew about the wordpress theme switcher. What i was really wondering was if someone had already made one for bbpress or was currently making one i guess. Or if there was another way to do what i wanted without having to use a theme switcher.

Thank you for the link though. Ill look at it.

[_ck_]

Instead of xml-rpc pingbacks for 0.84 I’d love to see a more useful feature – OpenID support

Apparently wordpress.com has had openid support since March:

http://wordpress.com/blog/2007/03/06/openid/

and here’s a wordpress plugin to allow logins via openid, now we need to port it to bbpress…

http://verselogic.net/projects/wordpress/wordpress-openid-plugin/

This would allow the quarter-million wordpress.com members and 120 million other openid participants to post on any bbpress forum with verified authentication.

[_ck_]

I solved all spam on my blogs quite easily – any post with more than one url never gets approved, never displayed. I’ve yet to see spammers not be greedy and only post one url.

I had forgotten about the OpenID standard! We need to try to suggest that to the right people making WP/BB. That would be one of the most useful features ever (wordpress.com has nearly a quarter million registered members!)

update: WAIT! It’s been done?!?!?

http://wordpress.com/blog/2007/03/06/openid/

How do we get openid support into bbpress then?!

added: here’s a wordpress plugin to allow openid, now we need to port it to bbpress…

http://verselogic.net/projects/wordpress/wordpress-openid-plugin/

I’ll start a new topic on this…

[howtogeek]

It sounds like you really have a wordpress question since everything is running under wordpress… but here’s a plugin for wordpress to switch themes (I haven’t tried it myself)

http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/ThemeSwitcher

I don’t believe there is one for bbPress at the moment, considering there aren’t a lot of themes out there.

[howtogeek]

We are in perfect sync on that one… having xml-rpc pingbacks in a forum is the most worthless feature idea to ever be thought of. I’ve completely disabled them on wordpress because I don’t think they provide any true value to the reader, and most of them are spam anyway. I’ve written my own simple spam plugin to run in conjunction with Akismet because I was unsatisfied with what I was getting.

Your idea of the wordpress logins would work if they implemented OpenID in bbPress and had wordpress.com as an openid server. Would actually be a killer feature, I’d think.

I’ve hacked up my wp-cache2 to allow for more dynamic code to be called on each post. Most of my content is really very static, so I don’t need it to be updated often.

I’ve never had any issues with it caching the wrong versions though.

[MaryJane]

I have a theme i ported over to wp and bbpress. It has the option of being one, two and three column’s layout. Im working on getting the other columns ported over i have the basic three column working now.

Theres links under the header to click to switch to each column layout. I want to keep this feature to offer my members. My question is there a simple way for me to let users switch columns? Like using a theme switcher or some other way? Ive searched the support forum here and so far i havent found a user theme plugin switcher on here. Is there one made that im overlooking? Even if there was one just because a user switched themes in the forum doesnt mean it would switch themes in the wordpress….

Can someone help me figure out to accomplish this?

website url: http://slickwhenwet.com/forum <– work in progress

[_ck_]

Oh I didn’t realize xcache is just an opcode cache. I already use eaccelerator which seems to have zero quirks compared to other solutions. But yeah, any opcode cache for wordpress/bbpress is a must for any active site.

I already create the sidebar statically across my sites, saves a lot of work and repetition on the db.

the wp-cache “plugin” has flaws in it’s logic. I noticed that unregistered visitors were getting edit links on posts, not good, even if they couldn’t actually edit. Then it has an exclude feature to keep certain parts dynamic, but you can’t have wordpress calls in those dynamic parts because wordpress isn’t actually loaded, which is the whole point. so it won’t work and gives error (#1 confusion to most people trying to use it)

In the end, I hacked wp-cache to only cache the RSS feeds which were causing the most requests, yet the most static of all the content. Caching rss feeds on bbpress should be an easy, useful thing too, but then on a forum I highly doubt the use of rss feeds on anything but the latest discussions.

What really worries me about the 0.84 release is the xml-rpc pingbacks. bbpress is going to become known as the spammers forum of choice with a bad rep, until novices are given an easy option to turn it off, or better yet it’s off by default. I cannot disagree more highly with the entire feature idea. It defeats the entire purpose of a forum. What they are trying to do is have a universal way to cross post across forums but the whole point of a forum is *community* and getting people to actually visit, not stay away.

What they really should do instead of pingbacks if they want easy cross communication, is have a universal login based on a database at wordpress.com – Basically anyone with a wordpress account could visit your wordpress or bbpress site and instantly post if they wanted as “wp.membername” without having to register again and again. Sure there are security issues to be tackled but it’s better than anonymous spam heaven on pingbacks. Akismet won’t protect pingbacks, I see spam in my wordpress.com account every week.

[howtogeek]

I’m using xcache with very good luck for wordpress, wordpress mu and bbpress on the same server. Also using mysql caching with very good success.

On a forum, the cache probably shouldn’t be the entire page, but rather sections of it or at least the more expensive queries. A visitor who isn’t logged in should probably see an almost completely cached version of the page.

wp-cache2 for wordpress seems to handle this pretty well, and the built-in caching in wordpress mu also seems to work quite well.

[Andrew]

You do not receive notification of new users.

WordPress does notify the admin via email when a new account is created. If you have a wordpress blog and integrate user databases you will receive notification.

[_ck_]

bbpress uses so few queries that caching has got to be a low priority, especially when the point of a forum is to have very dynamic updates customised for the logged in member – it’s very different than a wordpress environment

as long as you have the mysql cache turned on, it should be very responsive – just look at the main wordpress support forum – eaccelerator would take care of caching the php opcode and that can’t be too far behind a static page

the bonus is that on an active forum, everything will be very dynamic as it happens…

[_ck_]

Okay anyone wanna see a prototype?

You can’t vote yet, but you can create a fake poll and see what it looks like so you can give me feedback and ideas.

I gave up on migrating an existing poll program after realising all the issues with custom bbpress integration, even from a wp port.

I’ve locked the demo to moderators (and higher) for now so even when you create a poll, no one else should be able to see it, or the options.

http://ckon.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/bb-polls.txt?v001

rename .txt to .php, install, activate

create a new topic of any sort and then look below the meta at the top for the option to create the poll

try creating one with a few options, it should be saved and then you’ll see some randomised results for a little colourful demo.

[goodwyne]

I assume most people are using bbPress to replace comments in WordPress. At least that is what we are doing. We’d like to redirect trackbacks to the corresponding bbPress thread instead of comments in WordPress. Has anyone already done that? Or is there a plugin that does it?

[_ck_]

It’s a good question and something I vaguely remember reading before around here.

In theory (don’t try it until you hear from others) you could rename the bbpress user + usermeta tables for wp, and then tell bbpress to look at the wp tables like a typical integration.

You’ll also need to install several plugins and tweaks to make sure that wp registrations are properly handled on the bbpress side.

(whatever you do, backup first!)

[larsvegas]

Maybe somebody can help:

I have a workin’ installation of bbPress with lots of users and content. Now i want to get a fresh copy WP up and running and want to get all registered users from bbPress into WP.

As far as I know, I can’t just tell WP to use bbPress-Usertable. Maybe somebody can give me some tipps know how to get it done.

[MaryJane]

Ummm im seeing wordpress and bbpress.

[riddle]

More specifically: does bbPress have mechanisms for automatic table creation and updating like the ones described in the WordPress docs?

See: https://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_Tables_with_Plugins

Should I start my Foo plugin by creating a function foo_install()? And can that function call dbDelta()? (I don’t see dbDelta in my bbPress anywhere.) If not, what’s the recommended alternative model for creating tables to be used in plugins?

[_ck_]

Here we go!

http://ckon.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/new-plugin-bbpress-signatures/

updated to v0.11 – now with admin menu!

http://ckon.wordpress.com/files/2007/07/bb-signatures.txt

(rename .txt to .php)

If you have plugins for smilies and/or allow images in post text, it will obey them, this is probably a good thing and desired.

You can set the minimum user level needed to show signatures and also the ability not to repeat a user’s signature more than once per page.

Instructions: install, activate, tinker with settings in admin menu

If you would like the optional toggle on new/edit posts to disable signatures you must edit the edit-form.php & post-form.php templates and place at or near the bottom:

<? bb_signatures_checkbox(); ?>

(you can wrap it in a DIV and float it to the left, right style anyway you’d like

sorry but there’s no way to do this directly through a plugin)

Here’s a fancier version that I use:

<div style=”float:left” ><? if (function_exists(‘bb_signatures_checkbox’)) {bb_signatures_checkbox();} ?></div>

Version History:

0.05 :slashes & autop fixed, replaced input with textarea, max_lines now supported in post-processing, max_length checked in realtime (as well as post processing)

0.06 :internal testing/bugfix

0.07 :per-post signature toggle

0.08 :toggle for allow html and allow images should now work

0.10 :basic functioning admin menu

0.11 :more intelligent admin menu

[riddle]

I’m working on my first bbPress plugin. Between the limited bbPress documentation and the more extensive WordPress docs (and some unofficial WP tutorials) I can figure out most of what I need to know, but there are still some gaps.

Does anyone have a favorite simple, well-written plugin for a newbie to use as a model?

Preferably one that manages its own table(s) in the database?

Thanks.

[_ck_]

I’m now getting a median response time of about 0.125 seconds for 8 queries on the top page and 0.205 seconds for 12 queries on a topic page.

That’s like night and day compared to what you had before. It was taking almost a full second in some cases, look at the bottom source of the static.html !!!

Now can you believe most shared hosting environments have mysql cache turned off by default!!! Even your VPS neighbours may have it turned off which is causing high disk load that’s affecting you. This is where all those who claim how VPS is superiour are wrong. Disk access is the achilles heel of VPS (and shared hosting).

Next performance improvement you can do is install eaccelerator. Though it’s nowhere near as easy as editing mysql and restarting services.

Do you know how much guaranteed ram you have on your vps? Because the mysql and eacellerator cache will eat into that. If you have less that 128mb it will limit the sheer number of simultaneous connections you can have. Though for your needs I don’t think it’s a big deal unless all the search engines start scanning you at once.

ps. don’t worry any more about mysql tuning and phpmyadmin status reports, it’s really all you can do for now – the rest is a limit of how wordpress/bbpress works and can’t be avoided

pps. most of your pages are now coming up in 1.5 seconds for me when they were taking up to 6 seconds before – there are still some weird delays sometimes though which must be OS loads

[Andrew]

What function do I call to output a permalink to a specific post in a thread? As threads get very long I would like to link to an individual post in the thread. I can’t seem to find this function anywhere. WordPress comments have such a function, does bbpress have it per post?