[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?

[_ck_]

Don’t re-invent the wheel. WP-Chunk

or Sam Ingle’s Link Truncator for WordPress can be hacked to support bbpress in under 5 minutes. There are probably others too.

[_ck_]

Okee, try version 0.05 which has a few fixes and now uses a textarea for clarity (with maximum lines enforced):

https://ckon.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/bb-signatures.txt?v005

[so1o]

Here is my latest redesign of my site.. the site has wordpress and bbpress completely integrated..

there is no bbpress frontpage it shares the wordpress frontpage. the plugins are shared by both bbpress and wordpress.

I have integrated the search also.. try the ajax live search. type and wait.

Here is the link – http://www.adityanaik.com

I will be releasing the last theme ‘sunnyside’ in a few days

let me hear your thoughts.

[_ck_]

Page transfer time alone was not-so-hot.

Front page, non-cached, no-images, no external js/css was 2.84 seconds. Loading a fresh topic took over 6 seconds in my browser.

No gzip web compression enabled.

PHP5 (~10%+ slower than PHP4)

There’s definitely no mysql cache – way, way too slow.

Can you put make yourself a phpinfo.php page and put <? phpinfo(); ?> in there for us to check for other stuff? I don’t think it’s a security issue but others will have to agree or not.

Another neat way to look at unknown servers is with this perlinfo cgi I found and hacked at a bit a few years ago. Rename that to perlinfo.cgi upload to your cgi-bin and chmod it to 755. Then we can maybe see a bit more. If you don’t know how to do all this, then nevermind.

I need at least one static page to compare it all to.

If you don’t mind saying, how much are you paying for this hosting? According to westhost’s page ALL clients are on their own VPS, even @ $4/mo which is kinda strange. If true, that means you can customize mysql yourself and install eaccelerator.

top w and uptime are all done from a “shell” via SSH. You need to email them and ask them how you access your shell. If you are indeed on a VPS you should have access to one. Many shared hosting hosts block shell access because of security issues.

[_ck_]

For anyone running 0.8.2.x I bundled this as a proper plugin with some of my other “views” tricks:

bbPress plugin: My Views

optional: install bb-topic-views for the other extra views

[vlp]

thanks, I found another way when integrating with wordpress

< a href=”http://www.tasty.sk/forum/profile/&lt;?php echo $user_identity; ?>/favorites”>

I get the same results:)

[_ck_]

Since there’s no real way to cache bbpress as static pages like wordpress (and not that there ever really can be, defeats the purpose) if you plan to have anything bigger than a “micro-forum” it’s important your host has mysql caching and optionally but recommend, some kind of php opcode cache (ie. eaccelerator)

Otherwise you’ll be getting emails from your host about your account creating all of the mysql load, etc.

The problem is I think most hosts do not have the two features I mentioned enabled. At least most shared hosting that’s done on cpanel “out of the box” on defaults. They have to be a bit more tech-savvy. And then if they are that clever, sometimes they will “oversell” the box thinking it can do more work than average.

Last but not least, on all shared hosting and VPS, you can have great performance for the moments you test it, but then a “bad neighbour” comes along and your performance will become quite bad for no reasons of your own, until the host does something about it, which can be days. Sometimes even the host can make poor decisions that will cripple your site, like backing it up during times of higher activity or allowing the statistics programs to run on dozens of clients at the exactly same time.

I wish I could afford dedicated hosting myself! Solves most of these problems. But spending $100 per year instead of $100 a month is no contest.

ps. 2.490 – 8 queries is not good at all if you are expecting high traffic – I have mysql cache and opcode cache and get always get under 0.300 for 10-30 queries no matter how many visitors. But I suspect I pay much more for my hosting. My guess is there’s definitely no mysql cache on there or you are paying very very little for that hosting.

[riddle]

Oh lazyweb I invoke thee: does anybody have a recommendation for an RSS aggregator to incorporate a feed or feeds into a bbPress site?

For WordPress, of course, there are a zillion plugins that will do the job. And there are generic ones I could adapt to my bbPress. But if somebody has done it, I’d rather benefit from your experience.

Thanks.

[berniesteak]

@sam

Already tried (as mentioned above) using forums as subdomain and also putting the htaccess details in a vhost.conf file. No joy either way.

@colin

“Quick and dirty” fix seems to do the trick.

Not actually sure if I’m going to go with bbpress anymore, I put a vanilla forum up in the meanwhile and it seems pretty decent. Although integration is nowhere near as slick with WordPress.

[_ck_]

Oh if you are trying to do it from an integrated WordPress you’ll need to do this:

<?

if function_exists("get_currentuserinfo") {global $user_ID;}

else { $user_ID=bb_get_current_user_info( 'id' )}

if ($user_ID) { echo '<a href="/forums/profile.php?id='.$user_ID.'&tab=favorites">favorites</a>';} ?>

untested – change /forums/ to whatever your bbpress path is.