[John James Jacoby]

The reason why “full integration” isn’t ‘recommended’ is because WordPress is pretty sloppy with the number of database queries that it runs, sometimes into the hundreds per page load. bbPress tends to be very efficient in this department, so going from 9 queries to 30 queries for no real reason doesn’t make sense.

_ck_ made a topic about how to create a query without doing full integration, and I highly recommend using that method in most instances. It will allow you to have much more control over what you’re doing and how it’s doing it.

For the sake of being easy, full integration will provide you with every available WordPress function and ability, many of which you will never need or use. I personally am using full integration because I’m still poking my head around trying to figure out what’s all possible to do with it, and it does work very well, just a little slower than a non-fully integrated install of bbPress.

[chrishajer]

> So can I move certain “modules” or “plug-ins” around without php?

> EG: Can I move the log-in bar to the top or the bottom or the side

> of the page by a “point and click” interface a bit like Joomla,

> or do I have to know php to just move something around?

No, it does not work like Joomla in this regard. It’s also unlike widgetized themes in WordPress. You don’t need to know PHP to move these thigns around, but you *do* need to know enough *about* PHP to know how it works, and you need to edit the theme files to move those blocks around manually.

> Are there any “core” enhancements coming in the new bbpress that

> will enable easier customisation?

I can’t speak for bbPress, but there’s nothing like that that I am aware of.

> Lastly, if I have a stunning new wordpress theme that I’ve styled up

> in Dreamweaver, how do I make bbpress “sit” inside the header-wrapper

> of WordPress?

bbPress does not become a part of WordPress. If you have the design in Dreamweaver, you are going to create two themes: one for WordPress and one for bbPress. They are going to look similar, but they are not going to be identical.

For the big commitment, that’s up to you. bbPress is a very immature package right now without a lot of resources being applied to it. WordPress on the other hand has a very vibrant development community, a good group of core employees programming for it, a regular release schedule, etc. I think it’s a mistake to lump bbPress and WordPress together. I would not hesitate to use WordPress as a CMS for nearly any website I were doing. For forums though, I think you have to consider all the possibilities. There are lots of forums available. The determining factor should be the strengths and weaknesses of each forum, and how they fit with your strengths and weaknesses. It’s a personal decision for you.

Luckily, I’ve only had two customers request forum functionality, out of about forty websites (1 Joomla, the rest WordPress). So, I made the decision to use bbPress in both cases, but depending on the situation, I might choose something different in the future.

[chrishajer]

WordPress functionality means being able to use WordPress functions, in bbPress. There are WordPress functions called get_header():, get_footer();, get_sidebar(); that exist in WordPress. Some people would like to use call these functions in their bbPress templates so they can get the exact same footer, header and sidebar in their forum as they have in the WordPress site. To do that, you need to do “full integration” which is what _ck_ is recommending against.

To just put a list of images with links in your sidebar, you need only modify your template files. You need to create space in the template where you want the sidebar (maybe forum.php in your template folder) by creating an additional div, maybe call it #rightsidebar. Now, you need to edit your style.css to make the other divs smaller (less wide, and then make the rightsidebar wider to fill the space you created. If they theme you’re using doesn’t have enough space for all that, you might need to increase the width of the whole layout.

I think the first step is to make the space on the page where you want it, get that working. Then, get the list of images and links in there. That’s how I would go about it. It doesn’t sound like you need access to specific WordPress functions.

[chrishajer]

I’m not sure about the iframe issue at all. Many people would like the forum to look like the WordPress blog. Normally you end up having to create a bbPress theme that looks like your blog theme.

How about using this redirect trick to get them where you want them after submitting the form?

https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/redirect-after-login-error#post-19576

[eclipsenow]

So can I move certain “modules” or “plug-ins” around without php? EG: Can I move the log-in bar to the top or the bottom or the side of the page by a “point and click” interface a bit like Joomla, or do I have to know php to just move something around?

Are there any “core” enhancements coming in the new bbpress that will enable easier customisation?

Lastly, if I have a stunning new wordpress theme that I’ve styled up in Dreamweaver, how do I make bbpress “sit” inside the header-wrapper of WordPress?

I’m almost on the brink of making a big commitment here. This could help me decide to shift not only to bbpress, but to WordPress. (I’m leaning away from Joomla and towards WordPress because of the Dreamweaver compatibility as well!) So while in some ways I’m a newbie, please understand that I’ve finally caught the “web-design” bug (although am kind of doing it part time), have upgraded to Adobe CS4, my wife and I work in a design studio, I’ve spent about 20 hours so far running through Lynda.com tutorials on XHTML and CSS and now I’m working through Dreamweaver, and I just need to make a choice about which CMS and forum to “get into” for clients.

[mzimmers]

OK, thanks, CK. I’m not sure what people mean by “wordpress functionality,” but all I’m intending to put there is a list of images with external links. Nothing particularly WP-specific.

[the_hero]

Hi I am integrated with wordpress and am using the bb_press login to handle the users login and registration. The login is housed under the wordpress roof, meaning I want to blogs look but with the bbpress login. So I placed an iframe between header and footer for when they click login.

Well, My problem is that from this iframe I don’t know how to get bb-login.php to target the parent when its done and not stay within the iframe. And yes, I need the iframe, how else could I use the bbpress login while still making the users feel they are within the confines of the blog?

Help please! Did I post in the right forum. If not help me know where to post so I get help quick!

Thanks a million in advance!

[yokima]

Hello,

I would like to have bbPress in two languages, using the same forum DB. So when viewing in language 1, the forum’s interface would be in language 1 with all the postings listed, and in language 2, the interface would be in language 2 with the same postings listed.

I plan on achieving this with bbPress theme switcher ( http://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/bbpress-theme-switcher/ ) and the link to switch between the themes/languages would be /bbpress/?bbtheme=lang1 and /bbpress/?bbtheme=lang2

I would also like to set up a php page at the root of the web domain to auto-detect and forward to the appropriate mediawiki language page based on

1) user’s browser language preferences if this is a first time visit

2) last connection’s languages preferences, which would be saved in the form of bbPress’s theme preference cookie.

with a file structure of

/blog

/blog/bbpress

/blog/wiki

/langdetect.php

My code so far is:

?php

/* langdetect.php */

$defaultlang = ‘en’

$lang = $defaultlang;

/* bbPress theme cookie detection */

if cookie exists {

(read cookie and set $lang to either en or ko.. bla bla)

}

/* WordPress and/or MediaWiki last visit language detection */

elseif previous visit info exists {

(i’ll figure this out later)

}

/* detect in-browser lang pref … modified from http://kaldung.com/en/php_detectbrowserlanguage.html */

else {

$langlist = explode(‘,’, $_SERVER);

foreach($langlist as $curLang) {

$curLang = explode(‘;’, $curLang);

/* use regular expression for language detection */

if (preg_match(‘/(ko|en)-?.*/’, $curLang[0], $reg)) {

$lang = $reg[1];

break;

}

}

}

/* redirect */

if ( $lang==’ko’ ) { header( ‘Location: http://ENGLISHPAGE’ ) ; }

else { header( ‘Location: http://ENGLISHPAGE’ ) ; }

?>

How can I read the bbPress cookie that contains the Theme Switcher theme preference?

[chrishajer]

The language file is an interesting idea. I’ve done that in the past with WordPress to change terminology. Thanks also for posting the way to do it with a plugin. I will try one of those two options.

Thanks.

[eclipsenow]

Anyone know if Lynda.com is about to do the latest WordPress, (let alone bbpress?) They covered using WordPress.com 2.6, but not 2.7 yet, and have about 3 courses on Joomla.

I’m there to learn Adobe CS4, and have ambitions of learning Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Indesign, etc and delusions of grandeur that I might one day understand my mac almost as well as my wife. (Who’s a VERY professional graphic designer, but a web-illiterate like I currently am). So I paid up for a year at Lynda.com (and will claim that on tax), and sat through 10 hours of CSS training and 3 hours of XHTML and am now starting on Dreamweaver. All this slowed down by Christmas, kids home for 6 weeks in the Australian summer break, and my messing about with Joomla! (There are some things I like about Joomla, but some bad experiences with trying to modify their templates left me a bit blech…. as well!

Yet I hear there is a state of the art Dreamweaver integration pack for $60 that will let me style up WordPress themes in DW! Woah! That almost won me over and gave me delusions of grandeur about one day donating a few state-of-the-art templates to the WordPress world as advertising for my own WordPress theme’s business.

And then the kids came in demanding ice-cream, and reality slapped me across my fantasising, drooling, delusional face.

So… in this vulnerable state of mind, I need a hug. Cult like it is, this “choosing software before you know software” business and frame of mind!

As a bit of an activist with other causes (and having had a little exposure to marketing, not a lot but enough) can I just comment that I think it would be better “press” if bbpress had some more features turned on in this forum? I personally really rely on email notification that someone has replied to a forum, and only check my RSS about once a day. (It’s all inconvenient). Instead of just clicking “Send post” I have to then click RSS, and then click Google Reader when that comes up, and then remember to check my RSS. I think the vast majority of bulletin board users like email notification of a reply. Is there a reason bbpress decided not to showcase some of their best plug-ins on their leading forum?

Anyway, so tired I’m nearly hallucinating. Night night, and no offence meant by any of the above.

[_ck_]

Sidebar would be done in the header.php or footer.php like it’s done in WordPress usually too.

However if you need wordpress functionality in the sidebar you’ll need to do full integration (which I personally recommend against but many people do anyway).

[John James Jacoby]

It would actually be really easy to build in bbPress theme functionality into the get_header and get_footer functions of WordPress, and I’ve thought about doing that in a few of the themes I’m making. Let me experiment this evening and report back.

[chrishajer]

Just edit the link in header.php in your template folder to point it to your WordPress home page, rather than the bbPress home page.

So instead of this:

<a href="<?php bb_uri(); ?>"><?php bb_option('name'); ?></a>

You would have something like this:

<a href="http://www.example.com/home/">WordPress Home</a>

[chrishajer]

What’s not to like about Joomla?

• seo friendly URLs are not built in, and need to be handled by each component individually
• Section > Category > Article – those are my choices, no more, no less? That’s lame
• Community support: the WordPress community is far more helpful than the Joomla one, in me experience.
• Seems like 80% of the add-ons for Joomla are paid, where 80% of them for WordPress are free. I really think that has held Joolma back: the fact that everything you want to add to it costs money

Also, sometimes you just understand where certain software is coming from, more than others. I understand WordPress better than I understand Joomla. And I’ve never had a problem with a WordPress upgrade, where almost every Joomla upgrade I attempted resulted in pain.

Of course, YMMV. You use whatever tools you need to to get the job done.

[chrishajer]

I didn’t think WordPress could do that, at least not at 2.7. I know they have added that functionality for plugins, but not for themes. Correct me if I’m wrong.

[chrishajer]

When you say “copy” do you mean “have the wordpress sidebar in bbPress” so it will be dynamic, just like it is in WordPress? Or, will you just copy and paste the code for a static sidebar into bbPress and it will never change?

If you want the former, you need integration, and you need to include WordPress inside bbPress so you have access to WordPress functions, like get_sidebar();.

If you want the latter, you just need to modify your template files to include the sidebar where you want it, and then modify the CSS to allow the space to exist in your forum.

[chrishajer]

Did you try any of the WordPress-style tricks?

<?php $topics = get_latest_topics('exclude=3' ); ?>

<?php $topics = get_latest_topics( -3 ); ?>

[_ck_]

It’s just wikipedia politics and someone wants to feel like they have power.

I would guess once Matt starts promoting bbPress on WordPress.org/com you’ll see the page restored as bbPress becomes more famous.

Fairly certain bbPress has over 10,000 users now and will do another survey in February – there are projects with far fewer users which still have a page on Wikipedia.

[superrad]

How can I get my bbpress header image to link to my wordpress home page?

[inztinkt]

any change? its been a while since fb connect was launched. surely the popular facebook conect plugin for wordpress can be slightly adapted to work as a bbpress plugin too? or am i way off?

[tinkerer]

Hi,

chrishajer ist right, the wp-blog-header is required in order to make it work.

But apparently this is still not enough; you’ll need to make sure bbpress accesses the event calendar’s CSS files as well; furthermore the events list from this plugin is designed in a way that it will display the details of an event by making use of javascript; this, however, fails. I couldn’t get this to work yet. So in my bbpress people see that there is an event on a certain day, but cant click on it.

Any ideas how to fix that?

Also I’d like to know whether there is a way of accessing the plugin via the bbpress dashboard instead/in addition to the wordpress dashboard. Or, skipping the bbpress dashboard altogether and have one dashboard for WP and bbpress.

[mousenator]

Just wanted to thank you for this post, you’re a genius

[eclipsenow]

[edited by moderator]

I haven’t played with BBpress to know all its features. However, ideally, and I think I may have said this before, I think bbpress should become an extension of WordPress, or at least have that as an option. I can install Joomla in 50 seconds using Fantastico, and then install their POWERFUL little forum Agora in about 50 seconds because it is an extension right in Joomla! Too easy.

[Malice]

Sound interesting eclipsenow

You can backup bbpress using a wordpress backup tool. If integrated, bbpress and wordpress use the same databases anyway. The plugin I use sends a backup of the whole blog & forum to my mail every week, day, month or whatever you want).

I use this plugin: http://www.blogtrafficexchange.com/wordpress-backup/

Though this seems the most popular: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

If you customize your template you should manually take a backup of that template as well, though. It’s just one folder you should get from your webserver whenever you change the template. If you don’t change the template (which I think is probably the case for you), then backing up your template folder is not of your concern yet.

More info & alternatives:

https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups

(I’m sure the experts in this forum can tell you a lot more about general backup through cpanel and such. I’m just a guy learning through tutorials & trial and error just like you:p )

[pauljosephlp]

Hi,

I am new to bbpress but have been using WP for sometime. The main reason why i changed to bbpress it to make my users register at one blog and use it to login to bbpress.

I want to know

1) is it possible to intergrate ONE WP 2.7 blog.

2) is it possible to intergrate 8 WP 2.7 blogs.

3) Also is it possible for users to register on ANY of the 8 BLOGS can login to ONE bbpress forum.

Please answer this, it will help me a lot.

Thanks and Regards

Paul Joseph