[Sam Bauers]

A first attempt at getting WordPress 2.7 and bbPress 1.0 to play nice again is now in trunk [1862].

I’m specifically talking about “deep” integration, i.e. when you include WordPress inside bbPress to gain access to WordPress’ functions.

This will need a lot of testing, so please post any issues you have on the relevant Trac ticket, #972 (which will stay open until some more testing has occurred).

I recommend using the following code at the top of your bbPress bb-config.php file to include WordPress inside bbPress:

if ( !defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {

include_once( '/Full/Path/To/wp-load.php' );

}

Note that this includes “wp-load.php” not “wp-config.php” or “wp-blog-header.php”. This avoids running WordPress’ template loader which presumably isn’t needed inside bbPress. Some implementations may want it though, so if you find you need it then give it a go and let us know how that goes.

Also note that all filters and actions set in WordPress whether default or added by plugins or themes are cleared out completely. That means that plugins and themes installed in WordPress cannot add filters or actions to bbPress at all. This may have some implications I’m not aware of yet.

Go nuts!

[John James Jacoby]

Now that WordPress 2.7 has revamped the admin panel, is bbPress going to follow suit with a matching one? I came along after it had been made to match 2.6, so I never got to see what it used to look like.

[razorcreed]

would this work with 2.7? and is there any install documentation of doing it this way?

[vuuch]

So this is a bummer… I have the database name, user name (same as database name) and my password for the database. NO LUCK with the install.

My database is working with wordpress today at http://www.vuuch.com/wordpress and I put the bbpress.org files at http://www.vuuch.com/forum. When i go to this location I am told “There doesn’t seem to be a bb-config.php file. This usually means that you want to install bbPress”. So I use the “let’s get started” link and complete the database name, user and password info. After pushing the save button I get a failure note “There was a problem connecting to the database you specified. Please check the settings, then try again.”.

I have tried a few times, I have reset the password to make sure I have it right. I called godaddy, but the are no help with wordpress. I am stuck! Please help!

[_ck_]

For those that haven’t been around awhile, code development on bbPress tends to happen in bursts. There will be little or nothing or just trivial bug fixes for a few months and then BAM, Michael and Sam will post a whole bunch more code.

Just because you don’t get feedback on a problem from a developer doesn’t mean they don’t think it’s important, it just means they can’t make it a priority right now for some reason or another. Everyone would love bbPress to have every feature and every feature work amazingly but there simply aren’t enough people or hours available to make it happen. Every feature one person insists is absolutely critical is quite trivial to another person.

Last but not least, be careful what you wish for. If bbPress had all the features like the more mature WordPress does, it would also share the same number of problems, backward incompatibilities and constant changes. If they did to bbPress what just happened in WordPress between versions 2.3 and 2.7, I would not be making plugins for it anymore (because they all would be broken). Since bbPress takes a slower path, it tends to get things more “right” the first time around.

I think 2009 holds big things for bbPress.

Someone new to bbPress a year from now might wonder what some early adopters were complaining about.

[johnhiler]

I was going to sit this thread out, until I saw some of the recent comments.

I understand that there is frustration over the WordPress integration issues (I share them as well). But I don’t think it’s fair or productive to lash out at the very people that make this community move forward (Sam and _ck_, among others).

The motivation and energy of key contributors is the most precious asset of an open source community, as they are what keeps the community forward.

The feedback and ideas of key users is also hugely important, as they tell the community where to go.

But when feedback attacks the motivation and energy of key contributors, I’ve learned not to just sit back. Because even if the feedback is 100% dead on, if the key contributors are hurt by the way it’s delivered… then as a community, we have been stopped dead in our tracks.

I think we all agree that full integration with a shared signin is a priority. If we unite behind that goal, maybe we can achieve it. I just think that the motivation and energy of key contributors is key to our getting there.

One last thought: Sam appears to work mostly on bbPress, whereas the integration work needs to be done on the WordPress side. So if we want to advocate for full integration, maybe we should organize as a community? If you look at the most popular “ideas” for WordPress, full integration isn’t on the list:

https://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/?show=popular

I am probably missing it, but I don’t even see full integration as a submitted idea here:

https://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/search.php?q=bbpress&forums=1

If we could agree as a community on the wording, I’m sure we could all vote it up. We only need 159 votes to get onto the list of Most Popular Ideas. Maybe that would help Sam’s ticket get some developers assigned to it.

I would rather focus our energies there, especially since I don’t believe that our discussions here are going to change the priorities of the WordPress development team (which is what we need to move forward).

Best,

John

[Sam Bauers]

Kevin, the cookie and login integration that works with BB0.9 – WP2.5 also works with BB1.0 – WP2.6 or 2.7. The only issues remaining arise when you login via WordPress instead of bbPress, the simple fix for this is to redirect WordPress logins to bbPress, but I will be building a plugin to make this (and some other things) easier.

The “deep” integration issues where people load WordPress inside bbPress are still outstanding, and as I said may never be resolved and might eventually be unsupported. The XML-RPC functionality being developed is intended as a launching pad for people who need bbPress data inside their WordPress installs, I also expect that there will be some functionality written to get data going in the other direction as well. We are using this already “internally” with the BuddyPress forums component which communicates with bbPress 1.0 to provide group forums and eventually other functionality to that software. There is also already a plugin to pull some basic data from bbPress to WordPress widgets.

I don’t think you should blame Matt for XML-RPC being added either, I think it was mdawaffe who wanted pingbacks and I think I was the person who liked the idea of a complete XML-RPC server enough to actually write it.

Features tend to forge ahead when they have a champion for them and as the only major contributor to the code at the moment that kind of leaves it up to me as to what gets done. There has only been a small amount of thorough and reported testing of deep integration done by users so far who are actually trying to make it happen (see #972). That doesn’t exactly excite me to work on a feature that neither I nor the company I work for particularly need, especially when I already have a low opinion of the technique in the first place. In the same breath though, I understand that others may want it and I’m not actively trying to stop it from happening either. If someone fixed, patched it and put it in Trac, I would commit it with a smiley emoticon and a “props” in capital letters.

So in short, it needs someone to take the lead on it, if you want it done sooner rather than later.

Talking about community discontent by referring to the contents of these forums seems a bit disingenuous. These are support forums which by their nature invite people to announce their problems, all we can tell by it is that some people have problems with the software, sometimes. I’m pretty sure we aren’t getting every user coming through here. It’s not a gauge, and perhaps the dreaded Facebook page will help us find the people who don’t post here a bit more easily, perhaps it is something that can be used to gauge what the community mood is like. If anything it might give me a little comfort to know that a few people out there like what we’re doing here. My development time isn’t a zero sum game, I didn’t steal 30 minutes from my “writing code” time to setup that page. I need to enjoy myself while I work, maybe doing that helped me get through that particular day. At the other end of the tubes is me, a person. Hi. Nice to meet you.

On that personal note it isn’t nice to be blasted for something as cursory as not initiating topics in the forums for two months. I’ve been contributing to bbPress for almost two years now. There have been times when I’ve taken close to the full burden of support here, even before I worked for Automattic. Recently we got two community moderators who are very competent. _ck_ and chrishajer have been outdoing themselves around here. I have taken it a little easier for the past month while I focused on some other tasks.

I’m really only catching up on some of the more recent goings on around here, including your very interesting threads about the overall direction of bbPress. I completely want those conversations to happen, you make good points there too and I like the general direction of what you are saying, even though you make incorrect assumptions about some details. I wish I had been there in real-time to discuss it, but I will try to respond where I can.

Finally, bbPress is important to Automattic at the moment primarily as a tool for it’s own uses. Thus there is little or no promotion of it at this stage. If we gain some traction in the real world one day it might be treated like WordPress, but for now it will basically be whatever the people who contribute to it want it to be, and as usual when resources are limited, those who can write good bug reports or contribute real code will get their needs met first.

[Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)]

You could probably do it with RSS. If you’re using wordpress, you can do this (I have it as a sidebar widget).

<?php require_once (ABSPATH . WPINC . '/rss-functions.php');

$today = current_time('mysql', 1);

// insert the feed URL here

$rss = @fetch_rss('http://www.domain.com/forums/rss');

if ( isset($rss->items) && 0 != count($rss->items) ) {

// set the number of items from the feed to display (6)

$rss->items = array_slice($rss->items, 0, 5);

foreach ($rss->items as $item ) {

echo '<h1>';

echo wp_specialchars($item['title']);

echo '</h1>';

echo '<p>';

echo wp_specialchars($item['description']);

echo <a href="';

echo wp_filter_kses($item['link']);

echo '">(Read More)</a>';

echo '</p>';

}

}; ?>

The main (all posts) RSS feed is: http://www.domain.com/forums/rss

All subsequent forums (fori?) are: http://www.domain.com/forums/rss/<whatever&gt;

Like this subforum would be: https://bbpress.org/forums/rss/forum/plugins

This page would be: https://bbpress.org/forums/rss/topic/forum-exporter-plugin

If you don’t have wordpress, look into MagpieRSS

[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.

[_ck_]

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

Automattic isn’t making a dime off it, it’s not being promoted, there’s no guaranteed support, all assistance, plugin development is completely voluntary. Every part of bbPress is subject to completely change and break overnight. There is no timetable, there are no feature or bug priorities. Assume you will be on your own.

If that bothers anyone, or they feel the need to rant about it, please stop using it asap and go get SMF – I am completely serious about that. I’ve sent several people about here to vbulletin where money was no object and they could afford it and all the extra hardware it requires when they grow. It has every feature you could possibly want after 10 years of development and all the bloat and price tag to prove it.

If you want forums directly integrated with WordPress and don’t like bbPress, you can go use one of the several discontinued single-developer plugins available for WordPress. They are all slow and buggy and break with every wordpress upgrade, but there you go.

Integration is tricky because it was not a priority for bbPress in the first year or two and there is no such thing as a “standard” wordpress install, everyone has their own weird configuration. The radical changes to WordPress security in the past year have not helped at all with integration ease. Sam is going to try to make integration easier in a future version by creating a plugin for WordPress that assists with the process (in fact a WP integration plugin has now become a requirement because of some recent changes with WordPress).

I suspect bbPress will become much more of a priority for Automattic in 2009 but there’s no guarantee about that of course. 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.

[_ck_]

1.298 - 35 queries is absolutely horrible actually.

However I only get 0.489 - 35 queries on that site which is barely acceptable.

It’s probably due to an overloaded shared hosting box.

Let’s review some basics.

First of all, let’s make sure you are using 0.9 and not 1.0

(If you are using 1.0 I can’t really help you much because it’s slower than 0.9 for now and I keep explaining to everyone not to use it but they do anyway)

Performance 101: (for everyone)

1. go into bb-config.php and add this line:

$bb->load_options = true;

2. after you add the above line, queries should be under 20 per page, usually less than 15 – if they are not, then you have a misbehaving plugin (or are running 1.0)

3. if you run your own server or VPS, turn on the mysql cache

4. if you run your own server or VPS, install a PHP opcode cache

(eaccelerator, APC or xcache)

5. if you are on shared hosting ask your host why they don’t use 3 and 4 and if they don’t give you a good answer, get a better host

GoDaddy is up there in like the top 10 for people who dislike their hosts.

Just google the number of people that have trouble with them on wordpress.

But unlike WordPress, bbPress doesn’t have any page cache plugins yet so if your host sucks in the first place, any large php program is not going to perform well.

[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.

[John James Jacoby]

Hmm… This is a tough one, because it involves reverse engineering the query… To the best of what I can tell there isn’t anything in the core of bbPress that delivers this functionality…

Because topics are sorted by date, it would involve a custom query which is then divided by the number of threads you choose to display per page…

@the developers: Do bbPress themes accommodate for a functions.php file, similar to WordPress? This is the type of situation that a plug-in is a little bit much for, but would be perfect for an add on function.

[John James Jacoby]

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year I would like bbPress 1.0 with working WordPress integration, and for daddy to find a job.

Love,

Little Johnny

---

@vannak: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

The world, will never know.

[ganzua]

Perhaps there is a way.

This guy;

http://www.adityanaik.com/bbpress-and-wordpress-integration/

integrated wp 2.6.3 with bbpress;

meta name="generator" content="WordPress 2.6.3"

We are missing something.

[_ck_]

Yes when you rebuild PHP to a new version you must rebuild the eaccelerator module, that’s a good tip.

Also sometimes after a rebuild you need to clear the eaccelator disk cache which is usually stored in tmp or you might have specified somewhere else in the php.ini settings.

techypenguin, mysql speed is not related to eaccelerator but mysql’s own cache.

If you are going by the time showed inside bbpress pages, that’s misleading as it shows the number of queries but the entire page generation time, not mysql query time. If you want to see the breakdown, install my bb-benchmark plugin.

[chrishajer]

I recently ran into a problem with eaccelerator installed from source:

When you update PHP, Apache will not restart since eaccelerator was compiled with an earlier version of PHP, and Apache can’t load the eaccelerator.so binary. If Apache won’t start, maybe this is why. Apache didn’t give any good messages at all, but php -m on the command line showed a problem with the eaccelerator binary being compiled for an earlier version of PHP. So, just recompile, reinstall and restart Apache.

Hope that helps someone.

[Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)]

I’m a big fan (and now a Facebook fan) of bbPress and don’t want to come off as ungrateful. But I’m definitely concerned about how long it’s taking to get WordPress integration going. Am I wrong in assuming it would be one of the highest priorities?

Sambauers agrees with you. How do I know? #1007

[johnhiler]

I’ll take a crack at this!

1) I’m not sure about this, but if it doesn’t exist then I’m pretty sure it can be added through a plugin.

2) The “bb-attachments” plugin allows users to upload images and other files: https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/bb-attachments/

3) I was able to match the look of my WordPress blog to my bbPress forums pretty easily

4) There’s a five star rating plugin here: https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/bb-ratings/

I’m a big fan of bbPress, and have been using it for over a year. There are some people who have mixed feelings on bbPress though – you can read about that here:

https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/bbpress-facebook-page

I haven’t had problems integrating signin or matching my theme. However, I have a site with one WordPress install and three bbPress installs, all using a shared users table… and each system has its own profile link. I hear that BackPress should solve this eventually (a single profile system that will integrate across multiple installs like this), so I’m sticking with the *Press platform for now. But it’s been my biggest issue so far, so thought I’d share in case it’s something you need right away.

Good luck!

[kgosser]

Hey all,

So I’ve been checking out various forums to use for my business’ site, and I’ve got it paired down to bbPress and Vanilla. I’m leaning towards bbPress, but I have a few questions that I’m seeking answers to first. If anyone can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated!

(1) Is it available either by default or a plug-in to allow users to post <embed> or <object> snippets to show Flash files?

(2) Is there a plug-in available to allow image uploading to our server, or are all the ways to get an image to display within a thread by bb [img]code or the “Allow Images” plug-in?

(3) Would you consider bbPress’ theme customization to be about as equal (or easier) than WordPress’?

(4) Are there plug-ins to allow for either digg-style voting or normal 5-star voting? Being able to host community-driven contests is important for this project.

Thanks a lot in advance. One of the reasons I always use WordPress for my projects is because the community is one of the best on the Web, so I hope it rubs off a little bit for bbPress! Thanks again!

[techypenguin]

tht tutorial sure helped me.thanks _ck_. last time i check the speed for mysql is 0.005sec before installing eaccelerator. how about win server?any good?

[Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)]

The admin page on your WordPress side (www.mysite.com/blog/wp-admin/options.php) should be the same userid / password you use to administer wordpress.

[eufc_forum]

Hi,

I thought I would post this to just show off and see it their are any bugs people can spot (particularly design tweaks on various browsers and OS).

http://www.eufcforum.com

It utilises the standard BBpress header and footer with the rest being hacked about a bit with numerous plugins installed.

[Hermiony]

Hi,

I am trying to add a bbpress forum to my WP blog.

In the settings -> wordpress integration section of my bb dashboard it requires a WP database secret. There is already some data in that box, but below it says;

‘This must match the value of the WordPress setting named “secret” in your WordPress installation. Look for the option labeled “secret” in this WordPress admin page.’

And when I follow the link to the admin page I am asked for a username and password, but it doesn’t seem to recognise any that I put in, so I don’t know how I am able to check that the values match.

Also, how can I create a link to the forum in the sidebar of my blog?

Any help much appreciated!

[bradsucks]

I don’t think the Facebook page setup stole any time away from bbPress development.

I’m a big fan (and now a Facebook fan) of bbPress and don’t want to come off as ungrateful. But I’m definitely concerned about how long it’s taking to get WordPress integration going. Am I wrong in assuming it would be one of the highest priorities?

I recognize WordPress has been in a state of flux regarding logins and I likely don’t know all the deep developer details, but it’s getting difficult to maintain confidence in the project. Will the 2.7 release make things any easier?