Just download and start playing with it. Best way to learn about anything.
Structure is extremely similar to WordPress with improvements because bbPress doesn’t have to support the old legacy problems that WordPress has.
My first tip to anyone installing bbpress is
1. don’t call the folder bbPress, maybe call it forums (plural)
2. don’t install it directly under wordpress unless you really think that is more natural
suggested:
webroot
blog
forums
3. remember during integration you have to change your cookie path in wordpress and bbpress to the webroot, otherwise you’ll never get the cookies to integrate
Then follow the Integration 101 topic.
I’ve just added the ability to directly link to Trac tickets and changesets within your posts, for example…
Just typing #964 links to ticket 964 in Trac that follows the progress of the XML-RPC interface.
Typing [1832] links to changeset 1832 in Trac.
You can also link to BackPress tickets ( #BP7 and [BP170] ) and WordPress tickets ( #WP2012 and [WP10043] )
This is done using a new plugin http://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/trac-links-for-bbpress/
If you want to check out http://www.delsolownersclub.com, I am running wp2.7rc2 and bbpress1.0a2 right now. Logins are done through WordPress, and if I need to access the bbPress admin, I can login that way privately myself by typing the URL.
Registrations are also forced through WordPress, as I need to use the register plus plugin or the facebook connect plugin to control registrations. All registered users have author access to WordPress, which conventionally is a horrible idea, but for our intentions it works alright. Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t automatically give the new user access to the forums because it isn’t aware of the roles for it. I have to manually run the map tool in bbPress when a new user registers. Again, it’s a small private group of about 90 users or so, and we all know each other.
I am curious if wordpress.org uses a “deep” integration? I’ve compared the sources and it really appears that they have similar <head>’s.
Even if theme integration isn’t possible, I like where you’re going with getting the cookies and admin panels working cohesively. I would actually really like to make a plug-in for WordPress to integrate the bbPress admin panel into it. I feel like it wouldn’t be too difficult since most of the code already exists.
I suppose “unusable” is a harsh description, but considering the audience and what they’re chanting for, if it won’t handle sessions and can’t integrate the theme and functions, then what looks like your girlfriend actually ends up being your sister. If it wasn’t for the integration, we could use fluxbb or any other minimalistic semantically focused forum software.
Me wonders if it wouldn’t hurt to have two versions of bbPress. One stand-alone, and one WordPress plug-in. Hmms…
Sweet deal… Looks like things are well on their way now with the integration of the nonce in there now.
Does that mean both applications share the same nonce now? Before each would create their own even when integrated.
After further review, it looks like WP and BBP create different nonces, even if the keys are the same in the config. I suppose this makes sense considering what a nonce is, but darn would I like to be able to logout of WordPress when viewing the forum.
Hi,
I have worked with wordpress for awhile and am pretty advanced with it. I am creating a new website, and would like to add a forum to it. This will be my first time working with the bbPress forum. I have looked around this forum for most of the day, trying to figure out the best way to start. Since I have not done anything yet, and will be integrating the forum with wordpress from the beginning, I am looking for suggestions, with links if you would like, on the quickest way to do this. Some specific questions are how do the templates compare to those for wordpress, do I use one of two databases? Anything else would be helpful!
Thanks
Setting up the Facebook page took about 15 minutes. It was just a whim. Part irony… 
@johnjamesjacoby
The “deep” integration you talk about and have had trouble with is a known problem. But it is not the focus of my development time at the moment. There is also a chance support for it will be dropped completely if there are too many blockers leading up to 1.0, I’m not a fan of the method which is basically only accidentally a possibility at the moment. I’ll look into it but I have to warn you, it will be last on my list leading up to 1.0
Integration of user tables and cookies is a priority on the other hand, as is creating a full XML-RPC interface for those who want to pull data into a WordPress install. I know of only one problem with cookie sharing which has no solution at the moment (admins who login via WordPress have no access to bb-admin), and I will be working on a solution for that soon (it requires a WordPress plugin to be authored, which opens up the possibility to make a few other steps during integration on the WordPress side easier).
Integration only became a real “feature” of bbPress with 0.9 when it was brought front and centre during install and got it’s own admin options page. Unfortunately WordPress is a moving target and it is difficult to keep up with all it’s changes (especially when internally at Automattic we still use 0.9). It’s a little unfair to say that bbPress isn’t usable. We use it for some very big forums ourselves, all of which have some level of integration going on.
Anyway, don’t get me wrong, your comments are welcome here and I’m glad you are a real fan and not just a Facebook fan.
I almost forgot…
If you have an urge to hard code the secret salts in there as well then you can go here:
https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/bbpress/salt/
The salts are usually generated for you and stored in the database. Few people have to add them manually to the file.
WordPress has had an online tool available for a while to generate random strings in a format suitable for the wp-config.php file. It is at:
http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/
This has just been extended to return code appropriate for bbPress as well. Just go to:
http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/bbpress/
Enjoy! Sam.
I think you summed it up awesomely. I know that I’ve only recently discovered bbPress, and that right now my contributions are minimal and certainly don’t justify the attitude that came out of my fingers. I do sincerely apologize for venting my frustrations, but Chris is totally right as far as login and theme integration go.
I graduated to WordPress from phpBB and the CHBB categories hierarchy spin-off of phpBB2.x. What I love about WP, I hate about phpBB, and what I love about phpBB, I hate about WordPress. What the phpBB team always did well, was catalog and document their code and coding guidelines, almost always and from the start. Even though different authors wrote different pages, the code always looked the same and worked the same, but WP and BBP aren’t like that. Finding and repairing WP/BBP issues is becoming increasingly difficult as there are functions hidden within functions that add one extra capability just to echo other functions.
If I could have a dream job right now, it would be to get paid to be the code janitor to the automatic teams code for the wp3.0 and bbpress 2.0 milestones. To refresh the codebase for the major revisions. Also coming from phpBB, I’m surprised to see WP uses so many echo statements all over the place. I feel the template engine that the phpBB Categories Hierarchy uses was just so amazing and worked so well that moving to WordPress felt like a step sidways.
Anyhow, I’ve taken this topic way off topic, and I don’t mean to vent my ill feelings in what should be a celebration topic. If you mods want to clean this up or split this apart I would totally understand.
Cheers!
I’m actually testing this as we speak. The plug-in itself is written rather poorly and is ultimately just a WordPress widget. I will report back once I have more experience with it.
I will chime in with my thoughts.
1. Most people who find bbPress do so because of its integration capabilities with WordPress. I would say that is the most common non-problem question on these forums. How do you integrate the logins so you can log in at either bbPress or WordPress and the login carries across to the other side. Integrated; seemless.
2. The other common thing people want to be able to do is make their bbPress install look like their WordPress install. Loading WordPress inside bbPress is not recommended, but it’s the easiest way to accomplish including the header, sidebar, footer, etc. But, that seems to break other things. Regardless, I would say that’s the second most requested feature, how do I get my bbPress installation to look like a WordPress page. I know it’s not a WordPress plugin, but, this is what people want.
So, 1) integrated logins and 2) making bbPress look like WordPress. If it can’t do those things easily, then it’s just forum software. Maybe it’s better in the things it does and doesn’t do, compared to other forum software, but we should stop saying you can integrate bbPress and WordPress because it just doesn’t happen easily. So, it’s forum software from the people who make WordPress.
Also, WordPress 2.5 is recommended by bbPress for integrated logins. 2.5 came out around April 2008 IIRC.
You know, I thought the same thing as johnjamesjacoby when I saw this post: how about fixing what’s broken and leave Facebook alone. Then I thought Facebook doesn’t take much time to set up and it might be a good diversion. So, it’s harmless in and of itself, but, really, I would prefer to fix these two issues and then see the volume of support requests here drop off a cliff.
Just my $.02.
I just disagree with promoting a product before it’s even usable.
bbPress is very usable, just not finished. But it’s certainly *not* being promoted. All we have is this support forum. If it was being promoted, it would be listed on WordPress.org/WordPress.com and there would be hundreds of thousands of users. bbPress currently has less than 10,000 active installs. That should change by this time next year.
bbPress was originally written by Matt to simply give a support forum for WordPress (WordPress.org). Everything from there was just Matt releasing the source. There never was a general plan after that until Matt started talking about TalkPress which is still very far away by my best guess.
bbPress’s greatest strength is it can be integrated in many websites easily and made to look like them easily. But it’s still a growing child and very young. If you are looking for a polished product, you need something with over half a decade of development like phpBB, vBulletin or SMF. The downside to them is they are very rigid and hard to develop for. bbPress is incredibly easy to develop for, I only learned PHP a few years ago and look what I’ve managed to do. Just imagine what a person who knew what they were doing could do 
If you have your own server make sure you setup your mysql cache properly and even more importantly make sure you install some kind of PHP opcode cache (eaccelerator, xcache or APC). Even the fastest server will greatly benefit from an opcode cache.
Yes that configuration is certainly possible.
The same logic applies, both cookies need to be using the webroot as the path.
You’d have to copy all your bb_ tables to a new database, so (this is theory) you could export them AND your wp_users table (obviously as a copy).
Make a new install of bbPress (rather than try to undo everything you did to integrate), then import the old data.
Hello, I’ve started up with installing WordPress, then bbPress and integrated them. Since I’ve decided that I won’t be using a blog in near future I’d like bbPress to be running standalone (with its own user table) and independent of WordPress. How can this be done?
Many thanks.
Hello, is it possible to run bbPress in webroot and WordPress in a subdir and have them integrated? (This option is not mentioned in the initial FAQ here in this topic)
hi u all. sorry for the late reply. i’ve got it sorted. it’s because of my server cache level is not enough for handling newer version of server software. I recently bought a hp proliant server and all the issues been sorted. thanks for the reply. i’m thinking to develop a plugin for bbpress now since i’m happy with my server..
Well, I’m not missing the point of final products, but WordPress is at version 2.7 and isn’t quite a final product either. The result of the community driven open source product is that pre 1.0 alpha/beta software isn’t really any more or less stable than the next “stable” version, because even if development stops for a moment to celebrate the next milestone, there is still more to do.
I also get how bbPress was introduced and how the developers have chosen to support it. I just disagree with promoting a product before it’s even usable. I guess I take more pride in my product than that. I run the trunk version of both WP and BBP on a relatively small website. I update them nightly. It’s really the best way for me to stay involved and report back problems. I just feel this integration issue is way more important than the attention it gets. It just seems to me like it’s never really worked right ever. 
And I also choose personally to not believe that just because a product is graciously delivered to someone for free, that there aren’t certain expectations placed on the quality of that product. I could give someone a cookie, but if it’s stale or poisoned doesn’t really make me a good friend.
Also, the last thing I want to do is bite the hand that feeds me. I really love bbPress and WordPress, promise. I just find the development cycle frustrating some days.
(Off topic: We’ve called animal control, the police, and the condo association. The police say they can’t give her a ticket if she isn’t home, and when she’s home the dog doesn’t bark so they can’t ticket her then either. They’re useless. Animal control told me that if I do not have proof of cruelty in terms of the dog not having adequate food and water, they will not pursue the owner. The condo association is writing her their third letter asking her to correct the issue. Writing a letter is less effective than posting on a forum. )
I have no use for facebook myself but johnjamesjacoby I think you are missing the point that bbPress is not even a 1.0 final product yet and should not be used on projects if that can’t deal with bugs and problems. You should never install a pre-1.0, alpha or beta product unless you can handle bugs.
bbPress like WordPress was not developed for the heck of it to give out for free, it was written for WordPress.com and just happens to have free source available.
(and you need to call animal control if there’s a dog barking for that long, most towns have anti-noise ordinances to protect you from that kind of annoyance)
I believe it’s not a registered trademark. The small caps style is to match WordPress. I’m going to have to consult with Matt Thomas (Automattic Designer) at some stage.
I don’t think the the BB in bbPress should ever be small caps. Always lowercase. Looks better.
+1
Looks worse this way, IMO. I like the little bb. Is bbPress a trademark like WordPress is (capitalization included)? If so, then there’s no question. It needs to be little bb.
I wonder if there is a WordPress.org theme make-over in the works to celebrate the new admin panel?
The new theme should match the WordPress.org theme but in dark greens so we have a common identity.
I don’t think the the BB in bbPress should ever be small caps. Always lowercase. Looks better.
