[kevinjohngallagher]

Hi Ipstenu,

thanks very much for taking the time to write back. I’m glad you saw this as a discussion and not something negative towards BBpress.

Maybe i wrote it wrong, but my point is not what “we” the internet community intend BBpress to be, but more what “they” the community of end users want it to be.

BBpress in it’s current form is just a blog. users log on, post a blog, people leave comments. There’s a list of tags, blog posts (sorry “topics”), and um… thats it.

I know, and you know, and i’m sure the intelligent people that have written this lovely bit of code know, that a forum and a blog are very very similar.

When I got into the simplicity of BBpress before the summer, I tried to convince a number of my fellow web enthusiasts to take up the cause. But the more they looked at it, the more disdain they had. I’ve stuck with it, and continue to do so of course, as i thought with each release getting closer to 1.0RC we’d get there.

But we’ve not created a forum.

Forums have a different mindset to Blogs, and don’t get me wrong i’m ok with using plug-ins, it’s just that we’re fixing bugs/issues with a Blog mindset. That is, blogs list things in a singular direction. Forums, by the nature in terms of what the END USER expects, work in a cross polination way.

Yes tags are a good idea, but tags are reliant on the end user.

To give an example:

I recently had to take down BBpress from a backpacker website because the users weren’t putting in tags. The plan being that instead of UK > Scotland > Edinburgh > Travel > Topic that users could just use the UK Travel forum and tag “edinburgh” or “london” etc. Instead, we had 100s of “how do i buy cheap bus tickets” or “cheapest way to travel” or “1 ticket spare” etc with NO tags.

The site lastest 6 weeks before the owner demanded I take it down and replace it with “actual forum software” – that’s a quote from their IT department btw.

But lets give a counter example:

Wordpress.org uses BBpress and it’s working great. Loads of Topics, tags, and few forums. No real need for categories. Same with the technorati one. It’s a credit to BBPress – and nothing can take away from that and the amazing work done by the BBpress team and community… BUT… there’s always a but isn’t there… the people that use WordPress/Technorati are people like us, they are technical, they are used to tags and searching for exactly what they want. They are *not* the typical end user on the internet.

I’m all for free form Ipstenu, i totally get what you mean, and if that suits the needs of your community then great. For me, its suits the needs of some of mine, the problem is as soon as we get into the territory of what people think “all forums” should do, BBpress really starts to look… well, not like a forum.

The more we code, the more we’re coding a wordpress clone, yet not cloning their proven and successful techniques. Our website should match their website (heck, screw the colours, just in terms of layout and user flow), our methods should match their methods. I, no WE, want to help, we want BBpress to be better, but more importantly we want it to fulfil it’s mission statement; and right now that’s not quite happening.

[zappoman]

An update: I got this working by doing “complex” integration of bbPress+Wordpress and now I run bbPress mounted at /forum/ but inside of bbPress it has access to all the WP functions and so my theme is able to run wp plugins, widgets, etc.

I wrote a plugin (that happens to live in wp, but really it’s all the same now).. that hooks ‘bb_template’, ‘bb_get_forum_bread_crumb’, ‘get_forums’, ‘bb_index.php_pre_db’, ‘bb_forum.php_pre_db’, and a couple others.

My plugin alows you to specify with “sub forum” is associated with a blog, and when you go to the forum page for that blog, it shows a fully functioning bbPress for that forum and below. It’s actually running bbPress, and this plugin, with access to the wordpress themes, widgets, etc.

What’s cool about this is that my main bbPress site, which includes all of the forums, including these blog forums, shows all the forum content as well.

[zappoman]

I’ve done some searching and not found anything related to this, so I appologize if someone elses google-fu is stronger than me.

I could use some help on this problem.

I have installed “complex” integration between bbPress (0.9) and WPMU (2.6) — yes, I have authentication working because I have custom auth plugins… that’s not my issue.

The problem I am running into is that IF I include wordpress then I’m getting extra attribute escapes on new posts and edit posts in bbPress.

So if I post a topic with a title of “test” it will end up posting as “test” if I’m just running bbPress (that’s good), but if I have wordpress loaded at the same time, I get \”test\”. And the resulting post displays in the forums.

Has anyone else ever seen this before?

[kevinjohngallagher]

Hi BBpress team,

I wanted to raise a concern I’ve had for sometime, but every time I think it’s the right thing to do, there’s a new release and I thought that maybe it’d be fixed. With 1.0 in alpha stage, I figure now’s a good time.

I think we’ve got a lot of this wrong.

Not the code, not the plugins, not the community, but more the mindset behind the important features. We’ve not built forum software, we’ve built blogging software.

We make posts, and people comment on them. The focus of BBpress is on individual posts with things like tags, as opposed to the forum/section/category to which it was posted. I also appreciate the desire to streamline the code base, which is wonderful, but users and the internet-public at large expect forums to have certain features – to rely on user updated plugins for these features is not an ideal solution.

I don’t say any of this to criticise, because you folks have done amazing work given the small team and smaller community working on BBpress, and I’m massively impressed; but I think given the scale of the project you’re working on you’d want real feedback.

Let me give an example if I may, which might illustrate the issue I and other users face.

In the 1.0alpha, we finally get Categories as standard, a feature that is absolutely essential for a forum (not a blog), otherwise the ‘forums’ are just a list of wordpress categories.

The problem with Categories, is that we don’t have ‘forums’ belonging to them, instead we have ‘forums’ that are called categories. A simple 1/0 in a db. But it’s not enough. Why?

Well it means that the loop in front-page.php to iterate through forums has to check to see if it’s a category. There is no independent check for categories and forums. This of course makes no difference in the world of all forums being in a singular table (the category can just be an individual TR and we can use a PHP continue to end the loop), but as soon as we move to multiple tables (which is essential for accessibility focussed websites), or nested divs this becomes quite useless.

What we need its:

Category

Forum

Topic

Forum

Topic

Topic

Reply

Reply

Each belonging to the parent above it. But we don’t have that in BBpress for categories. It’s massively short-sighted.

Now, this may seem like a simple thing, but I raise it as more of a mindset. We’re coming across a bug/issue/problem/feature request and we’re solving that specific request rather than seeing how it fits in. Take, if I may, the brilliant UNREAD POSTS plug-in by _CK_. When it was built it added a class to the specific span of the name of the topic post in the list of topics. Upon request it then did the same to the name of the forums. At no time was the thought process – wait a minute, if I put this at the top level item of the iteration that means that all child nodes can use it. _CK_ fixed this oversight yesterday and his plugin is now brilliant and easily rivalling the methodology used in the bigger forum solutions.

But it’s the mindset behind it I think we need to change. Fixing a singular problem, or even adding a new requested feature, without planning how it will impact others or if it’s at a high enough level is starting to make BBpress look amateurish.

I’m not saying we have to emulate the big boys and their massively bloated software, but what we have to accept, as a community, is that the likes of PHPbb and IPB etc. all do certain functions as standard, and these are what our users will expect.

I can’t see a roadmap or feature list for a finished 1.0 anywhere, I can’t even see a feature list for 1.5 anywhere (and yes I’ve been to the TRAC site for both). I just get the feeling as we move towards 1.0 release, that we’re not really releasing forum software, we’re releasing blogging software:

WordPress: categories > posts > comments

BBpress: forums > topics > replies

These are effectively one and the same. I’m quiety confident that someone could write a WP theme that effectively does what BBpress does. The BBpress front page list topics then forums (with the number of topics /posts in it). A WP page could list blog Posts titles and then categories (with the number of posts / comments in it). They are, to an end user, the one and the same.

I mean, was XML-RPC absolutely essential for BBpress? It seems to me that Categories, or the Unread Posts feature would be far more essential in that other forums have them. Why haven’t we used the same folder structure as WordPress so that we can easily convince wordpress users to also use BB? Heck why isn’t even our website set out in the same way (this may bring over some WP plugin creators)?

These things are not complains, and I do not raise them to flame or criticise in anyway, I merely hope to kick start a little discussion that can see us move BBpress forward. To often in the past few months I’ve suggested BBpress to friends or fellow developers and they’ve told me that it just doesn’t meet their needs – I think that’s something we need to fix, together

Kev

[learningcomputer]

Wow, problem fixed, thanks chris.

[chrishajer]

No, it does not work like WordPress. There is nothing like a widget in bbPress. If you want to add adsense to your forum, you might want to read some of these posts:

https://bbpress.org/forums/tags/adsense

[learningcomputer]

i have difficulty inserting adsense on my bbpress installation the wordpress is installed in http://learningcomputer.info. The bbpress is in http://forum.learningcomputer.info. Can’t I insert it automatically just like regular wordpress? i mean using widget in the Design page?

Thanx for u’r attention

[Meraj Chhaya]

Hi there

I have just installed bbPress in a new database, not integrated with WordPress. I manage to access the forum, which is located at thenokian95.com/forum, but I cannot login, it says:

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/nokisat7/public_html/thenokian95.com/forum/bb-config.php:1) in /home/nokisat7/public_html/thenokian95.com/forum/bb-includes/pluggable.php on line 188

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/nokisat7/public_html/thenokian95.com/forum/bb-config.php:1) in /home/nokisat7/public_html/thenokian95.com/forum/bb-includes/pluggable.php on line 228

My installation went successfully, and I can register users. Here is the installation log, with a changed password:

Referrer is OK, beginning installation…

Step 1 – Creating database tables

>>> Create table bb_forums

>>> Create table bb_posts

>>> Create table bb_topics

>>> Create table bb_topicmeta

>>> Create table bb_users

>>> Create table bb_usermeta

>>> Create table bb_tags

>>> Create table bb_tagged

Step 2 – WordPress integration (optional)

>>> Integration not enabled

Step 3 – Site settings

>>> Site name: The Nokia N95 forum

>>> Site address (URL): http://thenokian95.com/forum/

>>> From email address: only.meraj@merajnet.com

>>> Key master created

>>>>>> Username: admin

>>>>>> Email address: only.meraj@merajnet.com

>>>>>> Password: something

>>> Description: Just another bbPress community

>>> Forum name: First forum

>>>>>> Topic: Your first topic

>>>>>>>>> Post: First Post! w00t.

>>> Key master email sent

Installation complete!

I have left bb-config.php and pluggable.php in CHMOD 755. I read other topics in this forum, and I had looked to see if there were extra whitespaces, but everything seems ok.

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you in advance

[feastoffools]

We are using WordPress 2.3.3 and Bbpress 0.8.3.1

This sounds wonderful, and will be really helpful in driving traffic around inside our site. Thank you!

Do you guys know of a developer that might be available to do this implementation for us?

[sc0ttbeardsley]

OK, I’ve looked at the other thread and looked at the cookie interaction on my site and have it working. I did have to make a change to my wordpress installation to get it to work. Here is what I did:

My wordpress installation is at sacbikekitchen.org

My bbpress installation is at sacbikekitchen.org/forum/

I added the following to my /forum/bb-config.php:

$bb->cookiedomain = '.sacbikekitchen.org';

$bb->sitecookiepath = '/';

I added the following to my /wp-config.php:

define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', '.sacbikekitchen.org');

define('COOKIEPATH', '/');

Then I made a couple additions to the wp-includes/pluggable.php file:

Around line 596 I added:

setcookie(LOGGED_IN_COOKIE, $logged_in_cookie, $expire, '/forum/', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

setcookie($auth_cookie_name, $auth_cookie, $expire, '/forum/bb-plugins', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

setcookie($auth_cookie_name, $auth_cookie, $expire, '/forum/my-plugins', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

setcookie($auth_cookie_name, $auth_cookie, $expire, '/forum/bb-admin', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

Around line 620 I added:

setcookie(LOGGED_IN_COOKIE, ' ', time() - 31536000, '/forum/', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

setcookie(AUTH_COOKIE, ' ', time() - 31536000, '/forum/bb-plugins', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

setcookie(AUTH_COOKIE, ' ', time() - 31536000, '/forum/my-plugins', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

setcookie(AUTH_COOKIE, ' ', time() - 31536000, '/forum/bb-admin', COOKIE_DOMAIN);

Hope it helps…

[Meraj Chhaya]

Hi all!

I run wordpress 2.6 at phonereport.info. I tried installing bbPress 1.0 Alpha so that it could integrate with WordPress, but just as I concluded the installation successfully, I get the following error:

‘Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/nokisat7/public_html/phonereport.info/test/bbpress/bb-config.php on line 20’

Line 20 is the following:

‘// the value of their equivalent keys in the WordPress file wp-config.php’

Here is the installation log, I changed the password:

‘Referrer is OK, beginning installation…

>>> Setting up custom user table constants

Step 1 – Creating database tables

>>> Modifying database: nokisat7_bbpress (localhost)

>>>>>> Table: bb_forums

>>>>>>>>> Creating table

>>>>>>>>>>>> Done

>>>>>> Table: bb_meta

>>>>>>>>> Creating table

>>>>>>>>>>>> Done

>>>>>> Table: bb_posts

>>>>>>>>> Creating table

>>>>>>>>>>>> Done

>>>>>> Table: bb_terms

>>>>>>>>> Creating table

>>>>>>>>>>>> Done

>>>>>> Table: bb_term_relationships

>>>>>>>>> Creating table

>>>>>>>>>>>> Done

>>>>>> Table: bb_term_taxonomy

>>>>>>>>> Creating table

>>>>>>>>>>>> Done

>>>>>> Table: bb_topics

>>>>>>>>> Creating table

>>>>>>>>>>>> Done

Step 2 – WordPress integration (optional)

>>> WordPress address (URL): http://phonereport.info/

>>> Blog address (URL): http://phonereport.info/

>>> WordPress cookie keys set.

>>> WordPress “auth” cookie salt set from input.

>>> WordPress “logged in” cookie salt set from input.

>>> Fetching missing WordPress cookie salts.

>>>>>> WordPress “secure auth” cookie salt not set.

>>> User database table prefix: wp_

>>> User database name: nokisat7_wrdp9

>>> User database user: nokisat7_forum

>>> User database password: something

>>> User database host: localhost

>>> User database character set: utf8

Step 3 – Site settings

>>> Site name: PhoneReport test forum

>>> Site address (URL): http://phonereport.info/test/bbpress/

>>> From email address: only.meraj@merajnet.com

>>> Key master role assigned to existing user

>>>>>> Username: admin

>>>>>> Email address: only.meraj@merajnet.com

>>>>>> Password: Your existing password

>>> Description: Just another bbPress community

>>> Forum name: PhoneReport test forum

>>>>>> Topic: Your first topic

>>>>>>>>> Post: First Post! w00t.

>>> Key master email sent

Installation complete!’

Please let me know what else you wish to have.

There are two different databases: one for the wordpress installation, the other for bbpress.

Thank you in advance, and keep up the good work!

[jonkristian]

Hm, turns out I still have trouble accessing admin panel in bbpress. Straange, I tested it with login via both bbpress and wp the last time, however now, it doesn’t seem to work.

Regarding the setup, i followed Deadpan’s setup down to the very last line, except that i kept the hash in

$bb->logged_in_cookie = ‘wordpress_logged_in_ikeptthishashin’;

[hotshottwo]

I like this idea. Would it be possible to force bbPress login/logout through WordPress too? That way all “membership” functions would be treated consistently.

[johnhiler]

The bbPress I’m using is on 0.83… upgrading to 0.9.0.2 on a test server, and then testing the integration with WordPress and Mediawiki.

Once everything is looking good, we’ll migrate the live site to use bbPress 0.9.0.2. Then I’ll install this plugin – excited!

Yah Mediawiki is tricky stuff. The worst part is that the cookies don’t truly integrate! I used a plugin to get both software reading off of the same bbPress users table… so that works. But you have to re-sign in manually as you click from the blog/boards to the wiki… alas.

Will keep you posted on the plugin!!

[Gregg]

ok update as ive been messing with thing maybe too much.

if i include the wp-blog-header.php to use WP functions i am never recognized as logged in on BB side even though using the bb form gets me logged in on wp side. everything redirects me to the forum homepage when trying to go to admin or profile. weird.

with the include not there I can login and be shown logged in on bbpress side, but i cannot logout! omg it doesnt end. maybe its because i have had 5 hours of sleep the past two nights but any help on this would rock!

[Gregg]

Im integrating my second wp and bb site and this time around it seems there are some easier steps only I cant get this setup to work. I can login to the WP side fine. But when i login from bb side it just redirects to the forum homepage. It will login the person on the wp side but not let them do a thing on the bb side.

I dont have admin access until wipe out the theme and clear the cookies. its very strange.

I followed all steps correctly in the writeup. any help would be much appreciated.

here is what my bb-config file looks like

require_once('/path/to/blog/wp-blog-header.php');

// ** MySQL settings ** //

define(‘BBDB_NAME’, ‘db’); // The name of the database

define(‘BBDB_USER’, ‘user’); // Your MySQL username

define(‘BBDB_PASSWORD’, ‘pswd’); // …and password

define(‘BBDB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change these last few

define(‘BBDB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8’); // If you are *upgrading*, and your old bb-config.php does

define(‘BBDB_COLLATE’, ”); // not have these two contstants in them, DO NOT define them

// If you are installing for the first time, leave them here

define(‘COOKIEPATH’, ‘/’ );

define(‘SITECOOKIEPATH’, ‘/’);

// Change BB_SECRET_KEY to a unique phrase. You won’t have to remember it later,

// so make it long and complicated. You can visit https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

// to get a phrase generated for you, or just make something up.

// If you are integrating logins with WordPress, you will need to match the value

// of the “SECRET_KEY” in the WordPress file wp-config.php

define(‘BB_SECRET_KEY’, ‘secretkeydotcom’); // Change this to a unique phrase.

// If you are running multiple bbPress installations in a single database,

// you will probably want to change this.

$bb_table_prefix = ‘bb_’; // Only letters, numbers and underscores please!

// Change this to localize bbPress. A corresponding MO file for the

// chosen language must be installed to bb-includes/languages.

// For example, install de.mo to bb-includes/languages and set BB_LANG to ‘de’

// to enable German language support.

define(‘BB_LANG’, ”);

/* Stop editing */

if ( !defined(‘BB_PATH’) )

define(‘BB_PATH’, dirname(__FILE__) . ‘/’ );

require_once( BB_PATH . ‘bb-settings.php’ );

$bb->wp_siteurl = ‘http://www.site.com/blog/’;

// that’s your WordPress URL, not bbPress

$bb->wp_home = ‘http://www.site.com/blog/’;

// almost always the same as siteurl unless you tinker

$bb->wp_table_prefix = ‘wp_’;

// should almost always be wp_ unless you tinkered

$bb->user_bbdb_name = ‘db’;

// this is the MYSQL database name for *WordPress*

// you can copy it right out of WordPress !

$bb->user_bbdb_user = ‘user’;

// this is the MYSQL user name for *WordPress*

// you can copy it right out of WordPress !

$bb->user_bbdb_password = ‘pswd’;

// this is the MYSQL password for *WordPress*

// you can copy it right out of WordPress !

$bb->user_bbdb_host = ‘localhost’;

// 99.9% of the time it’s going to be localhost, unless you are on DreamHost or some other weird ISP

$bb->custom_user_table = ‘wp_users’;

// 99.9% of the time it’s going to be wp_users

$bb->custom_user_meta_table = ‘wp_usermeta’;

// 99.9% of the time it’s going to be wp_usermeta

$bb->authcookie = ‘wordpress_randomnumbers’;

// in theory you should be able to leave this out

// but this is going to be copied from WordPress cookie

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

// do NOT use the 1234567 part, use your own cookiehash from WordPress – see the note at the very bottom

$bb->cookiedomain = ‘.site.com’;

// note the leading DOT – this is important

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

$bb->cookiepath = ‘/’;

// I *highly* recommend you set the cookie path to /

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

$bb->sitecookiepath = ‘/’;

// I *highly* recommend you set the cookie path to /

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

//tried this – doesnt work with or without…ugh

$bb->usercookie = ‘wordpressuser_randomnumbers’;

$bb->passcookie = ‘wordpresspass_randomnumbers’;

[_ck_]

Unfortunately there’s little bbPress documentation right for developers. It’s very much like WordPress however, just different hooks (do_action, do_filter).

There’s no official list of functions but some people have generated xrefs for it, example:

http://phpxref.ftwr.co.uk/bbpress/nav.html?index.html

(unofficial)

I keep a database reference here:

http://bbshowcase.org/reference/

but it’s a little out of date for 1.0 alpha

To upload your plugin into the extend area, first you have to request a “slot” under Extend->add your plugin

https://bbpress.org/plugins/requests/

Then you’ll get an email when it’s approved in a few days (mdawaffe is distracted these days, it can take 1-5 days on average) Then you need to learn how to use SVN to upload your files into the system.

The steps are the same as for WordPress and here’s a good guide:

http://www.binarymoon.co.uk/2008/01/wordpress-plugin-subversion-guide/

only the svn url is different

https://plugins-svn.bbpress.org/

[_ck_]

Any guide that is for WordPress plugins should work for bbPress, it’s just that bbPress’s “hooks” (do_action, do_filter) will be named differently.

bbPress is unfortunately too young to have decent documentation yet. WordPress itself didn’t really “take off” until 2.0 beta came out.

This is essentially the plugin framework you need:

<?php

/*

Plugin Name: My Tag Sort

*/

remove_filter('sort_tag_heat_map', 'bb_sort_tag_heat_map');

add_filter('sort_tag_heat_map', 'my_sort_tag_heat_map');



function my_sort_tag_heat_map( &$tag_counts ) {

// put your replacement code here

}

?>

Save it as my-tag-sort.php, put it into the bbpress/my-plugins folder, activate and you’re in business (well after you figure out the sort method).

Typically you’d have to do a return $tag_counts; at the end of a filter but that & on the &$tag_counts means it’s “passed by refererence” which is a fancy way of using the original array directly without making a copy, so the original is changed at the source when you modify it. It’s a much faster way to move large amounts of info around.

[jonkristian]

Deadpan11 , I followed your guide and it worked excellent, however I had to keep the hash on:

$bb->logged_in_cookie = ‘wordpress_logged_in_’;

Setup, http://forums.domain.com & http://domain.com

I can now log in via the forums, and access both admin panels, and via wp, and still access both. If I log out of either, I am logged out of both.

[myu]

Thank you.

I will look for those guides. (And re-do all the “hack”s if possible..)

Should’ve thought about looking for WordPress guides instead of bbPress ones.

[_ck_]

bbPress uses the same concept as WordPress with add_filter and add_action so there are many guides out there as to how it works.

Essentially it’s a “hook” that allows you to intercept the process or results. The first part of the add_action/add_filter is the process name or trigger, the second part the the name of the function you want to process at that moment.

If there are existing filters/actions in place you can unhook them with remove_action or remove_filter.

[_ck_]

WordPress allows you to make links, go to manage->links under your control panel. Make the link /forums/ if that’s the path to your forums.

There are also wordpress plugins to make menu bars, optionally you could use that and put a few primary site links in there, including one to your forums.

Technically if you wanted to place a link more prominently under your pages section, you could actually create a page for the forums and then use the rewriterules in your .htaccess to redirect the user to the actual forums.

[johnhiler]

Ran into a little trouble installing it… I’ll upgrade my bbpress version this weekend!

It’s a little tricky since we’ve integrated our bbPress with a WordPress and a MediaWiki installation… plus dozens of bbPRess plugins. But we’ll get it working soon, and I’ll send that donation off!

[miz101]

My forums have been installed and seem to be working fine but could anyone explain to me how I would make a link to the forums from wordpress? I would like to make a link if possible that will wrap inside of wordpress so people will not have to leave my site to go to the forums. They would simply click the Forums link and it would load in the same place that the blog posts were before.

I’m not sure if this is possible if not, could anyone could tell me how to create a simple link to just point people towards the forums that would be great. I attempted to make a page called Forums but when I add the link to the forums in the permalink it removes all the slashes “/” taking me no where when I click it.

[irr1449]

Ok so I’m not sure if this is the best way, but I turned on WordPress integration but without sharing database tables. Now I can access the cookies on any page that I include bb-load!