[johnhiler]

It’s not so hard to integrate WordPress with bbPress 0.9. Although I do think you’re right that it’s easier to integrate WordPress and bbPress if you’re using the latest versions of both.

[kevinjohngallagher]

An extremely, over exaggerated word that has been used to change the developmental focus of bbpress is Integration.

You’ve totally got this wrong bobtheman mate.

WordPress Integration is the most used phrase on this board, and the most used tag. It’s also a feature, listed in the features page. It’s also why alot of people came to this project. If it’s not something you want, cool, but it is something the majority want.

1. Single Signon

2. Single Theme

3. Admin panel they recognise

This is mostly what people want. We know this thanks to metrics, tags, being here for 2 years, and at least 50% of support requests fall into this category. At the end of the day it comes down to this:

If you don’t care about WordPress Integration use BBpress 0.9.

It’s awesome, fast, easy to theme, and miles better than the hatched testing ground for BackPress that 1.0.2 is.

If you do care about WordPress integration use BBpress 1.0.2

It’s ridiculously convoluted to set up, with more pitfalls than an Indiana Jones movie, but once working it’s ok.

If you don’t want BBpress to become a WordPress plugin, buy out Automattic. Or, and this is the biggie, give [the project owner] good objective reasons as to why it would be beneficial for them in the long run. Otherwise, you’re as well adding “Waaaaahhhhhhhhhh >.<” to the end of every sentence. Because that is what it sounds like to [the project owner].

To end this chapter of confusion and to get bbpress back on trac, on February 14 I propose a IRC meeting which will follow with a blog post of the results with a roadmap for the future

I know we’re all geeks, but cant we pretend like Feb14th might actually see us doing something else? I’m confident i’ll lose what’s left of my genitalia if I tell my partner that i’m not taking her to Paris so we can do an IRC chat.

[kevinjohngallagher]

I’m a big fan of people speaking their mind, I probably do it too often, but if we’re being honest, threads like these aren’t going to change anything. Even if you got 90% of the people that are on these boards to all come out and say that they agree with you, nothing will change.

Can we talk openly about this? It means sharing some hard truths…

1) There are roughly (roughly), 25 -30 different people that post on these forums every week. I’m sure you’ve noticed its the same folks for the most part over and over. Each of these people (you and I) represent a tiny tiny portion of the BBpress users. Its not that your opinions aren’t valued, it’s just that unless you come up with objective reasons behind your arguments then you’ll never see any changes you want.

2) You’re not programmers. Harsh, i know. But you’re on a support forum saying that you’re unhappy about proposed changes to free software that you don’t contribute to.

3) When did private companies start listening to people taking “votes” on their support forums. Oh, that’s right, never.

4) I’m going to make an assumption here (apologies if wrong), but you’re not project managers or BA’s either. Making BBpress a WordPress plugin (while not something i am happy with at all), makes sense from [the company that owns bbpress] stand point.

5) Matt, et all, are human and just trying to do their best. If you think they’ve overlooked a point then tell them. But it has to be a point that will make sense to a company like [the one that owns bbpress], and that rarely involves the phrase “i want” or “my vote”.

Look folks,

BBpress as a WordPress plugin is not going to come around any time soon. In honesty, it’s not going to be this year. if you don’t want a forum software that is focussed on integration with WordPress that’s cool, that’s a personal preference, but have a look on the tag list on the home page, and see what stands out.

WordPress integration is the single most talked about issue on the BBpress support forums because it’s the reason that a large percentage of people came to BBpress for.

We all have a different Wish List of features for this lovely piece of software, but that doesn’t mean that if BBpress doesn’t go our own personal way that it it’s “bbpress back on track”. if we’re honest, BBpress hasn’t been “on track” by it’s own standards for well over a year, but if you’re not contributing code or testing time, then frankly, your opinion is never really going to count for anything unless you back your points up with really really good objective reasons.

[Gautam]

@johnhiler

I think you misunderstood me. I am saying to only extract bp-forums part of BuddyPress and make a new WordPress plugin out of it which would integrate bbPress into WordPress.

By the way, the trunk version of BuddyPress can be installed on a normal WordPress install.

[johnhiler]

BuddyPress only offers one option: it’s a WordPress MU plugin, and can’t be installed as a standalone.

I think it’d be pretty tough to offer bbPress as both a plugin and a standalone… it sounds like the choice has been made to turn it into a plugin.

The only real way to keep it standalone would be if someone forked bbPress 0.9 or 1.0… that’s a lot of work though.

[Gautam]

There was some discussion about making bbPress a WordPress plugin. This would lead to a complete re-write of the project, but I have a better idea:

1. bbPress should be a standalone platform, so it can also be run without WordPress.
2. There should be a plugin on WordPress plugins repo (for eg. bbPress Forums Integrator or simply bbPress), which would have bbPress as svn:external and load the bbPress files as BuddyPress does it. Basically the plugin could be what can be found here – http://trac.buddypress.org/browser/trunk/bp-forums
3. This way both type of users would be benefitted – those who want bbPress as a standalone and those who want it to be deeply integrated with WordPress.

Some of my thoughts…

Gautam

[grassrootspa]

@Gautam:

Nightgunner5 (Ben) would also be an excellent person to lead bbPress.

There certainly are quite a few talented folks who could potentially take some sort of evil dictator role.

haha, you are both new _ck_ s!

My meaningless vote goes to whoever dislikes bbPress becoming a WordPress plugin the most! They get a second vote if they want to add more features to the core (I vote early and often!)

[grassrootspa]

@Gautam:

That’s too funny. I was just looking at your work on the bbPress trac and was going to bring you up.

Folks, check out Gautam’s site if you have not already (http://gaut.am/)

You seem to really know what you are doing and your plugins are excellent. You’re kind of like the new _ck_

[Gautam]

You can interact with bb-admin/admin-ajax.php to make AJAX calls. bbPress also used to do ajax posting before, but then it was removed due to some small bugs. There is a ticket to bring back AJAX posting – #718

[Gautam]

I’d love to take on the development of bbPress project, but I would be only available in March, after I get over with my exams.

[HeroicNate]

[EDIT chrishajer] I am a frequent user/theme builder for wordpress and more and more clients of mine want what chris is describing. I personally would find it to be a great help to have all of those 3 things. “From the creators of wordpress” is actually what turned me onto bbpress as well. I wanted a forum that would work hand in hand with wordpress. I wish I had more coding knowledge to be able to really contribute to the discussion. [EDIT -chrishajer] I’d say that people like me don’t necessarily need bbpress to be a plugin, but would like it to work with wordpress as if they were made for each other, so-to-speak.

[chrishajer]

I don’t think bbPress will be a WordPress plugin any time soon. 1.1 was to have a couple new features (subscribe to topic by email, anonymous posting) and the rest bug fixes. After that, and I think after WordPress 3.0 (with the merge of WPMU and also fleshed out custom post types) there would be some more thought, if not effort, put into bbPress as a WordPress plugin.

[chrishajer]

I know you’re being facetious, but I think that’s what a lot of users want. A forum that plays nice with WordPress, and by plays nice I mean single sign-on and it looks like WordPress. If bbPress were a plugin for WordPress, just as there are other WordPress forum plugins, you wouldn’t need to worry about the theming since the plugin would be inside WordPress. You wouldn’t need to worry about things like wp_list_pages() since you’d still be inside WordPress. And presumably, there wouldn’t be login issues since there would just be one login, WordPress.

I say presumably since I’ve never built a blog with WordPress and thus never had user registrations to worry about needing to be logged in already to bbPress.

I know I came to bbPress from WordPress (something like “forum software from the makers of WordPress” was the hook.) I never needed integration or look alike theme or even WordPress functions. So, for me, having bbPress standalone is fine since that’s how I use it. However, many people, I’d say half the support requests here, want:

1. forum to look like WordPress theme

2. log in once for both forum and WordPress

3. be able to use WordPress functions in bbPress (mostly theming, I think, but there are other requests as well.)

[bobtheman]

independent vote, in case it wasn’t apparent.

[bobtheman]

take the bbpress forums, throw the WP header, footer, theme, functions on it… why dont we just apply to have bbpress included in WP core and forget this ever existed.

Maybe a conversion tool to convert Wp themes to use on bbpress, all processed on the backend of course.

also, should bbpress look like wordpress? Is that what our project is striving for?

[bobtheman]

i think, and im pretty sure Matt has stated himself that hes extremely busy and doesnt have the time to devote to bbpress that is needed. I know one things for sure, if a PM occurs they need to be bbpress project centric without major ties or interests in other projects.

[chrishajer]

1. I’m not a programmer, I’m a motorcycle mechanic

2. I appreciate the vote of confidence but I am happy to be a moderator and help bbPress users. I’m certain that if Matt thinks bbPress needs a PM other than himself, he knows where to find one.

[bobtheman]

An extremely, over exaggerated word that has been used to change the developmental focus of bbpress is Integration.

Its time we address this burdening issue and close the book on this 2 year old bug, mental or developmental. And to do this we will collectively discussion what integration is, what its not, and what is best for the bbpress project and community in the long run.

1st. One of the most important points that I would like to express is, Integration doesn’t mean Plugin. I could talk till im blue in the face on this, or link old posts where unknowing users use the words interchangeably … but its easier to point to this open and active discussion

http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/bbpress-a-plugin-or-independent-software-with-integration

Integration can mean, user integration, data sharing, shared user profiles etc. This doesn’t have to be just WordPress, but if bbpress is reduced to nothing more than a WordPress plugin, than the future of bbpress is contingent upon wordpress not to mention the effects this has on development “which is evident”

I wanted to keep this topic short and to the point, but isnt to say i wont weigh in with lengthy replys

To end this chapter of confusion and to get bbpress back on trac, on February 14 I propose a IRC meeting which will follow with a blog post of the results with a roadmap for the future.

[grassrootspa]

Well you have my ‘vote’ for keeping it independent but the plugin thing is probably a done deal…

[bobtheman]

thank you for your reply grassrootspa, this thread is our first step in a proactive attempt to get bbpress back on track. Please all other members, especially anyone involved with development respond with your questions, concerns and suggestions for a total group consensus.

[grassrootspa]

I totally agree with you but the decision has already been made by the powers that be.

No one is more disappointed by this decision than I, but there is probably nothing we can do to change it…

[bobtheman]

any my reply, wanted to keep them separate ..

calling bbpress a plugin is insulting, why cant we call WordPress a plugin for bbpress? you get my point

developing bbpress as a “plugin” will not only choke its potential, but be another asset for the “WordPress installer of everything” and nothing grand for bbpress independently.

****Solution and proposal, integration is key, and there can be a “bbpress installer plugin” for WP, that helps install bbpress and integrate leaving bbpress as an independent project IE not a plugin dependent or subject to WP.

[bobtheman]

I wanted to hold a deep discussion regarding the future of bbpress being developed as a “plugin” or independent with the capabilities of integration.

[richcon]

I’m working on a video site, and I want to add a comments section to each video. So I plan to create a bbPress forum to compliment each video. But I want to integrate that forum into each video’s existing web page rather than forcing users to load up the existing forum site.

So, I plan to use jQuery on the video page to retrieve the comment forum’s contents in RSS form, then display them in the existing page beneath the video. That seems like it would be pretty straightforward.

The tricky part is this: is there any way to create an add comment form in the existing page that uses AJAX-type methods to communicate with my bbPress back end? (It would also have to be able to handle logging in.)

Rich

[johnhiler]

This project needs someone who believes in version 1.0, and the plan to turn bbPress into a WordPress MU plugin…

At this point, I just try to be helpful to our fellow users!