[af3]

Dailytalker, i’m not a coder, so i hope this will point you to the right direction:

1. i’m running wpmu+buddypress+bbpress and installed bp-fbconnect plugin

2. for bbpress, i followed the fbconnect instruction in facebook website; it has a step by step instruction how to get the fbconnect installed in a page (meaning, hack your bbpress theme files).

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

Integrate them so that user tables are shared

http://blog.ashfame.com/2009/07/integrate-bbpress-10-with-wordpress-28/

In WP setting, change the setting that only required users can comment

and then in bbPress disable registrations or redirect them to WP register page

http://blog.ashfame.com/2009/11/disable-bbpress-registrations/

Hope that helps!

[jonto]

I agree. It’s unbelievable actually in this day and age. I have been unable to get the plugin working yet.

[chrishajer]

You could rename the tables with the prefix that works, to get around this. But you’d have to update the data in the tables as well, I think there are permissions maybe that refer to the table by name.

Or, you could further troubleshoot connecting to that database and selecting data from the tables with the prefix you currently use.

I’ve not heard of that problem before, but there probably aren’t many people who upgraded from .9 to 1.0 AND had a custom table prefix. The fact that it wants to perform a new installation when the bb_ tables don’t exist makes sense, since bbPress does not know there is a current installation.

I haven’t looked at the upgrade code to see if maybe there’s a bug where the database connection fails due to a non-default table prefix, but you could check that as well.

[admingsc]

Hi, all. Is it possible to change the wording on the registration page through the Admin dashboard alone? I’d like to add additional instructions for users, but I don’t know how to code (the BB was built by a design team, and I’d like to avoid having to pay them to make such a small change.)

My theme is Navigation for bbPress 1.3

Thanks!

[elforesto]

I’m attempting to do an upgrade of bbPress from 0.9.2 and get the following error every time I attempt to access any bbPress pages:

ERROR: Could not establish a database connection

I did some experimenting and found that when I change the table prefix from the one I’ve been using back to the default of bb_, I’m prompted to perform a new installation. The problem with this is that I don’t want to lose the existing contents of the forum.

Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated.

[paulhawke]

Where are we now?

Aside from the questions surrounding integration with WordPress, another of our big questions is “how do I import from _____” (insert a different forum product of your choosing)

Right now the approach is ad-hoc at best: We are handing a PHP script around hand-to-hand that is able to convert a phpBB v2.0.x forum over to bbPress v. 0.9, and if you want to convert a different forum (say, SMF) the accepted wisdom is to install phpBB, convert to that, then convert to bbPress 0.9 and then upgrade.

The official coding standards for WordPress state:

Avoid touching the database directly. If there is a defined function that can get the data you need, use it. Database abstraction (using functions instead of queries) helps keep your code forward-compatible and, in cases where results are cached in memory, it can be many times faster.

As it stands bbPress imports clearly violate that principle by using the script we are passing around.

Solving the problem

Importing data clearly is an example where a strategy pattern solves things in an elegant fashion.

The strategy pattern (also known as the policy pattern) is a particular software design pattern, whereby algorithms can be selected at runtime.

The strategy pattern is useful for situations where it is necessary to dynamically swap the algorithms used in an application. The strategy pattern is intended to provide a means to define a family of algorithms, encapsulate each one as an object, and make them interchangeable. The strategy pattern lets the algorithms vary independently from clients that use them.

More concretely, this means creating a bbPress Import plugin which provides an overall multi-step process, and delegates to an external sub-plugin to retrieve the external datasource specific steps. I would argue that this ought to be a plugin (and remain a plugin rather than being pulled into the core of bbPress) because once you’ve imported from a given external forum, you can deactivate and uninstall the “import” code as its no longer required.

Roadmap

1. We need to create a basic import plugin. — This I have done, it’s experimental and I’d like some more eyes on the code before calling it “done”
2. We need to create import strategies for external forums, starting with phpBB2 — This I have done, by extracting SQL from the script we all pass hand-to-hand. Again, it needs more eyes on the code as a QA step.
3. We need to create import strategies for other external forums, specifically SMF and phpBB3 — this is where the strategy pattern comes into its own – each can be developed independently and combined later. Its also a great place for community input.

Looking further out

The import plugin relies on calling the internal bb_new_post, bb_new_topic, bb_new_forum and to a certain degree the bb_new_user methods. As we move toward bbPress being a plugin to WordPress, these will become the only way to import data, as the script we pass around will become evermore obsolete.

Secondly, WordPress itself has an import framework. I suspect that any “import plugin” we write now will become somewhat obsolete in that timeframe. That said, if we do things right, the import strategies we create might migrate over. What I dont know is the timeframe. Is the bbPress-as-a-plugin-to-Wordpress change close enough on the horizon that we should simply target the WordPress import framework directly?

Thoughts / comments?

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

No worries! You are at the right place

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

BuddyPress 1.2 can install on normal WordPress too and BuddyPress itself offer integrated bbPress forum.

Try WP 2.9.2 + BuddyPress 1.2

[jasbg]

Hi

Been trying to install Buddypress onto a clean BBPress instalation – but it keeps giving me an error:

---

Warning: require_once(WP_PLUGIN_DIR/buddypress/bp-core.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:wampwwwbbpressmy-pluginsbuddypressbp-loader.php on line 19

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required ‘WP_PLUGIN_DIR/buddypress/bp-core.php’ (include_path=’.;C:php5pear’) in C:wampwwwbbpressmy-pluginsbuddypressbp-loader.php on line 19

---

Does anyone know if this installation is at all possible (clean BBPress + BuddyPress forum) ?

I would like to avoid using WordPress Mu – to keep things as lean (simple) as possible !

Thanks in advance for any advice on the subject !

Jens

btw. – I have for a couple of weeks been doing research on how to run the best and most sufficient frontend bases open posting site (or almost open) – and has ended with bbPress (has 12 different test systems running on wamp and easyphp – among them Word MU – Drupal version 6 and 7 and others. It’s close to chaos for sure)

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

Create a blank page with the slug forums and it will automatically takes you to the forum on your site

Either you design a matching bbPress theme for WordPress or use deep integration which is quite an overhead if you have a good number of users.

Read this – http://blog.ashfame.com/2010/02/deep-integration-bbpress-wordpress/

and http://blog.ashfame.com/2010/02/bbpress-deep-integration-advantages-disadvantages/

And then decide what you want to do.

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

Trunk is the bleeding edge version which is under development. Like a newer version under development. Trunk means the latest code in development stage. I am running a little busy right now. If left with some time tonight, I might try to catch it on trunk

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

Either wait for the next stable version or extract the code from the trunk & make a plugin out of it

[Alex Luft]

Thanks for your answer chris!

But that’s very strange. I have it activated in my-plugins.

And for some reason, that link goes to the blog (hosted in root) as opposed to a bbpress not found page.

Really don’t know what to do at this point

[Steven Hodson]

@Gautam .. I did manage to find one of the things that was causing a problem. It has to do as I suspected with the PHP $_SERVER[“DOCUMENT_ROOT”] variable. It doesn’t exist in an PHP install on IIS.

Now I have found a work-around that <gasp> works and when tested returns the proper path (eg: C:/Domains/winextra.com/bb-attachments/ – which from what I can tell in the “instructions” is exactly how it is suppose to be)

But when I try to upload a file (text/image) I get the following two errors and I was hoping that maybe you could help figure out what might be causing them

---

Warning: filesize() [function.filesize]: stat failed for 83def462ed888db6e1ad898505ea40b6 in C:Domainswinextra.comwwwrootforumsmy-pluginsbb-attachmentsbb-attachments.php on line 342

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at C:Domainswinextra.comwwwrootforumsmy-pluginsbb-attachmentsbb-attachments.php:342) in C:Domainswinextra.comwwwrootforumsbb-includesfunctions.bb-pluggable.php on line 228

---

any help (from anyone ) would be greatly appreciated as this is the last real big complaint my members have.

EDIT: The files are getting uploaded but to the root folder and they are not being entered into the bb-attachments table – http://screencast.com/t/Y2UyZGQ4

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

Try clearing cache and cookie. Its browser specific. Try a different browser for once

[Steven Hodson]

@Gautam I gave your ‘fixed’ plugin a shot but it still isn’t wanting to play nice with my set-up (PHP / IIS) as you can see from the screenshot – http://screencast.com/t/MTQ1NDFl

back the to hair-pulling I guess

[Taeo]

Did I say Dan? It was late. I meant to thank Tom! lol

[kevinjohngallagher]

I suppose what I might not have put across well is that I don’t want bbPress to become the monster that some of the other boards out there are. I’m very cool with lightweight and fast, it’s more that… bbPress has never had a “fixit” release y’know.

• 0.8 added some new functionality while removing alot of the hardcoded stuff (remember when you HAD to set the time displayed to the time zone you server was physically located in?).
• 0.9 added loads of new functionality
• 1.0 added backPress and new admin section.
• 1.1 is adding Anon posting and Email notification.

For me, having things like https://trac.bbpress.org/changeset/2377 sitting in trac (for the 2nd time btw) for over 5 months is crazy. Why do we have to have a year between releases?

I guess the way i’d put it is that there’s a difference between “basic” features and “standard” features in terms of forums. Simleys, BBcode, private messaging are fairly standard these days. I can absolutely live with them being a plugin. But the ability to delete a user from the backend inside the ‘3 click rule’ is a “basic” feature (why isn’t it one click?).

There’s a whole lot of places, especially in the backend, where there is legacy code or integrated plugin code that’s just made to work with 1.0. Take editing your forums placement, it uses an old AJAX routine from 0.8 to send to a page that’s not actually part of the current admin set up, and has no hooks/actions/filters/triggers. No plugin can interact with it. (I’m not against AJAX or the use of javascript, but there’s only 1 place in the whole admin area where there’s no actual posting back of info, and it just so happens to also be the one place where there’s hooks/action/fiters).

In my opinion, at some stage someone more intelligent than myself (not difficult) needs to have a look at bbPress on the whole, not in terms of X bits of code, but more in terms of the coding philosophy behind it. Not to make radical changes, but to make sure that it’s all going in the same direction.

==========================================================

@johnhiler

Thanks, i’d be very keen to know how you got round that particular issue, i personally got round it by writing a plugin after abandoning _ck_’s approach in her plugin.

Finally,

That said, please don’t (even jokingly) refer to anyone as an idiot!

You’re right of course, apologises to anyone i did offend there. I write on these forums at about 3-4am my time as that’s the busiest time for the rest of [the board], and sometimes i forget to edit myself. I am sorry

[gruff1927]

This is currently a problem for me as well. Like nonegiven above, I need dual language WordPress/bbPress integration, i.e. I need the facility to be able to switch the language of the bbPress forum interface from within the forum interface. Ideally this could tie in to the user’s stated language preference, or the language of the referring webpage.

However, I can only currently change the interface language by changing the settings in the bb_config.php file. This changes the language of the interface globally, which.

Like nonegiven, I’ve tried the bbPress Language Switcher plugin by _ck_ as well as User Languages and these don’t seem to work on v1.

Unfortunately, this undermines the usefulness of bbPress for multilingual websites.

Any chance that this will be on the roadmap for the future?

[Taeo]

Thanks for all the compliments!

And thank you Dan for pointing out my mistake! Doh! I’m sure there are a few other things I’ve missed along the way.

Btw, less than 48 hours since it has been live and I’ve already seen over 1,400 unique visitors

[paulhawke]

In theory you would make a backup of your my-plugins and my-themes directories. Then, delete the files in your existing bbPress install. Next step, run through the famous “5 minute install” of WordPress, and download the bbPress plugin and activate it. That’s the obvious part.

I would assume that a bbPress plugin would create a new top-level menu in the WordPress admin area. In a brand-new install, this would allow you to create the bbPress specific data structures in your database or to migrate existing bbPress data from an old version. After that step, the bbPress admin menu would switch to showing admin options for forums / topics / posts, etc.

My guess (if data structures remain largely the same) is that the “installation” of the plugin would merely write a WordPress option value telling the bbPress plugin what its database prefix is, and all the data already there would appear automatically.

Assuming that a bbPress plugin is connected to its data, it would need to be connected to the GUI somewhere. My guess is that you would create a WordPress static page and its content would be a short-code that the bbPress plugin replaces with its entire display.

[paulhawke]

@kevinjohngallagher

… but if you give the data-structure to a DBA or heck, a basic developer they’ll scratch their heads.

The datastructures underpinning both WordPress and bbPress are shocking to me, as a senior level developer. Just because you can do a thing doesnt mean you should do a thing; just because you have “*_meta” tables that store key/value pairs (that is, post_meta, user_meta, topic_meta, etc) doesnt mean that you should use them for absolutely everything. Tables like those are a commercial DBA’s worst nightmare.

There is no way to set any forum as read only, or hidden, or anything else. Forums don’t have settings, and why is that? because they’re exactly the same as categories in wordpress. Which suits the current need of one type of forum, and that’s one that has no need for parentage (such as this forum and the WordPress support forums).

bbPress was originally designed to be simple and lightweight. There are heavy-weight PHP based forums out there and I dont believe that bbPress was designed to compete. Lean, mean and simple seem to be the guiding principles, and it shows. The design of the code is very much the minimal working set you need for a basic forum. Problem is, people expect more, so you get to the point of needing a half-dozen plugins to reach the new “baseline” expectation. Suggests to me that certain plugins need to be [a] pulled into core and need some decent data-modelling done before getting released as “core” functionality.

Hey has anyone used XML_RPC to post to their forums yet? it’s awesome…

ROFLMAO

I’d like to stress i’m not advocating a massive change to the core, honestly I’m just up for discussion. I’m really just wanting to know people’s feelings or thoughts on this. Far too much data is not readily/intrinsically/obviously available especially when said data is on a predefined 1-to-1 relationship.

I would be willing to go through and document the database, including a nice clear diagram. I would also be happy to talk (deeply) about database design issues. It wouldnt be hard to pull together a patch to submit to Automattic to enhance the internal data structures. The issue I have though, is the number of plugins that would need to be massaged after such an event. Still, I’d be up for it.

@johnhiler

My general sense is that most of what you describe can be pulled off with plugins…

Adding the end-user functionality, yes, but the issue isnt so much the functionality as the data-structures a plugin needs to wrangle to accomplish its desired purpose. Right now the low-grade of data model design hurts.

@Marius-

I would love to have a dynamic sidebar I could add or remove things with ease. Have polls on the sidebar, not arrested in a topic, and maybe a chatbox instead of having an “Off Topic” category or thread.

I would like to see all of the major pages in bbPress be “widget enabled” – the “forums list” and the “topics list” simply be widgets, the heat-cloud for tags be another and so on. That would allow me to create an alternative display of topics, and drop it onto my own forum wihtout needing to hack the template.

Not to be too controversial here, but if/when bbPress becomes a WordPress plugin, we would get that functionality for free, pretty much.

I really enjoy the beautiful minimalism of BBPress, and I dont want it to get more complicated.

Amen! Preach it brother!

[deadlyhifi]

You could do this in the theme files.

In topic.php, around line 35 where the topic posts are listed, check if they’re logged in.

e.g

<?php if ( bb_is_user_logged_in() ) { ?>



<?php foreach ($posts as $bb_post) : $del_class = post_del_class(); ?>

<li id="post-<?php post_id(); ?>"<?php alt_class('post', $del_class); ?>>



<?php bb_post_template(); ?>

</li>

<?php endforeach; ?>



<?php } else { ?>



<li>Sorry, you must be logged in to view this - register now!</li>



<?php } ?>

[kevinjohngallagher]

So my wish to BBPress is to keep it simple, and make the hard things even simpler.

The hard things right now is adding new features, polls and many of the plugins requires alot of work to plug in.

Yes, thats what we’re talking about

Things are harder right now, and we’re trying to discuss them to make them easier.

Why not make these into widgets instead, as a sidebar?

I would love to have a dynamic sidebar I could add or remove things with ease. Have polls on the sidebar, not arrested in a topic, and maybe a chatbox instead of having an “Off Topic” category or thread.

Who had under 2 minutes in the “ZOMG i cant code so ignore data structurz & make me XXX feature” poll?

Yeah, i’m going to hell, i understand. Well i tried.