bbPress isn’t for someone who wants a program that can do everything including fixing your kitchen sink. It’s for people who want a slim, quick forum software that is highly customizable. You certainly have a good many plugins to choose from already, and the number is constantly getting bigger… for instance bbPress doesn’t come with stuff like private messaging, but you can easily install it using a plugin that some really smart guy created. But then if you feel that PMs aren’t needed in your forum, then you don’t have to install it and that choice causes your forum to stay trim instead of being bloated with features you don’t need.
However, if you feel you need everything packaged with phpBB, I think your choice is already made.
And to answer your questions:
1. I’m not sure, but I do know that a lot of different languages have been added to bbPress… you just have to install the correct files and I’m not exactly sure if there is a repository of them
2. Yes
3. The admin area is very slim with few options. Customization comes from theming and plugins. Plugins have the capability to add options to the admin pages (though none of mine do that yet… it’s on my docket)
@amethystdrag
Thank you for helping me. I am stuck between going for phpBB that has all the things I need, plus I have worked for phpBB on another site for 3 years. Or going for bbPress.
This looks really cool. I’ll get working on installing this tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a place to show it. You can download and install, *your forum will keep its functionality*, just with an optional annoying box reminding you that you can test themes. And only if you install that part.
Also, a few things I failed to mention: it’s ugly (I just wanted it to work and I’m not a designer, anyway), it expects nice theme names, the box only appears in the pages that use bb_get_header and the template’s header file is supposed to not finish in the middle of a tag (the middle of the tag itself, not its content, of course). Those don’t seem to be great assumptions, even though I’ve only tested it with two themes.
Demo plz?
Also found this one where you can dowload the theme you are watching (http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/theme_browser.php) but it isn’t for download. (Author doesn’t want that)
OK, here it is. Notice though that the selection box is added using evil ways. You may be all well and good if you don’t add it, though. More info in the README.
A few modifications and it will become a nice plugin that saves the user preferred theme in the db and id not annoying (and only works for registered users when logged in). Will that be useful to anyone?
The last phpBB to Vanilla converter doesn’t work perfectly with the latest Vanilla so needs some fiddling. Both Vanilla and bbPress could do with investing in a universal converter similar to what punBB has. It’s a lot of work but will be worthwhile.
Is there a vanilla to phpbb deal? That seems like the easiest way to go…
the bbPress folks ought to consider hiring a team member or somebody to just work on importers. Without them it makes getting people to make the move just that much harder.
Marky,
I have the same issue. I want to switch from PHPBB to bbPress and keep the internal links the same. You can try to adjust my plugin for this:
https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/771
Depending on how the links are right now at PHPBB you may be able to do it.
I switched from phpBB to bbPress recently thanks very much in part to a script found in these forums.
Now, many of the existing posts contain links to each other in the old phpBB format /topic.php?t=123. Since the topic IDs have stayed the same in the conversion process, I’d like to use ModRewrite to automatically redirect to the new /topic/123 URL scheme. I’ve tried the following in my .htaccess, but it doesn’t appear to work. (Admittedly, my knowledge of ModRewrite is shaky at best.)
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/forums/viewtopic.php?t=([0-9]+)$
/forums/topic/$1 [R]
(In the real code there isn’t a linebreak on the second line.)
Does anyone have any advice?
Yes, I encountered this problem last night. I had to manually add the topic_resolved field to the bb_topics table then it worked fine.
other than that – superb script – worked a treat – thanks very much!!
ebo
If it’s for a demo, wouldn’t an ad hoc patch be enough? I have not delved into the code, but I guess that adding the name of the chosen theme to the user cookie and changing the function that tells what template is in use to look there first (if necessary) would do. Well, and the dropdown box to select theme, of course.
I agree that how they work is more important. But having used phpBB, where they call plugins “mods” — easily confused with “moderator” — now is the time to simplify. That’s just an example of how terms can be misunderstood.
Newbies will be using this software every day for 1, 5, even 12 years. Every 10th or 100th newbie will waste a 1/2 hour because of the theme/template overlap disconnect, and you’ll come up with a ton of unnecessary hair-pulling-outing.
I guess my point is with all the elegance and simplicity inherent in bbPress, why leave this confusion?
Sometime ago I adapted a script that imports data from phpBB. Some of the changes are probably a Bad Thing, but it worked for me (about 40 users, 15 forums, 150 topics and 800 posts).
Among the changes:
- Keeps current users, forums, etc. in bbPress. The new forum had started, so I wanted that, even though most new messages were just for testing.
- When an SMF username is found in the bbPress DB, the bbPress user is assigned to the SMF one. Otherwise, a new user is created.
- Imports tags that can’t be used in bbPress, such as table, flash and some stupid formatting stuff.
- Probably other things I don’t remember.
Jump to the CONFIGURATION SECTION and change to match your setup and liking. Wherever you see phpbb it really means smf, of course. One of the things I didn’t do was that type of cleanup. Also, despite the comments saying that you need a fresh new install of bbPress, that’s not true anymore.
Keep in mind that data reuse only happens with users. If a forum or a topic exists in bbPress with the same name that one from SMF, you’ll probably get two topics with the same name (different ID number, though). I haven’t tested this, and I don’t know if that means problems.
Also, subforums become forums on their own, as bbPress uses a flat one-level system. If you are using the plugin that allows for subforums, you may be able to correct this afterwards, or even add the code to the script so that it is done.
If you don’t want any of the probably Bad Things I introduced, get the original one and look compare the
$export_sql
lines to have a feeling of what to change.
Now, if there’s any interest, where do I send it?
There is nothing written or in the works that I know of, but if you can get into phpBB format, there is an importer:
https://bbpress.org/forums/search.php?q=import
Trent
We need a dl page with a list with these language files like:
http://www.phpbb.com/downloads.php (you need to scroll down a bit)
you can see this in work now at http://test.158th.com
still some styling work to do and such… also going to port the forums and data in from phpBB (actually nukeBB)
…like in WordPress? The additional use of “template” will tend to divide and confuse, no?
Like how, across software, plugins are either “mods”, “modules”, “extensions” or “addons”.
Now’s the time! We can still consolidate the concept into one term.
I’m splitting hairs, I know 
. bbPress is wonderful. Thanks so much to the developers. I’m a phpBB veteran (admin), and bbPress is so nice I want to cry.
I don’t believe that anyone has tried to write a converter for punBB directly into bbPress. I would try and find a punBB to phpBB converter and then use the phpBB to bbPress converter. It might not be the easiest thing to do, but unfortunetely, I think that is the only progression we have right now.
Trent
hey Lingmeister
i used this:
http://www.iteisa.com/phpbb2bbpress/
https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/402?replies=27#post-2126
what is the problem you are having?
I had problems initially – something to do with PHP 5 or something – check that link above
good luck!
AT
Agreed. Once the templates really start flowing, we can get our own theme switcher or maybe we can throw something up on Pro Forums for it. Either way, it will take a little time.
Trent
The support forum functions were removed with 0.8 and so10 placed these functions into a plugin. I am sure there is only a few small changes that will not take very long.
Trent
Trent –
I’ll post the errors when I get home tonight. I think that it probably had to do with changes in the database, if I remember correctly I think it was with the “topic resolved” field?
Len
