A few questions have cropped up already, so lets funnel the discussion here.

bbPress 2.0 introduces a radical new approach at integrating robust new functionality into existing WordPress themes. If you’re an average user looking for a turn-key forum solution, this works out pretty awesomely – If you’re a talented developer trying to beat your own drum, it’s all probably a little bit confusing.

Theme Compatibility

bbPress comes with a child theme of TwentyTen, titled (you guessed it) bbPress – TwentyTen. This theme includes all of the custom bits that bbPress needs to function, broken up into template parts to allow them to be used in several places, like template files, shortcodes, and widgets.

1. MOST COMMON – If you’re using any other conventional WordPress theme (TwentyEleven, BP-Default) and find the default template layout of bbPress acceptable, you don’t need to do anything at all – it should just work.
2. DO NOT put any custom themes in “/bbpress/bbp-themes/” as they will get wiped out when you update bbPress.
3. CUSTOM – If you want to build your own theme or make changes to the existing template files, you’ll need to do the following:

   Copy Files

   • If this is not a custom theme under your control (meaning you are not the author) you’ll want to copy the contents of the “/bbpress/bbp-themes/bbp-twentyten” folder into your “wp-content/themes/%YOURTHEMENAME%” folder, where %YOURTHEMENAME% is the name of your custom Child Theme of whatever your current theme is. This is so theme updates don’t wipe out all your hard work later.
   • If you are the author of this theme, then you can copy all the files *out of* the “/bbpress/bbp-themes/bbp-twentyten” folder into the folder of your theme, and make your own edits from there. The files to copy include the single-*, archive-*, page-*, and anything in the subfolders.
   • In neither case should a new folder with the name “bbp-twentyten” exist. You are not copying the FOLDER, you are copying what’s IN the folder.

   Add Theme Support

   Now that you’ve got the files copied over, you’ll need to tell bbPress that you are in control of the theme situation. You do this by adding this to your functions.php file:

   add_theme_support( 'bbpress' );

   By doing this, you’re telling bbPress that your theme has its own template files to handle all of the new functionality that bbPress adds. This method gives you a single on/off switch to either use the standard theme compatibility, or use your own.

In the future, specialized template compatibility themes can be created either as plugins or child-themes to work like “add on packages” to existing themes, without requiring elaborate edits to existing themes, moving files around, etc…

Shortcodes (as of May 23, 2011)

Whether you rely on theme compatibility, or decide to go the custom route, we’ve included a few standard shortcodes to let you output specific forum content on any post or page in your forums. This is accomplished within an output buffer, so they won’t interfere with any of your existing page or post content. Note that if your theme specifically removes the shortcode functionality, these will not work, and will instead the actual text of the shortcode will appear on your site.

• [bbp-forum-index] – Show the root forums
• [bbp-single-forum id="A forum ID"] – Show a specific forum
• [bbp-topic-index] – Show all topics
• [bbp-single-topic id="A topic ID"] – Show a specific topic
• [bbp-topic-tags] – Show all topic tags
• [bbp-topic-tag] – Show topics of a specific tag
• [bbp-topic-form] – Show the new topic form
• [bbp-reply-form] – Show the new reply form (not commonly used)
• [bbp-single-view id="A view slug"] – Show the topics of a registered view

In the future, we’ll be adding more shortcodes as the needs arise.

That’s it for the first round of explanations. I’ll edit this post as more questions and answers come through.

[@ns32 Member 13 years, 3 months ago]

I’m very excited to use this great tool, but I would second what BJ and Dagnabbit said immediately above.

My child theme already has a functions.php file. Copying all the files from the /bbpress/bbp-themes/bbp-twentyten folder, as instructed, would overwrite the existing child theme’s functions.php file. How should we integrate them?

My goal is just to be able to put bbpress widgets in the sidebar of only my site’s forum pages. I think I need to create a template that uses a special sidebar for this. Right now, when I create forums in the admin section, I can’t access any of my other templates.

Thanks!

[@jaja-1 Member 13 years, 3 months ago]

This is what i did and worked for me.

I do have a WP Multi-site installation but i don’t think it’s different on a normal WP install.

*My root

wp-content > themes > <first theme> <second theme> <twenty ten> <twenty eleven>

First theme is the theme i was using on my WordPress website.

After that i created an empty folder called second theme

I copy-/pasted all files from the bbPress plugin folder into the empty second theme folder i just created.

From:

*plugins > bbpress > bbp-themes > bbp-twetyten > All files and folders from here (without the bolded bbp-twentyten folder)

Now if you go into your style.css in the second theme folder you see that this one is empty and it says it will call the css > bbpress.css from the functions.php file. <– now also inside that second theme folder.

But at the top of this style.css file you see some theme info it just looks like some regular junk-talk (theme info) but it really isn’t junk-talk but very important, at the last line of code it says template name: (twenty ten) (if i remember correct) If you change that to (first theme) in my case and save it you’re done.

Now it will load first theme as a main theme and second theme as your child theme (with your bbPress files inside)

It’s very cool because if you add a new page from your admin you can also pick different bbPress page templates.

Example, you can create a new page and add from the template drop down menu (right-side sidebar) the login bbPress page template and you will get a login-page.

This is all i did and it worked out for me, the add theme support function i never added because it’s also inside the functions.php file in your second theme folder.

Hope this will help somebody here.

[@ns32 Member 13 years, 3 months ago]

Thanks BJ!

Unfortunately, though, that didn’t work for me. I still can’t access my templates on the admin page that creates forums, so I still can’t add a widgetized sidebar on the forum pages.

Sigh.

[@wchaudry Member 13 years, 3 months ago]

Hi,

Not sure where to post this issue, but I am getting the following error post install….

Fatal error: Call to undefined method stdClass::have_posts() in /home/content/22/7322322/html/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/bbp-includes/bbp-forum-template.php on line 117

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

W

[@clicknathan Participant 13 years, 3 months ago]

Having trouble getting the BBPress theme templates to work as well…

1. I followed all of the original post’s instructions, but making changes to the templates doesn’t come through on the live site.

2. I tried creating a child theme as per BJ’s suggestion above, but that wasn’t successful for me.

3. Pulled my remaining hairs out trying other solutions.

Just thought I’d mention.

[@clicknathan Participant 13 years, 3 months ago]

Ok I believe I’ve got this working, for anyone else having these issues.

1. Follow BJ’s instructions above.

2. Activiate the Child Theme via Appearance > Select that Theme

3. Don’t forget to add the add_theme_support( ‘bbpress’ ); call to the child theme’s functions.php file

[@clicknathan Participant 13 years, 3 months ago]

Ok sorry for triple-posting but I was wrong, this still doesn’t seem to work. I was mistaken because I had tried creating a WP Page with the same slug as I was using in Settings > Forums where you can set the Forum base to a Page’s slug. That gave me control over the page title, but not the actual theme control I’m looking for.

Wowsers, I wish I could figure this out.

Edit: Wow, that was difficult, but could have been easy. It was the template file that I was editing (and seeing no results) that confused me. I was attempting to edit the page-front-forums.php template file, and it was doing nothing. So I gave a shot at the archive-forum.php template and that worked. Not sure why the page template that states inside that it’s for the Forums Index isn’t working, but oh well…

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 13 years, 3 months ago]

Template files prefixed with ‘page-‘ are for WordPress pages, and also reserved for actual Page Template designs. It’s a bit confusing, but you quickly adapt.

WordPress custom post types use the ‘archive-‘ prefix to denote the default fallback template file if you have not created a WordPress page using the page template in its place.

You could also create a WordPress page with the slug ‘forums’ and make a template called ‘page-forums.php’ and bbPress would default to that too. There are several ways to skin this cat, and bbPress comes with the ones that are tho most flexible.

[@jaja-1 Member 13 years, 3 months ago]

@ Clicknathan,

Did you copy-/paste all files from the plugins (bbPress folder) to your Child Theme folder?

If you did so, you have the functions.php file from bbPress inside the Child Theme folder and i have been looking inside that functions.php file and at line: 120 there is already a code that says:

public function add_theme_support() {

add_theme_support( 'bbpress' );

}

Thats why i didn’t added the add_theme_support code.

Everything seems to work for me but i really have no idea if i’m doing it correct.

If somebody has a tutorial website that explains it better (how to setup a Child Theme bbPRess) post it here.

I would like to learn it the right way, not that i’m telling other people wrong info.

[@clicknathan Participant 13 years, 3 months ago]

You’re right, BJ, and I removed my additional call that I’d placed in there, and it still works. I’d LOVE a tutorial…once I get this finally figured out and down perhaps I’ll try and write one.

I was just getting comfortable using BBPress 1.0 and now it’s a whole new game.

I already much prefer the plugin though, if only for the unified backend and easier integration of users.

[@demonboy Participant 13 years, 3 months ago]

Hi,

thanks for the guide. There are just a couple of things I don’t quite understand. Please can you confirm for me that this is correct?

1. I have copied the folder bbp-twentyten

2. I’ve renamed it bbp-mythemename

3. I’ve placed that folder into wp-content/themes/mythemefolder/

4. I’ve changed the functions.php in my theme folder to include the line:

<?php // forums

add_theme_support( ‘bbpress’ );

?>

Now I assume it’s the functions.php file in my main theme, and not the functions.php file in my bbp-mythemename? Either way, nothing has changed.

I’m obviously missing something very simple – could you tell me what it is?

[@green-girl-mel Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

Hi there,

I’m really not techo at all and am trying to utilise BBpress on my weaver wordpress themed site. I’ve copied the files over as instructed but I’m completely lost with the info re the child theme. Can you give me instructions on what to do here in a fair bit of detail? Do I make changes under the weaver admin section or do I need to be in my file manager and what exactly do I put where. Thanks heaps

[@green-girl-mel Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

I’m advancing! Have found php files in my file manager and have managed to change one and it worked! Unfortunately the changes were not re this bbtheme change. I have reread these posts but I’m afraid I’m still really not clear on what is the right changes to make to my php files so that weaver refers to the bbpress templates.

I’ve transferred the bbpress twenty ten file to my weaver theme file. Can someone from bbpress (or someone who has successfully done this) give instructions for the code changes that are needed?

Thanks heaps – can’t wait to get this baby working!

[@jez101 Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

I found BJ’s post above the most useful. The trick seems to be not to put the bbpress files in your existing theme, this didn’t work for me. But as BJ suggests, put them in your WP theme folder.

This seemed to get me a step futher, as at least the forum “works” now in terms of functionality. Unfortunately the styling still needs some work.

Anyone any ideas regarding what else I need to do, or is now just a case of trying to apply my themes’s styling some how?

Forum currently looks like this:

http://www.jezza101.co.uk/forums

Oh, the other annoying thing is that the social bookmark function from WP’s Jetpack seems to be appearing! That’s one for another day!.

Cheers.

[@krcsc Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

I’ve been wrestling with this for ages and it seems lots of other people have too. Some clearer instructions please! The first post just doesn’t explain what to do properly.

[@nuobodu Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

Hello all,

I am trying to setup bbpress on my test site. I want to replace Simple forum.

I followed BJ’s walkthrough and got it showing on the “forums” page.

From admin interface i created couple of forums, and couple of topics.

I can see the forums on http://www.8ball.lu/wordpress/forums

But when i click on any forum name i get a “page not found” error.

What am i doing wrong?

My parent theme is a custom theme created with Themeframe (im astill working on it, and currently i have only changed the menu). I did not touch yet the default templates.

Thank you.

[@deadbrokebeats Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

Really helpful posts if you dig, ive been looking into getting bbpress up and running on my website, almost ready to lauch it too..

[@ddlg2007 Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

I really see a good future for bbPress but I have to say, is really a lack of documentation, too poor. It avoids an adequate documentation. Although attempts to adapt to the blog template does not have a good explanation to create a childtheme, something too important to correct the mistakes css well. I will keep trying to understand bbpress but for now although it has good prospects, is disappointed right now.

[@andrejcarter Participant 13 years, 2 months ago]

The decision was made to wait until the bbpress 2.0 was released before spending a lot of time documenting everything. Not much time has passed since 2.0 was released so there hasn’t been much time dedicated to documenting everything. If you would like to speed up the process feel free to help document.

[@clicknathan Participant 13 years, 2 months ago]

@Andre, the amount of time that’s passed is arguable, at best, but I’d think a month would’ve been enough time to open the documentation back up to be a wiki…

Which leads to your second point about helping to create documentation: it’s actually impossible to do so right now since the documentation area isn’t a wiki.

[@andrejcarter Participant 13 years, 2 months ago]

Impossible?

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 13 years, 2 months ago]

Documentation is vital, but it’s not a job for the only developer on the project to do at the same time. It’s an opportunity for someone to step up, take something over, and contribute to the project.

[@clicknathan Participant 13 years, 2 months ago]

@Andre: Yes, impossible as in “possible”, but on opposite day.

@JohnJamesJacoby: I’d LOVE to contribute to the docs here, and have even been compiling some notes of my own that I was at some point going to put into a blog post…

Much rather add them to this site, but even though I’m logged in (can see that on the Forums pages), and the Docs > Template Tags page says that I can help by “Add[ing] documentation to un-documented functions, by creating sub-pages…”, there is no link to Edit the page to be found.

https://bbpress.org/documentation/template-tags/

Am I missing something?

[@ddlg2007 Member 13 years, 2 months ago]

Hi I have a question. How can I edit style.css without affecting my theme. So use the firebug to make changes but when I inspect objects the style is wp-content/themes/mytheme/style.css and i dont wanna edit my style of theme, only style of bbpress.

I try this:

Copy Files

If this is not a custom theme under your control (meaning you are not the author) you’ll want to copy the entire “/bbpress/bbp-themes/bbp-twentyten” folder into your “wp-content/themes/%YOURTHEMENAME%” folder, and modify your style.css to make it a custom Child Theme of whatever your current theme is. This is so theme updates don’t wipe

Add Theme Support

Now that you’ve got the files copied over, you’ll need to tell bbPress that you are in control of the theme situation. You do this by adding this to your functions.php file:

add_theme_support( ‘bbpress’ );out all your hard work later.

---

But dont work good because some subforums disappear and change the order. I like to stay like this with bbp-TwentyTen and modify aspects of my theme style.css without affecting primary.

[@crisium Member 13 years, 1 month ago]

@John,

I have tried to follow you procedure for getting bbPress intergrated into my current theme. After 10 hours of copying/pasting directories, files, adding code… I finally gave up.

As you said your self the bbPress as only one theme that supports it and that is the theme you have created, which is a modified twentyten. I think the bbPress fails as user friendly, because I need to manually change things on my harddrive and code to get my current theme to work.

Apparently there are not very many forum plugins for wordpress (well, not that many good ones). I would like to use yours and this is also why I invested 10 hours of my time trying to integrate it.

I’m going to try and explain what I have done, perhaps I misunderstand something with your procedure:

1. I’m using WordPress 3.2.1, theme Suffusion, forum bbPress 2.0

2. With this installment I can see I need to use your procedure description:

If this is not a custom theme under your control (meaning you are not the author) you’ll want to copy the entire “/bbpress/bbp-themes/bbp-twentyten” folder into your “wp-content/themes/%YOURTHEMENAME%” folder, and modify your style.css to make it a custom Child Theme of whatever your current theme is.

3. I copy my folder: C:inetpubwwwrootwpwp-contentpluginsbbpressbbp-themesbbp-twentyten and paste it into C:inetpubwwwrootwpwp-contentthemessuffusion

4. This means I now have a folder in my suffusion directory called “bbp-twentyten”

5. I now open the style.css file in the “C:inetpubwwwrootwpwp-contentthemessuffusionbbp-twentyten” directory and add “@import url(“../style.css”);”

6. I modify the styles.css file in the “C:inetpubwwwrootwpwp-contentthemessuffusionbbp-twentyten”, so that the plugin header now says “template: suffusion”

7. I now open the functions.php file in the “C:inetpubwwwrootwpwp-contentthemessuffusion” directory and add: add_theme_support( ‘bbpress’ );

As I understand your procedure that is what I’m suppose to do? Did I miss something?

regards,

Peter