[paladinbrewer]

Hello,

So I am new to wordpress and bbpress. For forum usage I am very used to phpbb3. I installed bbpress + buddypress because my wordpress theme supports it, but upon playing with it, it doesn’t feel like forums at all.

1) Why can’t I do a normal forum layout:

Category 1
Forum 1
Forum 1 description
Forum 2
Forum 2 description
Category 2
Etc

2) Where is the normal forum functionality? Signatures, Mark all as read, statistics, Who’s Online, etc

3) No usergroups or controls? How do I set private forums? Some forums I want people to read and reply, but not create new posts. I can’t do this?

4) It doesnt seem it even tells me which forum has new posts and which doesn’t? Maybe that’s a Theme issue?

So is bbpress actual forums or meant for something else? Or am I missing it all entirely?

[Robin W]

bbpress is a lite forum which lets you add other plugins to add functionality. Therefore you can pick and choose what you want.

so

1. https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbp-style-pack/

dashboard>settinngs>bbp style pack>forum templates

2.

dashboard>settinngs>bbp style pack>other bbpress plugins will give you a useful list, including signature

bbPress – Mark as Read

more follows …

[Robin W]

3. bbp private groups

Private groups

[paladinbrewer]

Yes I found most of these since my last post, I just hate to have to rely on plugins. Number 4 I can’t find. A person should be able to see which forums are read or unread by the text color or icon? Also instead of “key master” etc can it short custom groups/titles under usernames as well as perhaps info from custom profile fields?

[Robin W]

I just hate to have to rely on plugins

just a difference in philosophy – one big plugin or several smaller ones, it ends up much the same!

[paladinbrewer]

No answer to the other ones? 🙂

And it doesn’t end up the same, not really. Everytime bbpress is updated now I have to hope 20 different authors of 20 different plugins also update their code in a timely manner, and if any of them decide to stop the project I now lose functionality.

[paladinbrewer]

@robin-w
So I am trying your bbp style pack, it looks like I have a lot of options I’d like to use. Is there some particular short code I’m supposed to use? I tried:
[bsp-display-forum-index forum= ‘46,50,52,54,56,59’]
And in the bbp style pack settings -> Forum Templates, I changed it to “Alternative Forum Template 1” but I dont see any changes. Am I using the wrong shortcode?

[Robin W]

And it doesn’t end up the same, not really. Everytime bbpress is updated now I have to hope 20 different authors of 20 different plugins also update their code in a timely manner, and if any of them decide to stop the project I now lose functionality.

not really here for a philosophical argument – that’s the way bbpress authors (which I am not) wrote it, and as free software they should be able to write what they want.

I just write some additional plugins which again I do for free and yes I have to update for free, and provide some support here for free.

[paladinbrewer]

Cool, so, do you happen to know why it’s not displaying correctly? >.> I know you didn’t write the plugin but I see you recommending it a lot so perhaps you have experience there.

[Robin W]

So I am trying your bbp style pack, it looks like I have a lot of options I’d like to use. Is there some particular short code I’m supposed to use? I tried:
[bsp-display-forum-index forum= ‘46,50,52,54,56,59’]
And in the bbp style pack settings -> Forum Templates, I changed it to “Alternative Forum Template 1” but I dont see any changes. Am I using the wrong shortcode?

style pack will work against the standard forum code, so if you have a forum(s) displaying without style pack being activated, then it should work against that url with the changes

ok, that is my plugin, and I’ll try to get to a resolution

It may be as simple as closing and restarting your browser, so try this first !!

If that doesn’t work…

Style pack works with many/most sites, but it can fail due to a myriad of reasons, including (but no means limited to) site permissions, other plugins and most often site themes where the theme author has altered bbpress files.

My plugin uses two different techniques to make changes.

For some I change how bbpress sends information by changing or overwriting bbpress code, for some I change what is called css, which your browser uses to display information.

Therefore some changes may take effect, whilst others don’t seem to.

Additionally you may have :

1. ‘caching’ software that speeds up the download of your site, but may not recognise and immediately make changes from my plugin
Do you know if you are using caching software?
2. Site permissions issues – you site might (quite validly for it) not allow my plugin to write code to certain areas
Try
Dashboard>settings>bbp style pack>css location
check the activate box and set the location to
wp-content/uploads/
and save these changes

For the template, are you able to look at the site files to see if your theme has a directory called bbpress ?

ie wp-content/themes/%your-theme-name%/bbpress

where %your-theme-name% is the name of your theme

[timsilva_]

Robin, just wanted to drop in and say that you rock! I’ve seen you and other donate tons of time to this place and ironically, I wish bbPress[.org] had a like/reaction feature so that I (and probably many others) could passively support your posts haha.

@paladinbrewer – I also wish that some of these features were built in, but I appreciate elements of how it works as well. Where stacking plugins get complicated is with conflicts; every so often you’ll find two plugins/features that you need, and one of them breaks the other one somehow. Free and open-source software has its pros and cons. 😉

[paladinbrewer]

1. Nope, no caching software
2. I set the css location and saved changes, nothing has changed that I can see?
3. Yes my template does have a bbpress folder

[Robin W]

ok, thanks – can you list the files in the bbpress folder ?

[paladinbrewer]

@robin-w 🙂

[Robin W]

looks like all of them !!

since the theme then renames all the style classes, then pretty much all the styling in my plugin won’t work, although the functionality changes still should.

But as a starter rename

content-archive-forum.php to

old-content-archive-forum.php

and hopefullt my alternate template will work, and then you can style that one

[paladinbrewer]

Doesn’t look like it. I took a look, and it seems the content-archive-forum mostly just loads the loop-forum file. I’m not sure how to rewrite it so it loops the way I want to heh

[Robin W]

sorry, Sunday evening and trying to finish the weekend – yes you want to rename loop-forums.php

then my alternate template should kick in

[paladinbrewer]

I tried that, it doesn’t really. I mean it will then load all the data but it’s super broken, and making CSS changes from bbp pack doesn’t seem to change anything.

[paladinbrewer]

I mean, yes it is technically kicking in but it super breaks the layout

[Robin W]

As far as I can see your theme author has rewritten some (maybe all) of the theme templates, renaming all the bbpress css codes, to harmonise in with the theme, which effectively neuters my plugin.

It would take considerable effort to change all that to make the two work.

I think that is as far as I can help.

[paladinbrewer]

Well that makes me sad 🙁 I guess I have no choice but to use the shortcode to manually build the forums on a page? Will that change how it loads as far as efficiency goes?

That or pay someone to create a normal template for me for my theme 🙁

[Robin W]

if you are savvy at working puzzles, then building a version of my template using your theme authors css classes should be quite doable.

If you care to send me the loop-forums.php from the theme I might be able to give you some clues, but I don’t have time to work a solution out in free time.

http://www.rewweb.co.uk

[paladinbrewer]

I can try that. Where would I find the php for your template? Also, I sent the bbpress folder to your email that was listed on your contact. Any help you can provide is super appreciated!

[paladinbrewer]

I ended up getting this going with the help of the Theme Author, he was nice about it 😀 I just have a lot of CSS to change 🙂

[Robin W]

great – glad you are fixed