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.

[@chrishajer Participant 14 years, 10 months ago]

Integration to a lot of people also means “I want the forums to look like the WordPress site”. That was referred to by some as “deep integration” where you include WordPress in the bb-config.php and then have access to WordPress functions like get_header(), get_footer(), wp_list_pages(), etc.

[@bobtheman Member 14 years, 10 months ago]

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?

[@chrishajer Participant 14 years, 10 months ago]

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.)

[@heroicnate Member 14 years, 10 months ago]

[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.

[@kevinjohngallagher Member 14 years, 10 months ago]

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.

[@johnhiler Member 14 years, 10 months ago]

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.

[@bobtheman Member 14 years, 10 months ago]

1. Single Signon

2. Single Theme

3. Admin panel they recognize

single signon im fine with, but integration doesnt mean just with wordpress and it doesnt mean make bbpress a plugin

the bbpress community doesnt strive to be wordpress, we strive to create and use bbpress

making bbpress a wordpress plugin limits our success to wordpress

If a user of wordpress wants their wordpress theme to match bbpress, than that is up to the user to make that happen. If wordpress wants this to happen, then they can require that theme mods/devs include a bbpress theme so cross integration can occur, or there can be a wordpress bbpress theme converter that happens in the backend so installation can still be smooth with nothing hard to due but click install. But you should be asking yourself if its the goal of bbpress to look like and function like wordpress. If you look at any online software, usually the most asked for features are single sign on, bridges, and authentication integration “as far as forums go”

when bbpress is made a wordpress plugin, we are no longer a forum solution but a wordpress forum solution, and the development and success of bbpress would be contingent on wordpress.

[@bobtheman Member 14 years, 10 months ago]

might i add, that the wordpress community would be extremely interested in bbpress integration, but we as the bbpress community should be weary of developing integration for one specific platform which will limit our abilities and success.

we should be focused on “as far as integration is concerned” single sign on, conversion tools to convert from other forum solutions, multiple authentication methods/ integration paths … for multiple platforms like

joomla, drupal, etc etc

granted there are more important things at hand to focus on so that list isnt in any way in any form of order.