Install wordpress.
Search plugins for buddypress, install.
Search plugins for bbpress 2.0, install.
On the left hand panel under buddypress there will be an option for forums. Sync with existing bbpress install.
I tried to do this and buddypress won’t let me integrate them– it looks for a bb-config file which apparently does not exist. Ideas?
@tyskkvinna – Don’t have to install the forum portion of BuddyPress. bbPress 2.0 will automatically integrate with BuddyPress 1.5. The integration is limited for now, but automatic.
It’s not what’s in the 1.5RC1 though is it? Because that looked like BBPress 1.0 
@tyskkvinna – The forum that comes with BuddyPress is 1.0ish. I don’t know exactly which version, but it’s not based on the bbPress plugin. I think that will change in the future.
Really? I don’t see any sort of integration between BBPress 2 and BuddyPress 1.5. Seems like one wants to override the other and the two don’t work together.
Is there a way to move BuddyPress’s Forums to BBPress?
Ok, ive been testing these things out for the past 2 weeks. Buddypress and BBpress communicate, however their actual integration as 2 separate plugins is kinda light. They do/can send info back and forth, and BBPress will publish to the activity stream, and things like that.
TO answer the question asked…
When you install Buddypress and use the group forums, it says “Sync with existing bbpress install”. This means an existing version of the built-in BUDDYPRESS BBPress, not the BBPress Plugin.
You can have Buddypress and the BBPress Plugin (from wordpress), but you install them as 2 seperate plugins and they pretty much operate that way, other than some communication.
As far as integrating BBPress into the Buddypress theme. You can use the built in Buddypress version, which uses the same themes and etc. But for the separate plugin version, I havent found a way to do it, other than that they are both built into the same wordpress theme (unless you find/make a BBPress theme thats similar.
Hope that helps.
>>BBPress will publish to the activity stream
This isn’t working for me. I have it set up as “Sitewide Forums” and I set up a page /bbpress-forums/ to display the forums. How do you get bbpress to publish in the activity stream?
Just do it exactly as Justin Mason said. If you want to use bbPress 2.0, don’t install bbPress through BuddyPress.
When you’ve installed BuddyPress and started the wizard, don’t enable the bundled forum component. Instead proceed install the bbPress 2.0 plugin from the standard WP plugin installer. It should automatically recognize that BuddyPress has been installed and will tap into the activity feed.
Some of the more BP-specific features of the old forum, most notably the group integration, are not in bbPress 2 yet. I’m guessing as soon as we’ve reached feature parity between the two forums, the legacy forum component can be permanently deprecated and there would be a whole lot less confusion about this set-up.
Also, as far as import process goes, it’s definitely subject to change.
As i said before, the method that Justin Mason suggested, only works if you are wanting to RE-ACTIVATE the built in BuddyPress forum, or at least thats what i have found from my experience.
And ive recently upgraded to Buddypress 1.5 and BBPress 2.0 (both updates officially came out the other day). The activity does work, however it doesnt post when u create FORUMS.
I created a New Forum and it didnt post anything to the activity stream. However, added two topics within the forums and it posted in the activity stream about both. I tried it with the “Discussion Forum” setting within Buddypress turned on and off, it worked both ways.
lmburford, just to clarify, activity works for you when you are using Sitewide Forums? Or are you using the per-group forums?
I reinstalled using all above instructions and I still can’t get Sitewide Forums posts to show up in the activity stream.
Same here! I’ve been trying to see something from bbpress(sitewide) on my activity stream for 2 weeks! still not working. however if you set up a discussion group and create topic for each group it goes up to your activity stream like always.
Here is my situation though: https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/bbpress-plugin-updates/page/38#post-92263
but I found something interesting. I have wpmu and if one of my user create a blog(site) and of course it has bbpress enable and he/she can create new forum/topic/reply it’s gonna show up on his/her activity stream right on time!
funny, i tried this. it’s working with all new blogs except the one that has the buddypress up and running. even someone mentioned you in one of these blogs it’s gonna be on your activity stream.
Still waiting and trying hard to get this worked.
An important step is that in the Buddypress components you need to turn on this option:
Site Tracking: Make BuddyPress aware of new posts and new comments from your site.
enderandrew, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, Site Tracking is already “on” by default, so I don’t think that’s the source of the problem (at least in terms of my problem – that bp activity stream is not picking up sitewide forum posts).
I was running trunk before the 1.5 release, so that may have changed. It wasn’t on by default for me.
I’m in the same boat as 3sixty. This is what I did on a fresh install of WordPress 3.2.1
1. Plugins > Add New > BuddyPress 1.5
2. Activated BuddyPress
3. Run the Install Wizard BUT leaving the Forum Component unchecked.
4. Plugins > Add New > bbPress 2.0
5. Activated bbPress
6. Made a forum, test topics, and test replies
No dice on the activity feed.
Second time around on a second fresh install, I ran the Install Wizard and this time checked the Forum Component. When I try to install Sitewide forums, it just sends me to the Plugin repository and prompts me to download and install bbPress 2.0 (which I do). After which I am stuck again.
Group discussions seem to be working fine, but that’s not what I’m looking for.
Thanks a lot in advance for all your help.
Hello all, I got the exactly the same problem but I found a way that may be help.
I was install the WP on my Mac using MAMP, then BP and BB and they both work and integrated well. Activity stream showed. And then, I moved the test to the web server, do the same thing, activity stream not working but I noticed the @ mention stuff did work. The only thing that is different from my local setting is, the visibility of WP. I set the web server one to “block from search engine” while the local one “visible”. And then, I turn on the “visibility” to open and it works!!!
That’s it, simple and easy. It helps me but I am not sure whether it will be helpful for the rest of you!
WOW. That worked perfectly. Thank you so much!
This makes no sense. When you moved to the webserver, it should not be communicating with your local install. How could the activity stream be affected by a simple robots.txt file?
I did what Zhen said (set Site Visibility to “Allow search engines to index this site”) and it works. Can’t believe this isn’t mentioned somwehere!
So modifying DoctorWombats 6 steps to install I would modify it like this:
1. Plugins > Add New > BuddyPress 1.5 (or install manually by uploading files)
2. Activate BuddyPress
3. Run the Install Wizard BUT leaving the Forum Component unchecked.
4. Plugins > Add New > bbPress 2.0 (or install manually by uploading files)
5. Activate bbPress
6. Make sure Settings > Privacy > Site Visibility is set to “Allow search engines to index this site.”
7. Create a forum, test topics, and test replies and see them appear in Activity Streams
I tested this using WordPress 3.3.1, BuddyPress 1.5.3.1 and bbPress 2.0.2 so no nightlies involved.
Thank you Zhen!
My forums keeps messing up when I include both BuddyPress and bbPress how can i fix this at my website http://wanani.me ?? Please help me out!
@3sixty
I’ve managed to get the Sitewide forums to work with the Activity. I’ve disabled the Discussion Forums within Buddypress, and in the settings of Bbpress 2.0 I activated the All Users can create Group Forums.
Just trying to figure out now how to create group forums without the discussion forums activated.
Allright figured it out 😀 Finally got it all working!
@chibichiii how did you get it working? In Buddypress profile under “forums” it doesn’t show topics they have created… or anything about forums in the activity. You fixed this?
