[Per Carlen]

Hi!

I run a blog on which I’d like to have a BBPress forum alongside the regular blog and some other pages. But I have ran into a few problems.

Step-by-step background:

1. Installed WP

2. Installed Mingleforum

3. Created a page called “forum” for Mingleforum (myblog.com/forum)

4. Set the forum up and people started posting stuff on it

5. Concluded that Mingleforum lacked several features

6. Installed BBPress but did NOT uninstall Mingleforum or delete the page “forum”

7. Did NOT chose any template for BBPress because I don’t know how

8. Created a paged called “new forum” on which i simply wrote [bbp-forum-index]

9. Created what I like to call categories, but I guess really are different “forums”

Problem 1:

After working on my BBPress forum for a couple of days and looking thru tutorials, I realis that there’s supposed to be an admin panel for BBPress!? I can’t find it.

Within the regular WP admin panel I do have a menus called “Forums”, “Topics” and “Replies”. And under “Settings” in the regular WP admin panel I’ve got another menu called “Forums”. In these menus there’s really not that much to do. From what I have understood there’s a admin panel specifically for BBpress, which I can’t find.

Problem 2:

If I get the admin panel for BBPress to work, I will probably want to install a theme since the forum looks like crap when I just add [bbp-forum-index] to the page “new forum”. Can I use a theme specifically for BBPress or will that theme also affect my main blog and all the other pages? When I change to Twentyten under Appearance->Themes (Not sure if it’s called that in the EN version of WP. I use the swedish version) in the regular WP admin panel, my whole blog get that theme.

Problem 3:

Since the old forum, Mingleforum, has about 100 posts in it, I’d like to transfer these posts and their respective categories etc to my new BBPress forum. Is that possible?

I can not express how much I would appreciate it if someone helped me with this. It’s almost 1:00 at night here and I’ve spent yesterday and the whole day today trying to get this stuff to work. I’m going crazy here, so please help me

Thanks!

[Andre]

1. It seems as though you are using bbPress 2.0 not the 1.x standalone version. 2.0 does not have a completely separate admin panel, that was just in 0.x and 1.x versions.

2. bbPress 2.0 uses the WordPress theme. bbPress 1.x has a separate theme. You can customize the WP to make it look better with bbPress, but the only way to give bbPress 2.0 a separate theme is to put it on a different site (which can easily be done using the Multisite features in WP).

More info on theme compatibility can be found in this topic – https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/bbpress-20-theme-compatibility

3. I don’t think there’s a way to convert it yet, but check this topic – https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/introducing-bbconverter-convert-your-current-forums-for-use-with-bbpress-2x – and you may be able to talk anointed and AWJunkies into helping.

[Per Carlen]

Thanks for answering my questions, Andre!

1. If there isn’t an admin panel, where or do I for example, set authorisations for the forum (admin,moderator etc)? There’s must be more settings than those in the menus I described in the original post above?

2. I’ll look in to the Multisite feature. Thanks! Otherwise, If I for example want my BBPress to have the forum structure like http://www.awesomestyles.com/bbpress-themes/demo/static-bb (notice how the different forums and subforums are listed beneath eachother), I’d have to edit the css?

3. I’ll ask about in that topic then.

Thanks a ton for helping me out here!

[Andre]

1. I just want to be sure we’re both referring to the forum options at /wp-admin/options-general.php?page=bbpress. Forum (and WP) roles have to be set by editing a user profile (/wp-admin/users.php). I believe there are plugins that add functionality, but I haven’t used any of them so I can’t give a recommendation. The would be in the WP plugin repository at wordpress.org/extend/plugins.

2. This isn’t an area I’m strong at, but you’d have to edit either the themes files or the css.

[Per Carlen]

Yes, those are the settings I’m referring to. Not much to do there actually so I’ll add some plugins. I already have one installed for notifications.

Thank you once again Andre for answering my questions!

[Andre]

Plugins for bbPress should start appearing now that bbPress 2.0 is fully released. I expect that you’ll soon be able to add all sorts of functionality via plugins.