First objective: Prepare your bbpress database
1) Create a database using phpmyadmin or whatever tool your hosting provider gives you to create a mysql database. I like calling mine “bbpress”.
2) Create a database user and give them access to the database you just created. I like calling my user “bbpress” and making a password that is unguessable “K4id83k$h@a” or something.
Second objective: Prepare the bbpress directory
1) Download the latest bbpress installation zip from here: https://bbpress.org/download/
2) Use either an ftp program or the filemanager tool provided by your hosting provider to copy the bbpress zip archive to the root directory of your webserver. Usually something like “public_html”.
3) Use the filemanager tool provided by your hosting provider to unzip the archive into your home directory.
4) Rename the “bbpress” directory to the desired directory name you want to reference in your url. For example if you want: http://www.example.com/forums then rename “bbpress” to “forums”. If you want: http://www.example.com/bbpress then you don’t need to rename the directory at all. This is now your bbpress “home” directory.
5) Delete the bbpress installation archive zip file from your home directory.
6) Advanced: check the permissions of the bbpress home directory. If you want to make things really easy on yourself, make the bbpress home directory world writeable (777) while you run the installation process. (just be sure to change it back when you are finished!)
Final objective: Install bbpress
1) Go to your bbpress home with a browser: http://www.example.com/forums
2) Follow the instructions bbpress gives you in the installation process. You’ll need to provide the username, password, database name and host that you created in objective one.
NOTE: I’d recommend NOT doing the wordpress integration during the install. Just skip it for now. You can set that part up later once bbpress is installed and working.
3) Once you’ve finished following the instructions, you should be good to go!
NOTE: If things go bad and you need to restart the installation process from scratch, you can delete the bb-config.php file from your bbpress home directory and delete the bb_* tables from your database using your database administration tool. Then visit your bbpress home again with your browser to restart the installation process.
