The easiest way is to find and install an existing theme that exists for both WordPress and bbPress. For instance, K2 for bbPress is similar to the WordPress default theme. Here are some bbPress themes for you to check out.
Thanks for getting back to me and I will definitely look into that. But the problem I’m having is putting my forum actually onto my site.
I just want a button at the top next to “Home” on the navigation bar that says “Forum” and when you click on it, it takes you to my forum. I would prefer to keep the header and footer on it so that it looks like it’s actually in the site still.
Any suggestions???
IPSource,
The short answer is you have to convert your WordPress theme to bbPress by hand.
I’m currently doing the same thing you’re trying to do on my WordPress blog with bbPress also. It pretty much means taking your WordPress theme and going through each file one by one and converting them to bbPress. So you have to strip out the WordPress tags and functions in the theme files and replace them with bbPress versions. There’s no list of equivalent tags, so translating them is just gonna take a lot of trial and error and testing.
Thanks for responding!
@gerikg, Yes I would like to do something like that! What I don’t know how to do is make a “Forum” button on my Nav bar at the top like that website. Then of course I would like to have the header and footer be the same on wordpress and bbpress.
IPsource, to add a Forum button in the nav bar, you’ll need to edit your theme files in WordPress. And then do the same in the bbPress template files. Most likely, the files would be something called header.php. Every theme is different so it’ll depend on what you have. You might consider hiring a coder to do it, if you’re not comfortable with the html/php.
If I remember correctly, a folder will override a wp page. What I have done is, install bbpress at a location within wp, then create a page in wp with the same name that you gave your bbpress install. When viewing the blog, the page will show up in the pages section, menu bar or wherever you theme puts it. This should create a dynamic link to the forum.
I think this is what you are looking for.
I have done this for static folders and things like bbpress.
How I did it… Please back up everything before starting.
You need to find a theme close to your WP to make it easier.
1. BBPress side,I renamed the style.css to styleold.css
2. Copied over the WPress style.css over to BBpress
3. Open both files at the same time. You want to copy over some of the codes from styleold.css to style.css. You might need to play with it. Do not copy “body”.
4. Open both header.php. On the BBpress header copy over from WP header everything after <body> tag. Replacing whatever is there.
5. Open both footer.php. This one is a little tricky.
You can just copy over the whole thing and make sure you have <?php do_action(‘bb_foot’, ”); ?> in the file. You will lose the designers info though OR You need to see on WP side if there is any closing tags. bring that over and delete any closing tags on the BBPress side.
6. Sidebars: depending where the <?php get_sidebar(); ?> tag. For example my <?php get_sidebar(); ?> tag is IN the footer.php Others the <?php get_sidebar(); ?> is in the other php files right before the get_footer tag or after get header tag.
that’s it.
make sure in your bb-config.php
there is
$bb->WP_BB = true;
if (file_exists(‘../wp-blog-header.php’))
require_once(‘../wp-blog-header.php’);
else
if (file_exists(‘../../wp-blog-header.php’))
require_once(‘../../wp-blog-header.php’);
after <?php tag.
Goodluck.
Oh forgot. In the header I put just
<li class="page_item"><a href="/forum/">Forum</a></li>
after the page tag. It’s either going to be in front of all your pages or behind.
Has anyone tried finding a bbPress theme that is similar to the Mandigo WP theme
thanks gerikg. what does the
$bb->WP_BB = true;
if (file_exists(‘../wp-blog-header.php’))
require_once(‘../wp-blog-header.php’);
else
if (file_exists(‘../../wp-blog-header.php’))
require_once(‘../../wp-blog-header.php’);
after <?php tag.
do?
It says, in plain English, “If the file wp-blog-header.php exists in a directory one level up, include it, otherwise, look one MORE level up, and include that.” If it’s in neither place, it won’t be included. The reason for including it is so you have access to WordPress functions in bbPress (functions like get_header(), get_footer(), get_sidebar()).
As for linking to the forum from the blog like as if it was a page it’s just a matter of installing this plugin: http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/page-links-to/
Works great.
if (file_exists(‘../wp-blog-header.php’))
require_once(‘../wp-blog-header.php’);
^That line of code causes a lot of stress on my bluehost site. With that code active, I get “This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota” all the time, deeming my site unusable.
Is there another way to have the bb-config find the wp-blog-header? Everytime the server has to search for it, it takes fooooorever, which also slows down the rest of the site, then I get suspended by bluehost and can’t access anything.
It’s weird though, because this code will slow up the rest of the site that isn’t even using the bb-config. I’ll load up mydomain.com and it’ll go soooo slowly while that code is active – this, even though my bbpress config is way over there at mydomain.com/forums. If I comment that code out, everything is fast and zippy.
WP 2.7
BB 0.9
I’m going to try this today! I hope it works, because I love WordPress and BBpress..
I used the Pages Links To plugin and it works perfectly for my needs 
I am going to give my forums a different feel from the website. Thanks!
Hi, I would like to display forum on wordpress page, and i used a gerink post, but when i put that code:
$bb->WP_BB = true;
if (file_exists(‘../wp-blog-header.php’))
require_once(‘../wp-blog-header.php’);
else
if (file_exists(‘../../wp-blog-header.php’))
require_once(‘../../wp-blog-header.php’);
In to the top of my bb-config.php file, i just can not login in to the bbpress. I try to create new account, but effect is the same. When I click “Log in >>” , the site is only refresh, and I still can only log in.
I have wp 2.8 and bbpress 0.9.0.5.
martenk, thanks so much. That plugin was what I was looking for. AMAZINGLY easy!
Here it is again for anyone that just wants to be able to create a page in the admin that links to the blog without editing the core files (which wouldn’t be fun to think about when you update).
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/page-links-to/
Hello — can someone please help?
I have WordPress installed already — and I’m not sure where I’m supposed to install bbpress exactly. When people say they installed it “inside WP” do you mean that you just created a new folder in the root of the site where WP already exists?
Like if my site is http://www.mysite.com — can I create a folder at http://www.mysite.com/forums/ — and WordPress will be able to link to it properly?
Thanks much.
Yes, that’s fine. If you create a Page in WordPress called Forums (actually the slug just needs to be forums), you don’t even need any content on the page. WordPress will direct traffic there. That works with permalinks on. Not sure what happens if you don’t use permalinks. If you don’t create a Page called Forums, with a slug of forums, then you just won’t have a link in your menu to the forums. There are plugins to get around that though, if you need it. Try the Page first though and see if it works.
here’s what I did to get a page in wordpress in my navigation bar that redirects to the bbpress part of my site: set up a page template and made sure it was selected when I set up the forum page in wordpress – the template simply included redirection code:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Forum Section
*/
?>
<?php
header( ‘Location: http://www.yourdomain.com/your-forum-name-directory’ ) ;
?>
