[edwinfoo]

It’s been over a year since from scratch, I set up and integrated BBpress & WP installation. At first, the idea of having an forum and blog integrated sounded really cool because it was unique feature that no one else offered. Sometimes integration can be a hassle but once it’s up and running, so what?

Other than registrered members being able to post and comment seamlessly, what’s the benefit of having them integrated? I really don’t get it.

[chrishajer]

AFAIK, there are just a couple reasons to want integration.

1. If you want users to be able to log in once, and comment in WordPress and participate in the forums, then integrated user data is useful.

2. Some people want to integrate their WordPress footer, sidebar and header, so access to WordPress functions get_sidebar(), get_header() and get_footer() are useful.

3. Sometimes people want to share data between the forum and the blog. Maybe a list of latest forum topics in the blog. Maybe they want a new topic created in the forum for every blog post. Integration is useful for that.

I don’t use integration, but I can understand why some people want it.