[_ck_]

There are way too many integration questions lately so I am going to try to gather some current info here.

This is an unofficial help guide to try to make a fairly straightforward operation as painless as possible. Feel free to contribute and we’ll edit as necessary.

There is a “power user” shortcut below, but I am also going to try to explain more of the concepts so integration is less “magic” and easier to understand.

With bbPress 0.9, integration is “officially” supported and there is an attempt to make it much easier to accomplish during install but it’s not flawless by any means because of the wide range of possible configurations by users.

update: for adventurous bbPress users, a 1.0 alpha is available that should integrate with WordPress 2.6 – however it is not possible to downgrade back to bbPress 0.9 (because of database changes) afterwards so please keep that in mind – also there are three new items that have to be sync’ed between WP 2.7 and bb 1.0

As of February 2009 it is now possible to use WordPress 2.6, 2.7 or 2.8 with bbPress 0.9 where previously you had to use the unstable bbPress 1.0 alpha. Although WordPress has radically changed the way cookies are used in those versions compared to 2.5, you can either downgrade the WordPress cookie method to the one used in 2.5 via this plugin or you can allow bbPress 0.9 to use the newer WordPress cookies via this plugin.

Keep in mind if you are already using bbPress 1.0 you cannot simply downgrade to bbPress 0.9 because of database changes. However you can always upgrade from bbPress 0.9 to 1.0, so please start with 0.9 instead of 1.0 alpha when possible.

To integrate with WordPress 2.3 see here for extra instructions..

ATTENTION PHP 4 users with WordPress 2.5.0 (aka 2.5)

You MUST upgrade to 2.5.1 – there is a compatibility bug.

Assuming you have access to your bbPress admin area, virtually all integration adjustments (as of 0.9) after installation can now be made at

http://your-website-url.com/your-bbpress-directory/bb-admin/options-wordpress.php

If you’ve lost admin access or it’s not working correctly, most adjustments can be done instead via simple edits to the bb-config.php (and wp-config.php) files. I personally prefer this bb-config.php method because it will override any mistakes in the database regardless.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Instant Integration for Power Users
2. Regular, Reverse & Complex Integration
3. Levels (or Depth) of Integration
4. Installation locations for WordPress vs bbPress
5. The Shared User List (table)
6. WordPress & bbPress Cookies
7. Integrating WordPress and bbPress Roles
8. Loss of Admin Access
9. Users Registered via bbPress appear as “anonymous” in WordPress
10. Security Considerations when Integrated

.

(there is also a wealth of experience available via the “integration” tag on the forum here)

[azsportshub]

I just wanted to add that I am having the same issue as Nekita….I was able to get everything integrated outside of the fact that BBpress does not recognize any user other than Inactive. That seems to be the only issue at this point, but one that stops the whole integration from working…..

[nekita]

Yeah it’s an extremely annoying issue, especially because everything else seems fine and suddenly you’re just stuck.

It’s good to see though that I’m not the only one with this problem. I have my hopes up that this will be solved with the Beta. The development hub looks very promising.

[azsportshub]

Yeah for sure. Big pain. I saw that you submitted a ticket, so hopefully they will fix that soon and we can even get rolling with the alpha install. In the meantime I am downgrading to make it work.

[inflatables]

Good nice.

wordpress 2.6 + bbP 0.9.0.2

Is that OK?

[chrishajer]

That won’t work for cookie and user integration.

[blankpoint]

I’m having some trouble and am smacking my head against the wall… I hope someone can help me.

I’ve got WordPress 2.6.2 installed at http://www.blahblah.com/

and bbPress 1.0 alpha at http://www.blahblah.com/forum

They are in two databases sharing the user tables.

My problem is that the user must Log OUT from the site that he/she logged IN from. If they logged in at the bbPress login form, then they will be logged in properly on the wordpress site, but if they try to logout there, they will get kicked back to the main page, but STILL BE LOGGED IN. They will only be able to properly log out from bbPress. And the same is true in reverse — if they login from wordpress, they will be logged to the bbPress too, but they will have to log out from wordpress.

A second, less severe problem, but maybe it will help point to the reason for the above problem, is that if i sign in on wordpress, I will not be able to access the admin panel on the bbpress. I will be logged in as admin, and can perform admin functions on the site, but I cannot go to /bb-admin — I get kicked back out. However, if I sign in on bbPress, I CAN access my wordpress admin section.

Any ideas? My wp-config and bb-config files have the definitions for SECRET_KEY, AUTH_KEY, SECURE_AUTH_KEY, LOGGED_IN_KEY (with BB_ prefixed for the bb-config ones).

They also both have

define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', '.blahblah.com');

define('COOKIEPATH', '/');

Is this correct? It should be the same for both?

One thing that might be the root of the problem, or at least I was not sure about, is the setting for “WordPress “secure auth” cookie salt ” in the WordPress integration settings in bbPress. I have left this blank because I have no such entry on my options.php page in WordPress. I did fill in the other two “salt” items, though. I confess that I don’t really understand what this salt stuff is for, but any advice would be appreciated.

I’m on 1&1 hosting, if that makes any difference.

[blankpoint]

In addition to the info in the previous post, I’ve looked at the cookies themselves.

I see that when I log in through bbpress, the cookies are from http://www.blahblah.com. When I log in through wordpress, it’s just blahblah.com (no www prefix). Under the configuration for both sites, http://www.blahblah.com is set as the main page. I also see that wordpress puts four cookies, while bbpress puts six. They both put wordpress_test_cookie and wordpress_logged_in_xxxxxxxxxxxx

but wordpress puts just two other ones, named wordpress_xxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the paths

/wp-content/plugins and /wp-admin

While bbpress also includes the bb-press directories. Is this why a login through wordpress does not get me access to the bbpress admin?

[eschen]

Something I could not find in this or any other thread concerning integration of 0.9.0.2 with wp 2.5. Problem is that a login to either bbPress or WordPress will log a user OUT of the other, can not be logged into both at same time. Common problem but different question. Several people have suggested adding the following to the bb-config.php:

$bb->usercookie = ‘wordpressuser’;

$bb->passcookie = ‘wordpresspass’;

Questions: are these really needed, should the full hash number (wordpressuser_full.hash.number) also be included and if so, where do I find the hash code? Using Firefox, the I see two cookies when logged into either bb or wp:

wordpress_test_cookie

wordpress_cabxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Secret keys are identical for both bb and wp config files. Also I have:

In bb-config file:

$bb->wp_table_prefix = ‘wp_’;

$bb->user_bbdb_name = ‘xxxxxxxxxx’;

$bb->user_bbdb_user = ‘xxxxxxxxxx’;

$bb->user_bbdb_password = ‘xxxxxxx’;

$bb->user_bbdb_host = ‘xxxxxxxxxxx’;

$bb->custom_user_table = ‘wp_users’;

$bb->custom_user_meta_table = ‘wp_usermeta’;

$bb->authcookie = ‘wordpress_cabxxxxxxx’; //identical to what is shown in Firefox cookie

$bb->cookiedomain = ‘.alleventsadviser.com’;

define(‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, ‘.alleventsadviser.com’);

$bb->cookiepath = ‘/’;

define(‘COOKIEPATH’, ‘/’);

$bb->sitecookiepath = ‘/’;

In wp-config:

$table_prefix = ‘wp_’;

$wp->cookiedomain = ‘.alleventsadviser.com’;

define(‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, ‘.alleventsadviser.com’);

$wp->cookiepath = ‘/’;

define(‘COOKIEPATH’, ‘/’);

$wp->sitecookiepath = ‘/’;

define(‘SITECOOKIEPATH’, ‘/’);

A registered user is shown in both bb and wp.

Thanks for any help.

[amforh]

Hi everyone!

I integrated bbPress 0.9.0.1 and the 2.6.2 version of WordPress MU.

I have no problems, I think.

[djvibe]

I am having the same problems a Nekita. As soon as I ad the line

// require_once(‘pathto/wp-blog-header.php’);

to my bbconfig file

I cannot access my admin anymore… It takes away the ability to reply to posts too..

when I switch it back.. fine again. Its the same problem I was having before upgrading to BBpress 1 alpha..

Too bad… I had a perfectly integrated Theme BBPress/Wpress before I upraded WP to 2.6.1.. i Will look before I leap next time.. oooops.

[keress]

I’ve checked and double checked all the steps to coodinating wp-config.php with bb-config.php but no-go. I can only log into bbpress if I’ve already logged into wp, but even then it doesn’t let me into the admin.

One possible area of confusion, I couldn’t figure out how to get the .zip file that would display cookies to work. How is it supposed to be implemented?

I got the bookmark cookie check to work, but it gave a number of different sets of numbers.

/r__utmc=162181740

__utma=162181740.1942902695.1222437978.1224615332.1224620799.21

__utmz=162181740.1222437978.1.1.utmccn=(direct)|utmcsr=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)

__utmb=162181740

wordpress_test_cookie=WP+Cookie+check

Which string is relevant?

[keress]

I found more info on the setCookieparam plug in.

http://www.2diabolos.com/blog/?s=cookie

What threw me was that the download given here is in an ‘upload’ subdirectory, but needs to be uploaded to the plugins folder and implement the usual way. It can then be accessed through the ‘settings.’ But, I’m still confused. The instructions here say that it can be used to check the cookie settings, but all I see is the ability to set the cookies. If I am to set them, should I just follow the suggestions given with the plugin?

[keress]

Okay, I tried using the settings that the setCookieParams seems to be recommending.

PathcookiePath: /

Cookie domain: blank

Cookie hash: 84bdfc54a51c9a8b123e73fe41df39a3

No change in bbpress/blog behavior. When I use the bookmark to show cookie settings, they are unchanged since yesterday. It doesn’t appear the setCookieParams worked.

Another question, the 2Diabolos site has two setCookieParams on the page. Is there one that should be used over the other?

[keress]

Okay, I reverted back to the configs I had before, then added the lines recommended here one by one. Each of the following, when added one at a time, caused me to be unable to logout or enter the admin.

//$bb->user_bbdb_name = ‘addivanet’;

//$bb->cookiedomain = ‘.addiva.net’;

//$bb->cookiepath = ‘/’;

//$bb->sitecookiepath = ‘/’;

Both WordPress and BBpress are at least functional now, but no integration.

We’re on Dreamhost. WordPress 2.5.1 and BBpress 0.9.0.2

Anyone see any clues here?

[keress]

What would be the impact of launching the forum prior to getting the integration working? What would happen to the users/posts if we get the integration to work later?

[spidersilk]

I second keress’s question – I have to get a BBpress forum up and running this weekend on a WordPress site that’s already been upgraded to 2.6.3. And I don’t really think I can just downgrade, because somewhere in the last few upgrades (don’t know exactly when ) the posting interface in the admin changed drastically, and I don’t want to confuse people too much.

It’s not absolutely vital that they be integrated – the blog doesn’t actually allow commenting, or new users to register at all – the only registered users it has are the owner (a professor) and his six teaching assistants. So they’re the only ones who will benefit from integration – the students who would be posting in the forum can’t register on the blog anyway. But it would be nice for the prof and TAs not to have to log in twice.

I don’t want to inflict alpha software on them if I can avoid it, so I guess I’ll just have to do without integration for now, but I’m wondering, if I end up trying to integrate the two later on, will that work?

[chrishajer]

Just install without integration. If you don’t allow comments on the blog, then there’s no reason for anyone to log in there, and integration wouldn’t be helping anyone anyway.

[complexconfusion]

I noticed that the cookie & secret related data changed between WordPress 2.6.2 and 2.6.3. Now I am able to find the information that bbPress 0.9.0.2 requests when attempting to integrate with WordPress.

Does this mean that WP 2.6.3 fixes the cookie-related issues that led to the edict “Do not try to integrate WP 2.6 and bbPress 0.9”? Or is that still a bad idea?

and no, I haven’t tried to integrate the two in my latest install. I’m still trying to deal with some of my other install issues. I’ve stopped trying to integrate until I actually have the forum working.

[WebDev WaxLotus LLC]

@complex I think you’re mistaken. WP2.6.2 – WP2.6.3 did not have cookie-related modifications.

WP2.6.3 did not fix ‘cookie-related issues’. The edict still stands for bbPress 0.9x.

As I understand it, it is the move to bbPress 1.0 that uses the ‘new’ WP2.6x cookies.

If you find ‘old’ options they’re probably there to permit backwards-compatibility with plugins etc that have not been upgraded yet.

[Gregg]

Im integrating my second wp and bb site and this time around it seems there are some easier steps only I cant get this setup to work. I can login to the WP side fine. But when i login from bb side it just redirects to the forum homepage. It will login the person on the wp side but not let them do a thing on the bb side.

I dont have admin access until wipe out the theme and clear the cookies. its very strange.

I followed all steps correctly in the writeup. any help would be much appreciated.

here is what my bb-config file looks like

require_once('/path/to/blog/wp-blog-header.php');

// ** MySQL settings ** //

define(‘BBDB_NAME’, ‘db’); // The name of the database

define(‘BBDB_USER’, ‘user’); // Your MySQL username

define(‘BBDB_PASSWORD’, ‘pswd’); // …and password

define(‘BBDB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change these last few

define(‘BBDB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8’); // If you are *upgrading*, and your old bb-config.php does

define(‘BBDB_COLLATE’, ”); // not have these two contstants in them, DO NOT define them

// If you are installing for the first time, leave them here

define(‘COOKIEPATH’, ‘/’ );

define(‘SITECOOKIEPATH’, ‘/’);

// Change BB_SECRET_KEY to a unique phrase. You won’t have to remember it later,

// so make it long and complicated. You can visit https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

// to get a phrase generated for you, or just make something up.

// If you are integrating logins with WordPress, you will need to match the value

// of the “SECRET_KEY” in the WordPress file wp-config.php

define(‘BB_SECRET_KEY’, ‘secretkeydotcom’); // Change this to a unique phrase.

// If you are running multiple bbPress installations in a single database,

// you will probably want to change this.

$bb_table_prefix = ‘bb_’; // Only letters, numbers and underscores please!

// Change this to localize bbPress. A corresponding MO file for the

// chosen language must be installed to bb-includes/languages.

// For example, install de.mo to bb-includes/languages and set BB_LANG to ‘de’

// to enable German language support.

define(‘BB_LANG’, ”);

/* Stop editing */

if ( !defined(‘BB_PATH’) )

define(‘BB_PATH’, dirname(__FILE__) . ‘/’ );

require_once( BB_PATH . ‘bb-settings.php’ );

$bb->wp_siteurl = ‘http://www.site.com/blog/’;

// that’s your WordPress URL, not bbPress

$bb->wp_home = ‘http://www.site.com/blog/’;

// almost always the same as siteurl unless you tinker

$bb->wp_table_prefix = ‘wp_’;

// should almost always be wp_ unless you tinkered

$bb->user_bbdb_name = ‘db’;

// this is the MYSQL database name for *WordPress*

// you can copy it right out of WordPress !

$bb->user_bbdb_user = ‘user’;

// this is the MYSQL user name for *WordPress*

// you can copy it right out of WordPress !

$bb->user_bbdb_password = ‘pswd’;

// this is the MYSQL password for *WordPress*

// you can copy it right out of WordPress !

$bb->user_bbdb_host = ‘localhost’;

// 99.9% of the time it’s going to be localhost, unless you are on DreamHost or some other weird ISP

$bb->custom_user_table = ‘wp_users’;

// 99.9% of the time it’s going to be wp_users

$bb->custom_user_meta_table = ‘wp_usermeta’;

// 99.9% of the time it’s going to be wp_usermeta

$bb->authcookie = ‘wordpress_randomnumbers’;

// in theory you should be able to leave this out

// but this is going to be copied from WordPress cookie

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

// do NOT use the 1234567 part, use your own cookiehash from WordPress – see the note at the very bottom

$bb->cookiedomain = ‘.site.com’;

// note the leading DOT – this is important

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

$bb->cookiepath = ‘/’;

// I *highly* recommend you set the cookie path to /

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

$bb->sitecookiepath = ‘/’;

// I *highly* recommend you set the cookie path to /

// this *must* match the WordPress setting

//tried this – doesnt work with or without…ugh

$bb->usercookie = ‘wordpressuser_randomnumbers’;

$bb->passcookie = ‘wordpresspass_randomnumbers’;

[Gregg]

ok update as ive been messing with thing maybe too much.

if i include the wp-blog-header.php to use WP functions i am never recognized as logged in on BB side even though using the bb form gets me logged in on wp side. everything redirects me to the forum homepage when trying to go to admin or profile. weird.

with the include not there I can login and be shown logged in on bbpress side, but i cannot logout! omg it doesnt end. maybe its because i have had 5 hours of sleep the past two nights but any help on this would rock!

[lorenzocoffee]

Hi,

any news about integrating the incoming WP 2.7?

I just need (as most of you) to automatically post in BBpress the WP posts,and to made them commentable on there (BBpress).

thanks.

[kevinjohngallagher]

I’m not sure who has access to edit the information on this website (outwith the forums) but any change we could have :

<b>”Do NOT try to integrate WordPress 2.6 with bbPress 0.9 – only use WP 2.5.x – the reason for this is simple – WordPress has radically changed the way cookies are used. “</b>

oooh i dont know, maybe on the INTEGRATION TO WORDPRESS page?!?! or even on the download section.

How daft is it to hide it away in a forum when it’s quite essential information? If you download the latest stable wordpress and the latest stable BBpress – they’re uncompatable. that to me seems kind of important to new people who download stable releases of both to get started!

[_ck_]

ATTENTION

PHP 4 users with WP 2.5.0 + bbPress 0.9.x

There is a HUGE BUG in the way the WP 2.5.0 (not 2.5.1) handles the login cookie. You won’t have a problem with PHP 5, only PHP 4.

So with PHP 4, you MUST use WP 2.5.1 and not WP 2.5.0 (aka 2.5) with bbPress 0.9 for cookie integration. Otherwise you’ll never get it to work.

There are only THREE files you need to replace in 2.5.0 to make it into 2.5.1:

wp-includes/pluggable.php

wp-admin/includes/media.php

wp-admin/media.php

Technical reason:

function wp_hash() in WP 2.5.0 never calls hash_hmac if it doesn’t exist and just returns a plain md5 instead. This method is incompatible with bbPress 0.9 – The compatibility function in compat.php is not loaded in time.

[mithrandir321]

Hello, is it possible to run bbPress in webroot and WordPress in a subdir and have them integrated? (This option is not mentioned in the initial FAQ here in this topic)