BuddyPress and bbPress – The Future
August 10, 2010 in News
If you haven’t heard the word, there is a fury of activity going on at this very moment in the WordPress community. For the first time in over 8 years, the core development team is not working on the next version of WordPress, but rather on an initiative that’s been dubbed “3.org.”
3.org is a very appropriately named project that is focused on building and polishing the surrounding elements of WordPress rather than on WordPress itself. Part of this initiative is the conversion of bbPress from a standalone platform into a neat little WordPress plugin. I’ve volunteered to lead that initiative, and wanted to take a moment to explain what that means for BuddyPress, bbPress, and what you can expect for the next few months.
Since BuddyPress 1.1, bbPress has come bundled in the package to help make the installation as smooth and easy as possible. Through a little bit of massaging we successfully integrated bbPress into a dedicated forum component to allow for group discussion, and we included a central discussion directory to help put all of these topics in one easy place. All of these ideas were great on paper but have had mixed feedback and results in practice. Making bbPress a standalone plugin will help allow for more customizable installations which is great news for anyone that’s currently using BuddyPress for the forum component, or has been holding off because of the complexity of it all.
Our goal with me giving some attention to the bbPress plugin project is to keep it tightly integrated with BuddyPress, but have them act totally independently or alone if necessary. This means in a future version of BuddyPress, bbPress will no longer come packaged in the download, and both plugins will be aware of each other being activated. When that happens, additional features will be available to you to help create the kind of community that you’d like to have, instead of forcing forums to be tucked away into BuddyPress discussion groups.
The end result will be two plugins working harmoniously together, to easily enable setups where bbPress forums can be created for any other kind of object, component, or plugin. This is particularly awesome for BuddyPress developers because it will allow them to internally extend bbPress to fit the specific needs of their own custom BuddyPress components as they see fit.
With all this going on, the loose expectation is for BuddyPress 1.2.6 to roll out asap with a few bug fixes and maybe even a small new enhancement or two, with 1.3 to follow by the end of the year. bbPress 1.2 (the plugin) should be stable enough to start testing as soon as September 15 (give or take a few days and/or missing features) with a full release due around the same time as BuddyPress 1.3.
paulhastings0 said on August 10, 2010
Coolness. I’d heard bits and pieces occasionally over the web (including the crazy discussion over at bbPress.org) but it’s really nice to see somethign officially said about it by one of the Core Contributors on an official blog. Are you taking bbPress 1.2 suggestions at this point?
Tom(dB) said on August 10, 2010
Thanks for the update, this allows me to loosely plan the schedule for the site I work on. I had been holding off from the BP forum component so will just leave it as standalone bbP then migrate to the new plugin. That should stop the users getting confused – which they so easily are
John James Jacoby said on August 10, 2010
bbPress suggestions are always welcome over at bbdevel.wordpress.com, or in the bbPress.org support forums too. As development starts to ramp up over there, we’ll start having more weekly meetings to talk about progress, challenges, enhancements, etc…
Rich Pedley said on August 10, 2010
bbPress by middle of September? wow. Hadn’t realised you were that far along with it, so that looks good. I’ve noticed a few things that don’t look right, but until I install and play I can’t confirm if they are good or bad.
Any news on the proposed beta tester plugin we talked about a while ago?
Ashfame said on August 10, 2010
Lets see how things turn up. It will be a great solution for end users but will also be heavy on resources.
Anne said on August 10, 2010
I was always certain of BuddyPress and bbPress aren’t fading away. So much work in them by now, you can see it. At bbPress Matt talked about having the code close to his heart which is since its start. Paul is developing great new “Achievements” plugin. Great support forums. This post’s last sentence speaks about a nicely synchronized time aliment of bbPress and BuddyPress Teams and I could go on. Thank you guys for doing such a great work…
Cyndy Otty said on August 10, 2010
I still recall the first method of installing bbPress back forever ago when it was first released. It was just a nightmare. And in a lot of ways it still is. So, I think it’ll be quite thrilling to have it as a plugin. Certainly more people will have the ability to utilize it purely through that change alone. And I rather like the idea of it being coupled with BuddyPress without necessarily forcing one to utilize the groups feature.
roydeanjr said on August 10, 2010
This is great news! I have seen some of the bbPress integrated bp websites and I have been envious that some of those features were not available in the group forum component.
Thank you for you work! Jewels in your crown!
Gwyneth Llewelyn said on August 10, 2010
Wow, this is awesome news. Aye, we need that integration
I’m looking forward to see you finish all that “polishing” work. With WP being more and more powerful (but also quite stable!), the only thing that I still miss on WP is a better way to have multi-level user authentication and separate “areas” for new users. Yes, I know that this is possible with commercial plugins. But I’d certainly welcome an easy (and cheap!) way to have that, as well as the possibility to easily change themes depending on a user profile’s account “level”. With BuddyPress these things seem to become “almost” possible; integrating it all (and throwing in bbPress for good measure, so that I don’t always need to use an external forum system…) into WP as “merely” a set of plugins seems to be the way to go for WP as a super-powerful CMS, yet light, flexible, and very very easy to use — everything that Joomla ought to have been but never quite managed to become 
Jacob Share said on August 10, 2010
Thanks for the good news. I’ve been holding off with some projects because this integration is so complicated right now
rich! @ etiviti said on August 10, 2010
awesome – this is going to help out in many areas
John Blackbourn (johnbillion) said on August 10, 2010
This is good news. bbPress has never really gotten the attention it deserves despite the great efforts of _ck_ and others.
Kevinjohn Gallagher said on August 10, 2010
@Anne
Just to clarify, bbPress IS being thrown away.
A totally new bit of code without any of the last 5 years of code/security/bug fixes etc is being released that will require WordPress to run (which bbPress just now doesn’t, its a standalone forum software that wasn’t built for WordPress integration).
Also to clarify, the version of bbPress thats come with BuddyPress (or as a separate download for Buddypress before that) is not the same as either of the current bbPress versions (it’s only same in name, because, thats not confusing at all – and don’t worry, this new forum plugin is also going to be called bbPress just to confuse everyone). It is based on one of them, but quite massively hacked (i mean hacked in a good way, the work is quite brilliant) as opposed to “a little bit of massaging” to get it to work with BuddyPress. This might be why many BuddyPress users and advocate’s found the bbPress forum not best place to get answers.
This plugin will bring forums to a great many users. It’s value to WordPress as a CMS and social media platform can’t be understated, and it will be a very positive thing for the masses.
archondigital said on August 10, 2010
Looking forward to the plugin release, I’m closely looking at bbpress or Vanilla 2 for an upcoming project.
If the plugin comes out in September, would there be a way to import from an existing Vanilla 2 installation?
Boone Gorges said on August 10, 2010
Can’t wait for this to take shape, John. It’s going to be fantastic in general for bbPress to be truly modular on WordPress. And as for BuddyPress, I think that having forums act like a plugin component, rather than an afterthought of groups, is going to make it that much easier for site administrators to conceptualize and build their communities in a way that better fits their needs, instead of feeling forced into a certain setup by the default BP configuration. I’m very excited about that, as I predict that it’ll drive BP adoption and third-party development in a pretty big way.
Matt Galloway said on August 10, 2010
Awesome. I recently launched a site with forums and struggled for a couple of weeks with BuddyPress forums until ultimately I just gave up because the user experience was just to weird for users (join a group, forums associated with groups, etc.). Ultimately, I installed a stand alone phpBB forum that I just link to from my WP site (after trying lots of mashups like WP United, etc.). It seems to me that a simple to install yet full featured forum in the vein of phpBB would be a huge asset to the WP community. I like BuddyPress too, but for someone who just wants a straight ahead forum, BuddyPress is a sledgehammer solution.
I can’t wait to see where this nets out.
Thanks,
M.
Doug Smith said on August 10, 2010
A big thank you to everyone working on this! I’m very much looking forward to the advantages and new possibilities that will be opened up by having it as a plugin.
kwatog said on August 10, 2010
Cool. the reason why I’m holding my launching forum on my site is because I want to wait for bbPress. To finally have a confirmation that this project is being raised from the dead is really a good news. I was already contemplating on waiting for Justin Tadlock’s forum plugin that uses custom types but I think bbPress will have more support and contributors. That’s not to say Justin’s work will go nowhere. I think what he is doing is equally great.
I just hope that your team and justin will collaborate on this as that would mean only one thing — a totally awesome forum plugin!
Andy Nathan said on August 10, 2010
Thanks for the great information on new the developments at WordPress. Excited to see what happens there.
Sarah Gooding said on August 10, 2010
I’m really happy about this! So what will happen to existing forums housed under groups? Will there be backwards compatibility for sites that are already set up like this?
alanchrishughes said on August 10, 2010
<— this guy is stoked
Brent said on August 10, 2010
whew, sigh, relief, gratitude…
foralien said on August 10, 2010
What about themes? Presently BP theme include template files to display bbPress part – but how it will be solved in future?
Themes for BP and bbPress would be separated, wouldn’t they?
Sadr said on August 11, 2010
Specifically September 15th ey? Bold, but greatly appreciated
Where’s the trac roadmap for bbPress Plugin though?
I was a bit disappointed to know BuddyPress 1.3 is gonna be this late, but I suppose the changes at hand are more drastic than I’ve imagined.
august said on August 11, 2010
It would be a better solution for many areas, deep thought the bbPress.
prospirity said on August 11, 2010
Brilliant direction! Been postponing and postponing Bpress and BBpress. I am happy about this decision
techguy said on August 11, 2010
Thanks JJJ for the update. I’m really interested to see how this progresses. I’m sure you’re taking into account a nice upgrade path from the BBPress bundled with BP to the BBPress plugin.
It will definitely be interesting to see how this development evolves.
Mike Little said on August 12, 2010
JJJ, great news on the progress.
Pedant mode:
By the way, that’s “flurry” of activity not “fury”.
The WordPress project has only been going 7 years ( http://bit.ly/wpstart ) not “over 8″
Mike
MichaelYu said on August 12, 2010
Hi JJJ,
Will you cooperate with SimplePress plugin developers? After all, they’ve 4 years of development behind.
Sarabas said on August 14, 2010
This is fantastic! Can not wait to see the plugin. I think this is very important also from a usability standpoint because trying to understand as a casual user of buddypress the relationship between the groups and forums is so confusing to say the least…!
Anything else from 3.org that will help BP?
Keep up the good work.
Dwenaus said on August 15, 2010
great news. Good to know bbPress is now in very capable hands! if you need any help adding email functionality to the new plugin, feel free to take anything from the BuddyPress Group Email Subscription plugin. which is mainly email subscription for forum posts, including daily digests and weekly summaries. We’ve done a lot of work on it and it would be a great feature in the new bbPress.
cfigallo said on August 16, 2010
Fantastico!
What they all said and more thanks for your work.
Avi M said on August 17, 2010
Sorry I know that I’m late to the party but I have a question. How is this going to effect those of us aleeady using BP forums? Will be able to import everying form our exisitng BP instal forums over to the new BBPress plugin? By this mean in an eassy way. I dont know how to do that deep integration stuff.
Thanks in adavance.
rosemary said on August 18, 2010
Im sorry to intrude here but I am trying to register to join this community and I keep getting a message to us numbers and lowercase letters in the registration form. I am doing this but cannot proceed. Could someone please help me – or the form perhaps
?
Cheers
Rosemary
Sooraj said on August 18, 2010
this is wonderful news. And I have to say I agree with @kwatog that combining your efforts with the bbPress plugin as well as Justin Tadlock’s forum plugin would lead to forum awesomeness. Hope you guys can work that out.
Clive at BlogBriefing.com said on August 19, 2010
I too ( as a previous poster mentioned) am holding fire on installing BP until this is online, up and ready to go! Is there a time frame? Can I slip you a few ‘quid/bucks’ under the Comments Box to get a ‘heads up’? My sister is single and very attractive and I also have a good looking brother.
rbercume said on August 20, 2010
Cant wait to see what is next. John, we are gearing up with http://ilivewithadisability.com/, our BP close to hear project, to present at WordCamp Philly. Curious to speak with you on how I may be able to be better informed on how this will effect where we are at with the latest software for our project, vs. what will come. I am excited and on board.. Appreciate all you guys do..
Shanker Bakshi said on August 20, 2010
Awesome, Thanks very much Matt for implementing this great idea, if you remember you “PRIZED” me for giving this suggestion during WordCamp India,
jerseysportmall said on August 20, 2010
Keep up the good work.
modemlooper said on August 21, 2010
Wants:
Admin options and ability to install with groups or as a stand alone forum.
DS said on August 24, 2010
brilliant! Can;t wait for that to happen.
But: I need a buddypress installation with forum functionality now…
Will it be able to make a smooth transition later on when this great work is done?
Stevie said on August 24, 2010
Thanks for this update. Will be interesting to see how this turns out.
FT said on August 24, 2010
What does this mean for people who are already using bbpress as a part of buddypress?
When we upgrade to newer versions of buddypress (without bbpress), how will the existing bbpress data (forms, topics) be handled?
Robert Malloy said on August 24, 2010
I use wordpress and I feel great, and all available plugins such as seo, very good.
kriskl said on August 28, 2010
Hi
I read a long discussion on bbpress forums about the name and how some people were upset about it
So I suggest the name for bbpress plugin to be simply: ForumPress
Which would really fit with the Buddy / WordPress names
I am looking forward to testing this plugin, and i hope there will be easy way to migrate
Buddypress forums to this new bbpress plugin
candle warmers said on September 1, 2010
This will be exciting to try. I am looking forward to the plugin.
Raymond said on September 2, 2010
Keep doing the great work you’re doing. I’m a WordPress newbie and have fallen in love with BuddyPress instantly. Thank you!
Thibaut said on September 3, 2010
Hi !
It is a great thing ! A minute before seeing this article I was in a discussion about this problematic for our design-keys platform. I share some thoughts here if this can help/inspire :
Our main problem was that, in some groups, people were posting looong comments in the activity stream. Making it impossible to read and to find back discussion topics.
So we tough of replacing the activity stream in groups by a forum-like interface that display conversation topics rather than long blocs of text.
First problem : there is no admin option to remove the activity stream in groups and replace it by BBPress forums in the group homepage. This can be fixed by hacking the code however but this may be an option to think about.
Second problem : what do we need in terms of integration ?
Current activity streams are not only a place to see and access recent content. They are also a place to interact and write. Currently there is 3 typology of places to interact for an user :
- Activity streams : see and interact with recent content, post updates
- Blog comments : find people structured advices and add a point of view/informations
- Forums : centralize advices and interactions about specific topics
Each place have it own use so this have sense.
What does not have sense for the user is that, when he is in activity stream, he can sometime interact directly with the recent content and sometime not so that he is sended to an other interaction place.
This weaks a bit the use of the activity streams as a place to interact for the user.
Times before we imagined for small platforms a simpler way where activity streams can handle evry type of interaction. Articles, updates, videos and more can be posted on the frontend of the activity stream. In order to keep activity stream clean this system only display an extract of long texts and conversations. Such, long texts, article comments, etc. have a “view more” button that allow to open it within the activity stream. The result is something like a rich facebook wall system. Then the user can wether
- see evrything recent in the activity stream and interact immediatly with it
- when having more specific needs, going to places where the content is sorted by :
— updates, on topic conversations, articles, videos, events, etc.
— thematic categories specific to the platform
You can see some development schemas here, skipping the first page and going to “l’atelier” : http://www.slideshare.net/thibautdeveraux/design-platform-v2-proposition-details
(in French, I will try to make an english version dedicated to buddypress if i have some time for it)
This was designed for the Elgg system. With BuddyPress + BBPress comes the forum way of interactions and this add a new thing to be taken in account :
To understand the conversation in a forum you can’t just read the last post. You have to read at minima a few posts before this one and maybe the first one too.
Yet many forum topics have 50 or 100 texts in a conversation. Is it a good idea to open a full forum topic directly within activity stream ?
Texts can be paginated. Will a paginated100 texts discussion topic integrated in the activity stream make usages more simple ? Can try and see…
We may also imagin that the only last 5 topic’s replies can be opened within activity stream and that there is a “view full topic on forum” button.
A facebook like solution… Wether it is updates, blogs comments, discussion topics, etc. Evrything that is too long to be fully displayed in the activity stream when clicking on “view full conversation” button is opened in a new page. One comportement for all types of content. Avoid amazing the user.
This is to be tinked further…
———
Very theorical part, way of thinking that can help to drive imagination in a good user experience way of designing the program :
A way of thinking to make it a good user experience while solving such problem. Different types of content can be not that much differenciated. Like in BlueKiwi or Jive software, the system does not really keep a trace of “what is the content” but “what was the intention of the user when posting this content” : share an information, start a discussion, notitfy for an event, etc. Then the content is displayed as a discussion, an article, an event, etc. page-type. An article page-type have the article highlighted. In a discussion topic page-type all texts are on the same level. Etc.
The user who is exploring the platform does not want to filter content by “forum” or “blog” unless he is used to this concepts. The user want to do something on the platform. Then the idea is *not* to have a forum, an activity stream and a blog but to let the user filter the places and content according to what he want to do.
There is no functionalities in the user head, there is category of places they can do particular things:
- what type of action I want to do ?
— Discuss with others on a topic
— Simplely interact on what-ever topic
— Share an information
— Find an information
— Ask a question
— Share a few thoughs
- What type of content I want to do ?
— content of a specific theme
— multimedia, rich content such as videos
— theorical articles and points of views
— topic discussions where i can gather multiple advices
-etc.
What we name functionalites is simplely a way the interface help the user interact according to what he said he want to do.
What does it mean, thinking about facilitating further user experience developments for Buddypress + BBPress ?
Forums are the place where the user find discussions aeras sorted by topics. The discussion topics can be accessible from other user queries. For example “I want to see recent activity of the platform and start interacting with anything that I wish” (activity stream : showing evry type of recent activity). An other example : “I want to find informations about this specific thing and start interacting if I want to give an advice about it” (showing evrything related to the thing wether it is discussion topic, articles, etc. and permiting interaction)
Then it can be a good thing that BBPress content being fully compatible with whatever the platform can do with content. In the most open configuration, there may be no difference in what BBPress, Updates and Blog contents are technicaly. At least, each type of content share the same standard API to be called and manipulated by the platform. So that it makes it easy to implement new “what the user want to do” filters according to the need of each community’s specific platform.
Thanks to have read all of this in my broken english and hope this can be some inspiration for the developments.
mbiernat said on September 4, 2010
I have been a user and long-term fan of bbPress. I use BuddyPress as a plugin now and looking forward to bbPress complete integration into WordPress in a plugin form. This will really be a plus. Thank you for taking on initiative.
J Francis said on September 4, 2010
wow, thanks for all the hard work. ill fall in love with bbpress even more with all these recent updates.