[frostdawn]

*bump*
Hi Paul- can you elaborate on how to do either of the options you listed above?

Thanks

[frostdawn]

Nope, that didn’t work. Can you provide a little more detail on the procedures you listed above?
Thanks

[frostdawn]

Looks like we can just toggle the boolean for loggedin_user to true for both functions to allow the desired effect, correct?

And yes, working with v2.3. Already pimpin’ your work on this on past forum topics.

[frostdawn]

Hi everyone- Paul Gibbs’ plugin, ‘achievements’ has come along rather nicely. Since my original post, The UI is greatly improved and you can now create custom awards and grant them to users. You can put as much or as little detail as you want in them as well to signify what the award/achievement is for.

@Asynaptic- cubepoints sounds promising if you were running a commerce based site. Informational/social collaboration based WP/BP sites might not be an ideal fit for that plugin though IMHO.

[frostdawn]

Or on a related note, making a ‘text only’ option for screen readers?

[frostdawn]

(side note- the server installation was built manually so the earlier potential solution from a past forum post wouldn’t have worked for that environment anyway).

SO glad this is finally working. Just about doing the ‘Snoopy dance’ over here.

[frostdawn]

Update: this worked on my copy on the server:
http://wpmu.org/daily-tip-fix-for-buddypress-group-forums-error-when-creating-a-new-topic/

[frostdawn]

Thanks for the response newpress. I tried it, but unfortunately, that didn’t work either.

So to recap, I’ve tried the following:
uninstalled and removed both bbPress and BuddyPress
renamed bb-config.php (in order to try and trick BuddyPress for the purposes of re-initializing the group forum install)
downloaded BuddyPress and bbPress and reinstalled each
changed forum slugs in WP > Settings > Forums (multiple times)
made sure group forums were allowed in WP > Settings > Forums
I’ve set a brand new page at least 3 times as the assigned page for group forums under BP > Pages
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve saved out Permalinks (WP > Settings > Permalinks)
enabled, disabled and re-enabled group forums from within the Groups as the admin (Admin Options > Group Settings) on about 7 different groups that were created, deleted and re-created multiple times
I’ve changed themes back and forth repeatedly between bp default and bp corporate (had no effect either way)

I’ve followed advice from several different posts in these forums:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/this-group-does-not-have-a-forum-setup-yet-1/?topic_page=1&num=15
and
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/this-group-does-not-have-a-forum-setup-yet-1/?topic_page=1&num=15
I’ve followed the BP Codex here:
https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/installing-group-and-sitewide-forums/

I’ve looked online for other resources, and they are also ineffective (though problems with the BuddyPress group forums seems like a very common problem, and there seems to be quite a bit of confusion between the default forums provided via BuddyPress versus the forums provided by the bbPress plugin- albeit mostly attributed to older posts on other forums)

I’m testing now in 2 different places- a server and a local installation- neither instance works.

Multisite and single site- neither works.

The only thing I have left is this:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/forums-posting-problems-the-definitive-post/?topic_page=2&num=15

I guess I’ll give this a go, although I am NOT using Dreamhost, so I’m not even sure how applicable this will be for me.

I really don’t know where to go from here, and am also really, REALLY curious what use groups are supposed to serve in BuddyPress?
There is no support for PMs to group members.
There is no content that can be created or flagged specifically for different groups (‘BuddyPress Groups Extras’ plugin sort of solves this, but generates an array error everytime I open a group up- other plugins don’t seem to work properly and I’ve searched PAGES of plugins results for this functionality). This seems integral to the whole point of having hidden groups.

Group forums don’t seem to work reliably/consistently or in some cases (like mine) at all.

I apologize if that sounds snarky- that’s not my intent at all. I’m 100% honestly curious what purpose groups are supposed to serve within BuddyPress since I can’t seem to find anything that points to how they work or what purpose they serve due to the issues listed above. They sound like they have great potential, but I’m trying to find out what that potential is.

If there is a change or hack required to whatever database tables or PHP files or system files associated with any part of WP, BP, etc, I’ll be glad to try it and attempt to get group forums working.

[frostdawn]

bump

[frostdawn]

On the dashboard, left hand side you should the BuddyPress option, and under that is ‘pages’. You need to assign a page to each of the designated BuddyPress features in order for anything to show when visiting those pages. You might also want to ensure that the different options you want with your site are active under BuddyPress > Components. Hope that helps.

[frostdawn]

Hi Steve-
Supposedly you can have forums for both groups and sitewide. My recommendation is to download and activate the plugin ‘bbPress’ which is a forum plugin. That will quickly and easily put you on the path to sitewide forums, and it works rather well. Group based forums on the other hand is something I’ve been tinkering with off and on since about february and still can’t get them to work, and apparently I’m not alone in this (though I’ve heard there are many people who have gotten them to work properly). If you do manage to get group based forums to work, I’d love to hear what you did to get them working. Good luck.

[frostdawn]

Same error- attempt to create a topic under group forums, I get the error, “There was an error when creating the topic”

[frostdawn]

Uninstalled bbPress to just work with BuddyPress. Retried the above steps for group forums. Still nothing.

[frostdawn]

Okay, I started from scratch.

BuddyPress upgraded to 1.5.6.
WordPress upgraded to 3.4.1.
bbPress v 2.0.3 (removed the old instance and rebuilt with this version to make sure and wiped out all old forums, topics and replies)
I’m using the BP Default theme for testing.
I deleted all my old pages so I had the bare bones pages to work with.
I deleted all old groups to make sure I also had a clean slate there.

I’ve followed the codex to the letter here:
https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/installing-group-and-sitewide-forums/

I attempted to create JUST group forums and NOTHING else, using an existing bbPress Installation. I confirmed that the following were created:
wp_bb_forums
wp_bb_meta
wp_bb_posts
wp_bb_terms
wp_bb_term_relationships
wp_bb_term_taxonomy
wp_bb_topics

Group forums failed. All I get is “Sorry, there were no forum topics found.” whenever I attempt to access forums from the (newly created, with forums enabled) groups page.

Then I went back to older postings about tricks other users have tried as noted here:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/this-group-does-not-have-a-forum-setup-yet-1/?topic_page=1&num=15

Post #7 was hailed as a the silver bullet by some users. Didn’t work for me. I went into my test group, edited it, removed forums, saved it. Renamed bb-config.php, reinstalled group forums. Went back in, re-enabled forums, saved again. Nothing.

I’ve performed about 4-5 different iterations and combinations of everything referenced in the above posts over the past several days now. Nothing. Groups forums is STILL not working. Can I offer money to someone to possibly help with this? Please? Anybody?

[frostdawn]

Hello?

[frostdawn]

I hate to pester for help, but I’m coming up with deadline issues and need this resolved. Any recommendations on next steps?

Thanks

[frostdawn]

Help?

[frostdawn]

Thanks for the response Paul. I went ahead and created a test group with the group forums option selected as you recommended. I can see the forum option under the group as well. However when I attempt to create a new topic, I get the error, “There was an error when creating the topic” displayed in a red box (what looks like a styled div).

From that screen, I clicked the forum directory option where I can create a new topic, but now have the added option of a drop down box featuring all groups where forums were enabled. Problem is, no matter what group forum I highlight, I can’t seem to successfully create a topic.

Suggestions?

[frostdawn]

And the log entry showing an error occuring whenever I try to work with Group forums:
WordPress database error Table ‘wordpress.wp_bb_topics’ doesn’t exist for query SELECT t.*, g.id as object_id, g.name as object_name, g.slug as object_slug FROM wp_bb_topics AS t JOIN wp_12_bp_groups AS g LEFT JOIN wp_12_bp_groups_groupmeta AS gm ON g.id = gm.group_id WHERE (gm.meta_key = ‘forum_id’ AND gm.meta_value = t.forum_id) AND t.forum_id = ’16’ AND t.topic_status = ‘0’ ORDER BY t.topic_time DESC LIMIT 20 made by require, wp, WP->main, do_action_ref_array, call_user_func_array, bp_screens, do_action, call_user_func_array, groups_screen_group_forum, bp_core_load_template, load_template, require_once, locate_template, load_template, require_once, locate_template, load_template, require_once, bp_has_forum_topics, BP_Forums_Template_Forum->__construct, bp_forums_get_forum_topics, BB_Query->BB_Query, BB_Query->query

[frostdawn]

bbPress v2.0.2

[frostdawn]

Again- sitewide forums are working great, group forums don’t work at all. I even attempted the last section in the codex- ‘2. Change the Sitewide Forums page slug’- still not working. Please help.

[frostdawn]

Also, the reason I was using the ‘Groups’ plugin was soley so I could have group exclusive content and nothing else. I can sets all kinds of nice access and permissions rules, but there is a disconnect between the plugin’s features and the built in groups feature of BP, so the results fall far short of desired.

[frostdawn]

Hi bollocks187-
I was just a little confused how groups was intended for use within WordPress/BuddyPress. To give you some insight as far as where I’m coming from, I’m moving from a Groupsite environment. In that environment, you can have ‘x’ number of groups. The groups can by hidden just like in WP/BP, but can have their very own content exclusive to them, which is hidden from non-members of that group (as expected). Likewise, members of a given group can communicate freely between each other. I was looking for a feature set within WP/BP that mimicks that behavior. The other thing missing is a peer recognition feature- kind of like a way for one user to endorse another. (another Groupsite feature). Think of this as a kind of letter of recognition from one user to another, so anyone visiting the endorsed member’s profile would see a senior member/administrator endorses/vouches for/recommends that user. I’ve been working with a messload of different plugins with varying levels of success/failure (far more failures than successes) and was getting a little frustrated -iterative testing to ensure a new plugin doesn’t break existing working plugins and trying to determine the UI for a new plugin since it’s often a sorely overlooked feature for so many developers.

I’m now looking into the possibility of using groups forums to address some of what I want to do, but am hoping that by doing so, it won’t confuse end users by having them try to contend with two separate types of forums – one open and public, and the other being ‘x’ number of private instances, one for each hidden group.

[frostdawn]

Thanks Paul-
Okay, so that begs the question- what are groups used for within WordPress/BuddyPress? If you deactivate forums, there’s not much left. You can’t contact just the people in that group. And I’m still looking for a good plugin to handle making content pages exclusive to certain groups. I’ve tried ‘Groups’ by itthinx, but there is a big disconnect between the actual BuddyPress groups and the groups within the ‘Groups’ plugin. So if I have a pre-existing group, the ‘Groups’ plugin doesn’t recognize it. If I name an existing group within the ‘Groups’ plugin, there is no members associated with it (since it is treated as a new group, but that can only be accessed via the plugin) so security doesn’t really apply. Any light you can shed on this would be appreciated.

Thanks

[frostdawn]

Anyone at all?