@john, I included some template tags in the bbGroups package that demonstrates some of that theme’s use of bp centric features. I didn’t include the forums feature because it was specific to the theme. I’ll just zip up that theme and post it on my blog for you to look at the code. Gimme a few.
OK. It’s here: http://ourcommoninterest.org/downloads/oci.zip
You should just be able to unzip that in my-templates. One thing though. bbPress doesn’t seem to have a functions.php file that gets run in each theme/template as wp does. So I had all the template specific code being launched from my oci_bb_group_forums.php plugin. I’ve got all the template code living in oci_bb_custom.php so it get loaded up automatically. I included my oci_bb_custom.php file in the template zip. Just drop that in my-plugins and it’ll be loaded by the bbGroups plugin in bbpress.
If you look at the front-page.php file you’ll see how the forum list is generated.
<?php oci_forum_list('open', 'Community Forums', false); ?>
<?php oci_forum_list('readonly', 'Group Forums', true); ?>
<?php oci_forum_list('hidden', 'Private Forums', true); ?>
That fn is a little out of date. I used to have an option in there to generate identicon avatars for all forums. Even the forums that weren’t bp related. I took that capability out. What it does do now is display avs for the currently logged in user’s groups only.
@mikepratt, Burt nailed it on the head, but I’d like to add that I think many people are still stuck in the forum world, and haven’t peeked their heads out to see that social networking has evolved in the past 5 years or so. I know on lots of car or video game forums, it’s basically just a free for all chat fest, and trying to convert those minds into using BuddyPress or WordPress alone is too big of a change; I’ve tried it twice now with little success. Having a dedicated familiar looking forum but using BuddyPress to emphasize the social atmosphere helps those stubborn users transition a little easier and allow them to fallback on the features of a dedicated forum in the event it doesn’t work out.
@burt, I noticed on your Common Interest site that you have the forums separated between public and group. I would like to do something similar, and am curious as to how you did so. Also, is there an easy way to tap into the profile fields/user information from BuddyPress and display it as post author information in bbPress?
You would have better luck getting an answer to this one over at the bbPress forums. Lots of threads concerning this issue over there. You aren’t the only one with this problem.
https://bbpress.org/forums/
This is for sites that want to use bbPress as it was intended. As a forum. bbPress is designed to be that. The feature set of vertical software is more rich than horizontal software. bbPress does things now that bp doesn’t do and may never do.
I like having a forum interface to bbPress in bp. I’d like to see a blog interface also. I don’t expect the feature set to be the same.
It’s wonderful that bp has a forum interface since I think that forums are an extremely important part of social software. People who get together in groups like to talk. I think that the tools we use to communicate can constrain or enable that communication.
The purpose of bbGroups is to extend bp’s native strengths.
Burt – Congrats on what appears to be a successful plugin. Could you humor me? I don’t quite understand the use case for it. Is it for folks who want to leave the confines of the BP Group forums and interact via the bbPress door to the same forums? I don’t deny that someone would but I’m not sure why since they can do it right there in BP (at least on my site)
Hey John. I was just going to suggest on the other thread that we move any discussion to here. You’re way ahead of me.
Keep banging on it.
There are things that have been left out intentionally. Lack of time. Don’t know what to do with certain things. Certain areas in bp haven’t been fully developed yet.
So far this is working for exactly as advertised and intended. Major thumbs up and I’m quite surprised it isn’t a built in part of BP.
Haha… You know I can sense your sarcasm, even through the internet. 
I’m gonna. Gotta do some things first.
I like your attitude John. You’re so laid back. Hardly anything gets you excited.
We have liftoff! All systems go! Let me take a look around and see what this thing can do!
Try this one. I just changed the fn names on the bbpress side to be unique and wrapped a couple of fns in if(function_exists()) that I know are mu fns.
http://ourcommoninterest.org/downloads/bp_group_forums_0.21.zip
ok. Thanks John. Gimme a few and I’ll change the fn names to be unique on both sides.
Okay, got everything installed, no errors, however when I try to import, I get…
Last import Saturday 14th of February 2009 03:41:32 PM, 1 seconds
0 groups with forums enabled
0 forums updated
0 users updated
However I do have 1 group, with 4 users in it, that does have a forum already active. There aren’t any topics in that forum however.
When activating the oci_bb_groups_forums.php plugin, I receive this error…
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare oci_server_methods() (previously declared in [...]/wp-content/mu-plugins/oci_bp_group_forums.php:417) in [...]/discussions/my-plugins/oci_bb_group_forums.php on line 249
This comes from my using “deep integration” on the bbPress side, including wp-load.php to allow access to the WP/BP functions (despite being told not to do this, ha!)
Adding some if function does not exist checks might be a good measure…
Did this for:
oci_service_methods
oci_escape
oci_authenticate
oci_xmlrpc_query
trailingslashit
untrailingslashit
Also, I added this around the ixr inclusion:
if (defined(BACKPRESS_PATH)) {
require_once( BACKPRESS_PATH . '/class.ixr.php' );
}
Might not be correct, but it did get rid of the double inclusion for me.
After those changes I was able to get that file to include without problem. Gonna keep testing.
lol! Yay! I’m gonna give it a whirl right now! Ha ha!
You probably will be John. You posted 16 minutes ago:
http://ourcommoninterest.org/downloads/bp_group_forums_0.2.zip
I haven’t even done an announcement message yet.
I am developing an Events component. It has basic functionality right now, such as inviting friends, wire and forum attached, some widgets (popular, recent, upcoming and active views, as well as list/calendar view) and will work with upcoming Albums component when released for attendees to upload pictures.
I will let you know when you folks can download it (this week) to play around with and test.
In the mean time, I’d like to build a list of what you folks would like it to do, in addition to the features already mentioned on this thread.
Also, what back-end options would be nice, such as auto inclusion of birthdays on the calendar, set up basic categories, allow users to add categories, etc.
Yay! Very happy to hear about this, and I will try to be one of the first to try it out!
arturo84, thanks for your quick reply. Feedback becalms in first…
So: Andy Andy Andy (we believe in you) 
P.S.: i announced this issue in the german BuddyPress forum.
Update: working on final packaging and documentation for BuddyPress Group Forums for bbPress. Still some features that need to be added but testing in other environments is more important. Should have it done by the end of the day.
Read this thread, second post, you need to fix the part related to ‘nonce_field’
https://buddypress.org/forums/topic.php?id=1223
For what it’s worth…
http://delsolownersclub.com/
@hardcoded, the bbPress forum server for the Automattic sites sometimes gets a little caught up on itself, but your posts do eventually show up. I’ve also noticed sometimes that it’s just a browser cache issue, and refreshing the page will usually show your post.
Nevermind, I’m a retard.
Got everything right, spelled .htaccess wrong.
Excuse me while I wipe the egg from my face.
