Hey, all.

At this point, I am not liking the Group Forums. I’ve gotten them to work, but it seems like the users have to dig too deep to get to each one. A general forum, where a user has an overview of all the areas and new posts, seems more usable. But this is just me.

So I’m not using Group Forums but want to integrate a general bbPress forums with my site, ie. in looks and navigation.

What is the best way to do this?

Currently, I am approaching it by giving the forums and the main site the same styling (header, etc.). I have had to hard code in the page navigation (about, home, members, blogs, etc.) in a page navigation bar across the top of the forums. It is so rough right now that I don’t really want to give you a link to it. But I would do so privately, if you would email me: wardeh.subs@suchtreasures.com.

Am I right in thinking that this is the best I can do?

Nicola, how have you integrated the general forums with your BP/WPMU install (at http://buddypressdev.org)? Because the “BuddyBar” goes away when I click on your general forums, I think we have the same setup.

And a third question: Are general forums integration in the works for BuddyPress? Anyone know?

[@burtadsit Participant 16 years ago]

Wardeh! I keep yelling your name don’t I? Not sure why. Must be because you are far away. My girlfriend thinks that the farther away she is, the louder she has to be on the phone. Perhaps it’s related to that.

The bbpress theme integration issue is one we all face. I have to do it too. I just haven’t had the time yet. I agree that the group forums aren’t the easiest place to get to if I wanna talk or listen to what is going on there in my groups. I view the group forums at the moment to be a convenience.

A convenience to me in that I don’t have to create a forum for each group that wants one. Or forget to do that. Or don’t get around to doing that in a timely fashion.

[@wardeh Participant 16 years ago]

Burt, this is the first time you yelled at me.

At least I know I’m doing the only option available to me at this point.

But… I was looking at Simple:Press the other day. http://simplepressforum.com/ It loads in a WP page and has more permissions/admin capabilities. Because it works as a WP plugin, the BuddyBar is in use there. In addition, because it is a plugin, you retain your regular sidebar/theme without having to do any tweaks — no making a separate forum installation “look” like it is the same.

I don’t know, looks pretty good. I set it up and everything and it worked fine in WPMU. Then I went back to bbPress. Was that stupid? The reason being that I’m worried that BP will support a general forum with bbPress one day and I want to stay in the loop if so, not wander off on another trail.

Any thoughts?

[@burtadsit Participant 16 years ago]

Wardeh, I’ve looked at bbpress, simple:press and phpbb3. I installed, configured and toyed with all of them. IMHO bbpress is the best of the lot. It has user integration with mu, it’s fairly easy to learn and skin and it is going to be more and more tightly integrated with mu.

simple:press is just that, simple. If all you want is a quick forum component that integrates tightly with mu, it’s great. I just don’t see it going anywhere. My forums are extremely important to my site. I’m going to spend a lot of time and effort configuring and extending that component. My users are going to get used to whatever forum I hook up. I’d like the software that I’m working with to be around next year and have some kind of future.

phpbb3 is very powerful. It’s the top of the line when it comes to configuration options and sheer volume of features. If phpbb3 don’t got it, it doesn’t exist as an option or feature anywhere. It is possible to integrate with mu. I had it running that way. It’s main drawback is that it has so many options and features that it’s confusing for the end user. It’s daunting to visit a phpbb3 forum and see all the little buttons, options, links, notifications, doodads, geegaws and flashy things. I get confused, lost and frustrated myself on those. My experience has been that normal people who aren’t whiz bang computer geeks are frightened and confused by it.

bbpress also has the concept of plugins to extend it’s feature set and change it’s behavior. If I want to add or change a feature in phpbb3 then I have to modify the source code to get it.

[@nicolagreco Participant 16 years ago]

Next time contact me on BPDEV

You’ve to do another bbpress installation (change directory name sure! like http://buddypressdev.org /bp-groups/ for integrated bp-groups and /forums/ for the main forums).

Intregrate this one with wordpress and you’ve done

Nicola

[@wardeh Participant 16 years ago]

Nicola, I don’t need help with that part. Got that figured out. See, I don’t want to use the group forums at all. I just want a general forum. So I installed it at /forums and I integrated it. My question was if css styling/adding page navigation was my best bet for making it “look” integrated. I think the answer is “yes”.

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Burt, I hear ya. I need a forum to take over for a currently vibrant and active Invision Power Board installation. I and the other admins are so used to all the features, privacy, levels of privacy, user moderation, terms of service, etc. that bbPress seems lacking. Simple:press delivers on some of those things, but I’m not happy with the cluttered, busy look of it.

But, this decision does not just come down to styling. I think I’ve managed to make my forums (bbPress) look just like my main site (though could use the BuddyBar there ). It is more the features that I need right now.

I am leaning toward going with bbPress and working on/waiting for those features. But I’m not sure.

Thanks for the input.

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Let me ask you another question? When I log in on my main site, then go to my forums, it does not show me as logged in. However, if I do a Ctrl-F5 complete refresh, then I am logged in. So is this a cache issue? Do you know how I can fix it?

[@nicolagreco Participant 16 years ago]

Do you means a graphic integration ?

[@wardeh Participant 16 years ago]

Yes, graphic integration.

I read yesterday on bbpress forums about “deep” integration where you include wp with the loading of bbpress: https://bbpress.org/documentation/integration-with-wordpress/#func

But all I get is a blank screen when I try to do that. I’m not sure I’m adding the right code to bb-config.php.