***Updated June 3rd, 2009 and works with BB RC 1.0, BP 1.0, MU 2.7.1 *******

I notice that this forum thing is really not that easy for everyone to put in place and I had to do it several times myself to get it working properly. What worked on one server didn’t work as planned on another one. Strange, but I thought I would write this to see if it helps anyone out.

Integration Assumptions:

First off, this assumes that you are using SVN of bbPress of at LEAST 1.0 alpha 4 and nothing less. Do not try this on bbPress alpha 7 when it is released! No more than alpha 6. Buddypress beta or SVN as well. I also haven’t tested this without at least having bbPress using the WPMU user tables for integration. You also NEED to be running WPMU 2.7+ SVN or WPMU 2.7 Branch until the release of WPMU 2.7.1 as it doesn’t work on earlier versions of WPMU.

*** these are requirements for running the bp-forums integration, not buddypress in general! ***

bbPress Side (First):

1) you have bbpress installed and a new user created on the “bbPress” side which you granted “administrator” rights by the keymaster

2) you copy the “buddypress-enable.php” plugin out of the bp-forums folders and copy it into your /my-plugins/ folder (create if it doesn’t exist) so it is /my-plugins/buddypress-enable.php ****People ask about /bb-plugins/ versus /my-plugins/ and put it in /my-plugins/

3) Enable the plugin through your bbPress administration side for plugins

4) Edit “settings” to enable xmlrpc and pingbacks (both)

5) edit your bb-config.php and just before the closing php call at the bottom of the page put:

$bb->bb_xmlrpc_allow_user_switching = true;

buddypress Side (Second):

6) Go into your main blog dashboard as the “site-admin” and go to the “bbPress Forums” page. Put in the URL of your forum like http://yoursite.com/forums/ and make sure you have the ending slash on that one.

7) Put in the user that you created in step 1 with the bbPress “administration” rights and their password. I never changed the password, just used the random one it sent me, but it is up to you. I usually save it a couple of times to ensure it was entered due to a refreshing bug at time of writing this.

Go to one of your groups (new or existing) and go to the group admin page. Make sure “discussion” is turned off. If it was already off that is fine, but if it was enabled already, turn it off

9) Turn the group “discussion” back on and then physically go to your forums URL and see if it created the forum on the bbPress side without trying to create a new topic on the buddypress side.

If you have the new forum now, then you should skip to step 10. If not, go through steps 1-9 again and make sure you got all the steps perfectly.

10) If you have made it this far, it will work, but I like to create the first post in the new forum on the bbPress side and then see if it shows up in the buddypress group forum. Old habit, but for odd circumstance, it seems to work best for me. If it works, try creating a new topic on the group you have working.

***Don’t forget that you have to do step 8 for every group that was created before you enabled the forum integration! Very important***

Other notes:

1) The refreshing bug in step 7 killed it for me a couple of times and I made sure I saved it at least 2 times.

2) Forgetting the line in bb-config.php killed it for me a couple of times as well.

3) In one install I had to change the bbPress “user” with administration rights password and on the bbPress side and then completing step 7 again.

4) I also found that through “previous testing” I had some bp_groupmeta entries that were screwing things up with duplicates for the same forum in the database. Shouldn’t happen to anyone else, but that screwed some things up for me as well.

In terms of having buddypress and bbPress working together, I am sure it works with buddypress on one server and bbPress on another since it works through the xmlrpc module which makes it very powerful.

Let me know if I am out to lunch as well or you have anything else to add!

Trent

[@arturo84 Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

the RC-1 version of bbPress is supported? i’m some problem with this version and now i try the alpha-6.

thanks for the reply!

[@trent Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

This has now been tested with WPMU 2.7.1, bbPress 1.0 RC1 and Buddypress 1.0. At the time of this post it actually works with all SVN versions of the softwares, but working with releases is preferred.

Thanks,

Trent

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 15 years, 6 months ago]

Arturo, in order to make it work correctly with current versions of BP/WP/WPMU you might need to add an undocumented variable to your wp-config.php file. Some people have needed to, others have not.

define('WP_AUTH_COOKIE_VERSION', 1);

This isn’t a magic fix, but if you’ve tried EVERYTHING and are banging your head against a cookie wall, try this.

[@ineffabelle Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

My Group forums were working fine until I installed the BP update today. Now it won’t let me post from groups at all. Anyone else having this problem and have a fix?

One error message I’m getting is:

group_obj is undefined in /wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-forums/bp-forums-templatetags.ph

[@djpaul Keymaster 15 years, 6 months ago]

@John: worth making a note here that when WPMU 2.8 comes out, we need to take out that WP_AUTH_COOKIE_VERSION define.

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 15 years, 6 months ago]

What DJPaul said, is true.

2.8+ versions of WordPress/WordPressMU do NOT need to use the cookie variable above.

[@chrisclayton Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

lol,

maby i should look before i leap? i was trying to use bbpress 9 lol

as soon as i noticed the tiny version number at the bottom, and uploaded bbpress 1.0 it worked

next time something doesnt work, im going to try opening my eyes

thanks trent for the helpful guide

[Inactive 15 years, 6 months ago]

Can not add WordPress MU password in bbpress “WordPress integration” Step 2.

Problem when installing bbpress 1.0 with WordPress MU 2.7.1 and Buddy Press 1.0.1 is when I get to step 2 during in the installation of bbpress 1.0 “wordpress integration”. I can add in all the database informatino however the password input area is missing for inserting the database password. I have tried to skip this step however when I go into bbpress settings and add in all the information, when this step is completed there is no “Admin settings” inside bbpress (this is missing although I am logged in with “admin”.

Does anyone have any ideas to fix this problem?

[@chrisclayton Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

hrmm, not sure why its not showing the password area….

try inserting the password manualy in the bb-config file.

[@notme31 Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

Hello, I need help, I have installed wordpress mu 2.7.1, buddypress.1.0.1 and bbpress-1.0-rc-3.

I have the “Attention Site Admin: Group forums require the correct setup and configuration of a bbPress installation” stupid famous msg. I have added all the plugins, edited config files of bbpress and wordpress to match auth keys (as explained), etc. added a new user in buddypress, change to “admin” state in bbpress, etc

I dont know what more to try, I read all posts, added small pieces of code to config files, deleted cookies, etc

I am lost, I spent 8 hours trying things and nothing. Same msg. I have one database for wordpress mu and other for bbpress…

Any idea of something I could test? or maybe something fails in my server?

[@tracedef Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

I have the integration set up but each time a new group is created I have to repeat step 8, I have to uncheck and save “enable forums” and then recheck and save again for forums to work…. is this normal?

[@notme31 Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

at least it semi works for you )))

which versions are you using? bbpress 1.0.rc-1?

I use bbpress 1.0.rc-3 and doesnt work and i dont know where to dowmnload rc-1 !!!

do you have the file?

[@tracedef Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

I’m using bbpress alpha 6, you may be pushing the envelope using the RC’s you mentioned.

Also, 2.7.1 and BP 1.01

[@notme31 Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

ok, i started from 0 again, its my 4th day trying to make it work, 8 hours day, I am FRUSTRATED, now:

bbpress alpha 6

BP 1.0.1

wordpress mu 2.7.1

I followed ALL the steps in this post, I know them by heart already, users are shared in bbpress and wordpress, but if i log on as admin in wordpress and I go to bbpress I am NOT logged

still not able to create a group with forum, nothing is updated in bbpress after creating the group, i think its because of cookies but I did ALL as commented so I am REALLY lost ((

[@notme31 Participant 15 years, 6 months ago]

ok, now when i log in in wordpress i am logged in bbpress, but still cant create a group with forums enabled

and now i can say i dont have any idea of what more to try (((

[Inactive 15 years, 6 months ago]

This should really be in the readme, forums are a huge part of social networking, and I will be developing a tightly integrated BuddyPress and bbPress application over the next few months. I’m sure you will see a lot of questions from me, and I look forward to helping out along the way.

[@mindtrotter Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

Funny, I have followed the steps in the integration – and I could not make the Forums appear in Buddypress Groups. I tried a lot but the only solution to my problem (and perhaps NOTME31’s problem also) is just to go to DASHBOARD > Buddypress > Component Setup > and “disable” Buddypress BBForums option, save it and then “enable” it again.

Voila! It worked! No need to use the BBPress Integration plugin nor modify WP-CONFIG and BB-CONFIG.

I am using the latest release of Buddypress, and BBpress rel 1. “Bechet”. My site is at http://www.animejoints.com, although I cared not to go into “deep integration” this time. I am already happy with the BBPress Forum sharing same login as with the Buddypress and Forums are working.

HINT: Simply follow the steps outlined on the first post of this thread.

bbPress Side (First):

1) you have bbpress installed and a new user created on the “bbPress” side which you granted “administrator” rights by the keymaster

2) you copy the “buddypress-enable.php” plugin out of the bp-forums folders and copy it into your /my-plugins/ folder (create if it doesn’t exist) so it is /my-plugins/buddypress-enable.php ****People ask about /bb-plugins/ versus /my-plugins/ and put it in /my-plugins/

3) Enable the plugin through your bbPress administration side for plugins

4) Edit “settings” to enable xmlrpc and pingbacks (both)

5) edit your bb-config.php and just before the closing php call at the bottom of the page put:

$bb->bb_xmlrpc_allow_user_switching = true;

buddypress Side (Second):

6) Go into your main blog dashboard as the “site-admin” and go to the “bbPress Forums” page. Put in the URL of your forum like http://yoursite.com/forums/ and make sure you have the ending slash on that one.

7) Put in the user that you created in step 1 with the bbPress “administration” rights and their password. I never changed the password, just used the random one it sent me, but it is up to you. I usually save it a couple of times to ensure it was entered due to a refreshing bug at time of writing this.

Before you go to your Group Admin Setting to enable Forum, go to BuddyPress> Component Setup > and disable – save – enable BBPress Forums.

[@flynn Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

Hey guys, here’s one for you:

I’ve got BP 1.02, WPMU 2.7.1 (not updating yet :S) and BB alpha 6.

Followed TheEasyButton tutorial to the T. And single sign on works!

However, when creating a group, I still get this message:

Attention Site Admin: Group forums require the correct setup and configuration of a bbPress installation.

And I can’t post to the group forums.

I’m losing my mind here. My Dev server works like a charm, but for the life of me I can’t get the live server to work, and I swear they have the same version / setting info.

Thoughts

http://thegsn.org

[@tiptap Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

Ok, followed this to the letter. and it pretty much works perfectly.

only problem is in the ‘Active Forum Topics’ it shows all my posts, but doesnt recognise who posted it or show my gravatar.

If i few the posts in the actual forum /forum/ it shows who its recognises admin posted it and shows my gravatar

any suggestions?

cheers

[@takeo Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

Please elaborate on step 1 in the first post. “1) you have bbpress installed and a new user created on the “bbPress” side which you granted “administrator” rights by the keymaster”. I’m on my third attempt now from scratch. Pretty aggravated. To put it mildly.

p.s. On my third attempt I got WPMU, BP and BBPress installed successfully… but now I can’t log into the WPMU admin side anymore. I get a bunch of redirects to the login page and then the page fails to load due to too many redirects.

[@takeo Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

Ah. It was a cookie thing. I cleared them all and now I can login. I wasn’t able to get the cookie integration options set properly when I installed bbPress. I’m still confused by step 1 however. Do you need two users? WP Admin and BBPress Admin? Or can you use the same for both? And how do you create the use “on the BBPress” side. Do you do that during installation or after?

p,s, are you aware that on Safari Mac you get a “strong” tag in this forum post editor every time you click in the editor window?

[@rohan_kapoor Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

You can use the same admin account. BTW: I have mastered Deep Integration to the point of making the forum fit into ANY WordPress Theme! Take a look at http://wpmu.zyrot.com/forums/ for a demo. And no, I’m not using Iframes, it’s all themed!

[@takeo Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

Looks good Rohan. It’s kind of a pain that we have to create three themes for a consistent look… a BP home theme… BP member theme… and bbPress theme… but I guess there’s really no way around that.

How did you get the BuddyPress bar to show up on the forums page? Copy/Paste? I haven’t played with that yet. I found that I had to hard code my main nav bar in the forums header template as well. Which kinda bugs me… but that nav will rarely (if ever) change.

Thanks for the answer about the account. I was pretty confused about that.

[@rohan_kapoor Participant 15 years, 5 months ago]

I can show you a few tricks that will make coding your nav bar seem like the long way of doing things. There is a faster way.

Email me: rohan@rohan-kapoor.com

I’ll walk you through it.

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 15 years, 5 months ago]

David Lewis,

Give the BuddyBar for bbPress plugin a try.