bbPress To Become More Of A WordPress Plugin Instead?!

[Ryan]

Does this confirm that I was not crazy when I published this poll?

http://www.wptavern.com/listener-pol...rdpress-plugin

:D

I think most of the commenter's (including me) hadn't realised that the plugin could use WordPress itself to run it hence so many negative views on the concept when you posted that.

[andrea_r]

If new steps in bbpress include it pulling in the WP theme automagically, that will be a huge improvement :)

[chipbennett]

As long as it doesn't add to the PHP memory usage of my WordPress install, I think the other benefits would outweigh the decision to keep it standalone.

I do, though, think that it is sad that there is no interest anymore in developing the best, lightweight forum application available. Somehow, I think requiring all of the WP headers will be non-trivial with respect to resource requirements - but, hopefully I'm wrong.

[Mark McWilliams]

Ah well, looks like that's settled then, plugin it is!! ... Although I will still try and argue my point, and like I have stated a few times already in the thread, I'm happy either way I just can't see how it'd work fully! - Think it's safe to say though, I'm NOT the only one who would mind it staying a standalone product, but do remember I'm happy either way! http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/bbpr...script-1292009

[Jeffro]

I'd like to see the BuddyPress way of doing things with bbPress where as, a bbPress plugin is created for WordPress that gives you the option of pointing towards an already established bbPress installation and you just use the integration parts of the plugin between the two systems or, you use the plugin to install bbPress as a component just like BuddyPress does it. So keep the stand alone project going but also develope a kick ass plugin that can serve as a forum or most of the components of it but it's biggest strength is ease of deep integration between the two systems.

It would be pretty awesome to see bbPress themes have sidebars with cool forum widgets. That is something not a lot of forum software projects would be able to gloat about. Usually, plugins for forums are cumbersome, require configuration and hacks to the theme or skin for the forum. It would be a killer feature to be able to add functionality like widgets to a forum and have them display above the forum, in the footer of the forum, give the forum a sidebar on the index page, etc.

[ianstewart]

With custom taxonomies and post types now available it wouldn't surprise me if someone writes a clean 'Forum' plugin for WordPress that would amount to the same thing as a bbPress plugin.

[chipbennett]

I'd like to see the BuddyPress way of doing things with bbPress where as, a bbPress plugin is created for WordPress that gives you the option of pointing towards an already established bbPress installation and you just use the integration parts of the plugin between the two systems or, you use the plugin to install bbPress as a component just like BuddyPress does it. So keep the stand alone project going but also develope a kick ass plugin that can serve as a forum or most of the components of it but it's biggest strength is ease of deep integration between the two systems.

The problem with this strategy, though, is that you would essentially have two different development tracks: one with the bb_ database, and one with the wp_ database. If I'm understanding correctly, the advantage of bbPress being a WP plugin would be that bbPress would then reside in/take its data from the WP database. A standalone bbPress, on the other hand, would require its own database (tables).

(I think that was the thinking behind BackPress - to facilitate the integration between two different databases.)

It would be pretty awesome to see bbPress themes have sidebars with cool forum widgets. That is something not a lot of forum software projects would be able to gloat about. Usually, plugins for forums are cumbersome, require configuration and hacks to the theme or skin for the forum. It would be a killer feature to be able to add functionality like widgets to a forum and have them display above the forum, in the footer of the forum, give the forum a sidebar on the index page, etc.

To be sure, there are a lot of advantages to having bbPress baked into WordPress!

[Ryan]

With custom taxonomies and post types now available it wouldn't surprise me if someone writes a clean 'Forum' plugin for WordPress that would amount to the same thing as a bbPress plugin.

That's exactly what Matt is suggesting doing with bbPress. Or did I misunderstand something?

[Ryan]

@Mark McWilliams - what specifically do you not like about it being a plugin/theme for WordPress?

I can't see how adding an extra plugin to a WordPress installation is much harder/different than just installing bbPress.

... I'm NOT the only one who would mind it staying a standalone product, but do remember I'm happy either way! http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/bbpr...script-1292009

Most of the comments in that topic are from people who haven't clicked that there will be no real difference in how the system works if it was ported to WordPress.

[Ryan]

As long as it doesn't add to the PHP memory usage of my WordPress install, I think the other benefits would outweigh the decision to keep it standalone.

It shouldn't make any difference at all. Unlike when you do a deep integration with bbPress which basically adds the two softwares together and hence sucks up a lot of resources.

I guess there might be a slight increase due to an extra custom taxonomy, but I would assume no more than adding support for tags in WordPress did.

Somehow, I think requiring all of the WP headers will be non-trivial with respect to resource requirements - but, hopefully I'm wrong.

It would require no more resources than WordPress itself does. After all, it would be just plain old WordPress.





I think a lot of people are not realising how this would work. It WOULD work as a standalone system just like bbPress currently does. The only difference is that instead of installing one product, you install a different product and chuck a plugin in it to switch it to "forum mode".

I think there are better ways of handling things than Matt's "shortcode" ideas. But that stuff will presumably be hammered out in time.