bbPress To Become More Of A WordPress Plugin Instead?!

[Brad]

Ryan,

So if I understand your last comment correctly I would need 2 installs of WordPress if for example I ran a local news site based on WordPress and then wanted to implement a forum for it.

I couldn't simply activate a bbpress plugin on my WP news site as it would transform that install into a bbpress forum.

Is that correct?

[chipbennett]

Ryan,

So if I understand your last comment correctly I would need 2 installs of WordPress if for example I ran a local news site based on WordPress and then wanted to implement a forum for it.

I couldn't simply activate a bbpress plugin on my WP news site as it would transform that install into a bbpress forum.

Is that correct?

No, you would be able to have a bbPress forum alongside a WordPress blog, using the same WordPress installation and database.

What Ryan was talking about was a clean, standalone forum install: one would install WordPress, but would "de-select" the "blog" functionality and run it as only a forum.

[Brad]

Personally I would prefer to keep my website and a forum separate from each other. I would never want my forum (if it became popular) to slow down and use up the resources of my site simply because it integrates the user base.

I do like the general idea of bbpress becoming a plugin if that means it can take advantage of an existing WP theme. Less work to do.

[wpmuguru]

Once the multi-blog capability of MU is rolled into WP, the potential will be there to slice and dice the WP install into pretty well anything between closely linked or completely separate functionality.

That's the reason why I think the canonical/core plugin route is the best one for bbPress. bbPress will gain access to a myriad of functionality.

[Ryan]

Ryan,

So if I understand your last comment correctly I would need 2 installs of WordPress if for example I ran a local news site based on WordPress and then wanted to implement a forum for it.

I couldn't simply activate a bbpress plugin on my WP news site as it would transform that install into a bbpress forum.

Is that correct?

That is what I originally suggested, but the others thought that a better approach would be to roll new functionality in, and utilize a different taxonomy system instead. This way you could either have just a forum, or a forum and a blog/static site or whatever other concotion you wanted all running off the same WP installation.

What Ryan was talking about was a clean, standalone forum install: one would install WordPress, but would "de-select" the "blog" functionality and run it as only a forum.

Yup.

Personally I would prefer to keep my website and a forum separate from each other. I would never want my forum (if it became popular) to slow down and use up the resources of my site simply because it integrates the user base.

You can scale WordPress beyond a single server, so I assume that wouldn't be a major problem. Or you could simply run them as two separate installs just like is done at the moment.

[Brad]

That makes the most sense to me. For example I might want to have my forum in maintenance mode while cleaning up things yet keep the main site online. Perhaps the proposed plugin will somehow accomplish that.

Or you could simply run them as two separate installs just like is done at the moment.

[chipbennett]

My primary questions at this point are:

1) How will data migration (from bb_ to wp_ tables) take place? I assume some sort of import mechanism will be provided for existing bbPress forums?

2) Theming: how much modification will be required for existing bbPress theme template files? Hopefully the bbPress tags will remain the same; having learned the ropes once, I don't really relish re-learning too much.

[Jeffro]

I think it's a bit too early in the game for asking questions like that but they are valid none the less.

[Ryan]

My primary questions at this point are:

1) How will data migration (from bb_ to wp_ tables) take place? I assume some sort of import mechanism will be provided for existing bbPress forums?

2) Theming: how much modification will be required for existing bbPress theme template files? Hopefully the bbPress tags will remain the same; having learned the ropes once, I don't really relish re-learning too much.

Presumably if it was a standalone forum, then when you transitioned, you would replace bbPress with WordPress, then when you installed the bbPress plugin it could give you an option to tick a box which allowed you to enter your old bbPress info. and it could then convert it all over for you, much like how WordPress does database changes on upgrading (except this time you would need to enter in the database info. for your own bbPress install.

Or maybe you could leave the bbPress install and just write WP over the top, then it could find the bb-config.php file and work it all out automatically. That could get a little messy though as you would have WordPress and old bbPress files intermingled together.

There's probably other routes I haven't thought of too.

Basically, the conversion shouldn't be a problem. There's lots of ways to make it work fairly seamless. The bigger problem is that themes and plugins would not be able to upgrade.



Some of this would depend too, on whether it was done evolutionary rather than revoltionary. Personally I'm a fan of the revolutionary approach as I think bbPress needs a good kick in the pants to get it back on track to being a worthy replacement tool for phpBB, vBulletin, Vanilla and SMF forums.

[Len]

Initially I wasn't crazy about the idea of turning bbPress into a plugin but the more I think about it the more I like it.