1.Quicktags

yeah you will surely need this . Since bbpress doesnt come with WYSIWYG editor, this plugin add a toolbar above the editor enabling user to insert tags.

2.Allow Images Plugin

This plugin has to be installed if you want images to appear on your posts. For image tag in quicktag to work , you will need this plugin.

3.Allow Emoticons

You can use this file and rename it to .php and move it to my-plugins folder to get your wordpress smiles get integrated with bbpress. wordpress smileys list is here. . You just need to change the path of the smiley folder in this php file to direct it to your own smiley folder.

4. Google Sitemap

This helps in Google to help index your forum.

5.Avatar Upload

Avatar upload plugin allows users to upload there avatar.

6.Post Count

Counts user posts.

7.Member list

It displays all the members , registered on your forum.

8.Simple Onlinelist

Displays the online users in the forum.

9. You tube in BBpress

This plugin will allow you to embed you tube and other objects in your posts. Currently only moderator will be able to embed. You will need remove one line of code to make it availalbe for others also.

10. Limit Latest discussion

Limit latest discussion topic based on freshness.

Do you Know ?

If you own a blog powered by WordPress 2.1.x, then bbpress is the best solution for you for integrating wordpress with BBpress. There are some ways you can even extend your forum to use the wordpress theme, which i am not much aware of . I tried it once and messed up with my wordpress theme also. So be careful unless you are sure of what you are doing.

Advantage of bbpress over other forum tools like phpbb, vbulletin etc etc :

1. Its different : Yeah its different from the fourms running all across the web. I am a memeber of lots of forum , and mostly all run on the same phpbb. And finally they will so different from your blog. Tags comes inbuilt and provide faster and easier option to the users.
2. Customization: Customization is the biggest advantage of bbpress forum. You can make it work your way . If you are good at css and php , you can really make it do wonders. Even if you are not a expert in this, no need to worry , you have themes to work according your way.
3. Open source : You get all the files along with bbpress, edit it and use it your way. It comes under customization only.
4. Extremely light weight and Efficient : BBpress is extremely light and efficient. WordPress forum is running on BBpress and has around 100,000 users and nearly 500,000 posts. Still it works with speed.
5. Extremely extendible : BBpress is extremely extensible with plugins. If you are good at writing plugins, and have written more plugins for wordpress , You can easily modify them for BBpress and they will work for sure .
6. Integration options with WordPress : BBpress can be very easily integrated with wordpress. Once integrated , you can share data between wordpress and bbpress. For ex: You can display lastest discussion topics from BBpress in your wordpress and vice versa …
7. Other Features : It has got spam protection , Rss feeds , and simple interface. BBpress caption says it all. Fast Easy and Elegant

Limitations of bbpress :

A coin always has two sides. There are few limitations also (for the time being) :

1. Its new : Yeah , BBpress is new. It was released somewhere around October’2006 and still under the developement phase.
   
2. No WYSIWYG built in editor : Yeah there is no built in What You See Is What You Get editor. At times you will need to write Html code to get your things working. You can use plugins called Quicktags or get a third partly editor but, once you post some tags not identified by BBpress , you will get the code displayed. You should have some kowlege of Html atleast .
3. Not much Html Code supported : Tags like img , object (for you tube) etc are not supported. You can get plugins and get these tags supported, but basic properties of these tags wont be supported. For ex: I installed image plugin to display images on BBPress, but it doesnt identify Height and width property of the image tag.
4. Dashboard not much customized : Admin Dashboard doest have basic options like Theme editor , Plugin editor etc.

These limitations will be getting fixed in near future. I will be posting FAQ’s in wordpress installations and plugins for wordpress in next post .

more on bbpress at www.bbpress.org

Do you Know ?

1. Mozilla firefox
2. Firebug
3. Web Developer toolbar

firebug and developer tool bar are firefox extentions. They will make your work with css very easy if you know a little about it. It will be even helpful in stealing some css design from other websites .

You might have noticed the new link at the top right corner of the blog .

This is the forum i was working on , and am able to complete it nearly 70% . Forum is live now and user and register and log in. The forum is powered by bbpress. You can say it as the forum for bbpress. Considering the fact that most of the people using WordPress are not commercial, bbpress is the perfect option for having a forum.

I always wanted to have a forum which I can easily integrate in wordpress. And bbpress is the solution.

It has got most of the functionalities of the smiliar to wordpress. You have plugins , themes , open source , full customization etc etc.

Read in my next article more about bbpress.

Do you Know ?

I wanted this forum not to be just another forum , but a forum with different look and as easy to handle as wordpress and hence i did a little bit of Googling and encountered something called BBPress . This one really impressed me with its different look . I am a member of so many forums but mostly all of them are powered by either Phpbb or Vbulletin. And they were even difficult to customize and also it was just like

one more forum

So , finally i decided on bbpress , but again I was stumped coz i was not able to install it on my local system and using dreamhost’s webftp to customize made my webserver go down again and again. But finally I was able to do what i always dreamt of .

A forum of my own that too Powered By BB Press.

So finally

Tecfre forum

is live , but mostly i will say its in Beta stage as i am not using any SEO for this forum , so I need to add that and some other things to be done. It took me around more than 4 days to get my forum in a condition in which i can launch it somehow .

I am very very bad at programming in php , and dont even have a single feel of learning it , but still i have to do it . The download link you see at the top menu is going to be scrapped very very soon and forum link is going to come up there . Moreover , since i have implemented the avatar plugin, I am currently trying to get a plugin or something else which can get me a page where i can display the avatar’s of the latest 20 users who have registered or updated.

So just want things to get working as sooon as possible so that i can again be on the track and get my forum and blog working at the same time .

So dont forget to visit tecfre forums and get yourself registered .

Do you Know ?