Forum Plugin is Good But it Needs a Theme

I like the fact that the forums plugin is internal to WPMU.

I do not want to install bbpress.

But I do want my forum to look like the bbpress edublog forum – that is cool.

I know, that the forums plugin is internal to the theme I am using.

Is it possible to provide some CSS code help on formatting the forum to look way better within any theme?

Cheers

John

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:51:21

drmike
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A link would be helpful. Gotta admit though that that’s probably something you;re going to have to do yourself or contract out. I’m not big on doing CSS and considering that you;re asking to dupe another site and software, that’s not something that’s going to take just a few minutes.
johnnymestizo
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Is forums plugin powerful enough to be a fully fledges forum system for say, the edublogs website?
johnnymestizo
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http://gshock.tradr.com/forum/
johnnymestizo
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For the sake of documentation….

from within the forum post i have been able to use

UL and LI html tags

A HREF tags for links

cant use

H1 header title tag

SPAN CLASS tags
johnnymestizo
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Sweet

When u post you can use LI ALIGN=LEFT so everything is not centered when u write a list with bullets
drmike
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Is forums plugin powerful enough to be a fully fledges forum system for say, the edublogs website?

Honest answer: We don;t use it. We use simplepress on our installs:

http://simple-press.com

The forum plkugin from here is for simple forums without a lot of features. Simpre press gives you more features although I wouldn’;t call it fully featured either. I wouldn;t call bbpress fully featured but simplepress is probably the closest thing without going over to somehting like phpbb.

And simplepress does themes as well. :slight_smile:

Hope this helps,

-drmike
johnnymestizo
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Thanks for the feedback dr mike.

Let explain my situation.

I want each child blog of my wpmu to have a basic forum.

I was hoping wpmudev forums plugin would satisfsy the following:

– be integrated in the same wordpress SQL database

– be integrated into the existing wordpress theme installed on the blog

– use the same login in the wpmu network for making forum posts

So far it looks good

Just a bit of aesthetic work to be done

Cheers

John
Mason
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Cool John! Glad it’s working for ya.

It’s meant to be a very stripped-down plugin used the way you’re describing here. As you’ve discovered you’re able to add the aesthetic through some good ole CSS styling.

Thanks!
johnnymestizo
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Thanks mason.

I have created a full blown WPMU user integrated forum at the main site.

http://tradr.com/forums/

Then on the child sites created the stripped down forum…

http://gshock.tradr.com/forum/

i still would like to make the forum plugin have little helper buttons for links, bold, headers, lists.. can I suggest that at some forum plugin suggestion page?

Please, let me know if my tradr home page is too much the same as EDUBLOGS.. lol

I will change it over time.

Cheers,

Johnny
drmike
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Had a couple of thoughts.

I know on our installs, we do a plugin that loads a css file sidewide. We’ve taken all of the plugin css out of the plugins and just put it all in one place. You could do something like that.

Of if you do one of the css editors, write up a FAQ post with suggested css styles and let endusers add it in themselves.

Just a couple of thoughts.
johnnymestizo
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Where is the css file that has all plugin classes in ?
drmike
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The plugin files. You have to cut and paste them out of there. We then have a simple plugin hooked into wp_head that load the css file.

I’ll dig it out later in a bit. Have to relocate shortly.
Mason
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That’d be interesting to see, drmike. I’m sure other folks would be interested as well.

Thanks!
drmike
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Fairly simple:
```
<?php



function load_plugin_css() {

?>

<style type="text/css" media="screen">

@import url( http://myinstall.tld/plugin.css );

</style>

<?php

}



add_action('wp_head', 'load_plugin_css');



?>
```
plugin.css is in the root of the install and just contains all of the public side css stripped out of the plugin files.

Cuts down on the number of includes within plugins since seems like most of them are adding in css. Also a decent method of double checking to see if any of them use the same class/id names.

Hope that makes sense.
johnnymestizo
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I believe that each child site should have a powerful forum.

I like bbpress as it is powerful and currently uses the same database.

However I can’t find documentation on

1. How many bbpress installs per db you can have

2. Can I have one forum per child blog in one bbpress install. But only when u are at the child blog URL will that forum be visible? Same sort of filtering system. And a way to embed that forum in a child blog only.

I think option 2 is way better. I think if i did 1 it would take forever to setup and each bbpress install would have a different table prefix.

Has anyone seen this done before?

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Cheers

John
drmike
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I believe that each child site should have a powerful forum.

I thought you wanted a basic forum. :slight_smile:

I like bbpress as it is powerful and currently uses the same database.

Your going to have to wait on that. Currently bbpress is sitewide only or, if you use buddypress, for group use. My understanding is that bbpress is being reworked as a plugin that may be usable on a per blog basis. Not sure where they’re heading with it.

Automattic was going to develop bbpress into something to run along side wpmu but they turned it into a commercial operation.
johnnymestizo
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Not going with Talkpress. I dont get it. They want 1000’s of dollars for a forum solution?

I like bbpress. So I have embedded my bbpress forum using Embed bbPress plugin within my modified (new page template) theme.

Why?

– User integration between wordpress and bbpress

– Integration into theme (nearly)

– SEO of child theme page and wpmu main site forum page

– Powerful/flexible forum

Anyways I am happy!

Johnny
Mason
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Nice choice Johnny! We use bbPress here, so we’re also big fans. It’s not got the same love and attention as other WordPress-related projects, but I think that’s gonna change this next year and we’ll see some awesome improvements.

Glad you found a solution that works for ya!

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