bbPress Web Hosting

bbPress Web Hosting

bbPress is an internet forum package written in the PHP programming language and available under the GNU General Public License. bbPress is both open source and free software. The project was created by Matt Mullenweg to support users of WordPress. bbPress was created with the same focus as WordPress: a functional and extensible core, coupled with all other capabilities and features delivered through plug-ins. The bbPress forum software is fairly simple and plain with easy to use features, not too complex, easy to administrate, highly customizable, reliable and is packed with some powerful features.

With simplicity as its most positive attribute, the other vital strengths of this software include speed and security, less code, it is open source (forever) and always emphasizes on user’s convenience and security. PHP (version 4.2 or greater) and MySQL (version 4.0 or greater) are the minimal requirements for this forum software to run efficiently. Also, Apache or Litespeed are recommended as the most robust and featureful web servers for running bbPress. However, any server that supports PHP and MySQL will work just as good. The focus behind this forum software is to keep it as uncomplicated as possible while offering powerful features and allowing for add on features through the extensive plug-in system.

A brief outline of its powerful features is listed below to give users an idea of the efficaciousness of this forum software:

1. Fast and Light: To deliver the best experience to its users, the software utilizes less code.
2. Simple Interface: With no complexities to deal with, the simple interface offers a user friendly interface while not compromising on the useful characteristics.
3. Customizable Templates: It offers users the flexibility and control of the forum and they can design it as they like. Plug-ins: To use a plugin, simply create a directory in the main bbPress directory called my-plugins and put the plugin file in it. bbpress does not currently have a plugin activation/deactivation interface like WordPress’. Any .php file in your /my-plugins directory will run. bbPress has a plugin API that functions exactly the same as WordPress’. All the familiar functions such as do_action(), add_filter() and so forth are found in bbPress. Users need to however note that all plug-ins must have a plug-in header.
4. It is highly extensible.
5. Spam protection: A built in Akismet client offers powerful protection against spam.
6. RSS feeds are available.
7. Easy integration with blogs is also available. bbPress integration works well with most recent versions of WordPress in either the 2.0.x series or the 2.2.x series.

Before installing bbPress; users first need to make sure if their servers meets bbPress’ requirements listed above.
The installation process is explained in the following steps:

1. First download the bbPress and then unzip it.
2. Copy config-sample.php to config.php, fill in the necessary details, and upload everything to your web host.
3. Load bb-admin/install.php in the web browser and follow the instructions.
4. If users want Pretty Permalinks, the will need to set them up.

And you are finally done!
Installation of the themes does not require any technical know how either. Users first need to make sure that they have the directory called my-templates/ in bbPress’ root directory. The process simply involves uploading the theme to the server as a new subdirectory in the my-templates/ directory. Now, a theme comprises of three main things which include a style sheet called style.css, a 300×225 screen shot of the theme called screenshot.png and some template files. While designing themes, users need to make note that bbPress has some predefined functions for adding CSS classes to various elements. It is advised to check out how the default templates use alt_class(), post_del_class() and topic_class(). Also, the AJAX scripts used on the topic pages depend pretty much on the markup the templates use and requires the Java Script included in the header file of the default template.
Upgrading bbPress to a newer version does not take much time. However, users are advised to first backup their files and database to be on the safer fence. Secondly, the following files and directories need to be saved and delete the others.

1. htaccess
2. config.php
3. my-plugins/
4. my-templates/

Then comes the step where the user needs to upload the newest version of bbPress. Then log in and visit the admin panel and ascertain that the upgrade to the newest version is done.