The next installation in the bbPress 1.0 alpha series has been released. bbPress 1.0 alpha 2 introduces new features and fixes most of the issues raised by testers from the previous release.
A lot of the features were covered in a previous post. You can view the changes in bbPress between 1.0-alpha-1 and 1.0-alpha-2, as well as the changes that have been made to BackPress between revision 109 and 161.
The XML-RPC functionality now built into bbPress 1.0 alpha has made possible a new plugin for WordPress called “bbPress Live“. Currently this plugin can grab a list of forums and latest topics for display on a WordPress blog. Two configurable widgets are provided to pop the information into sidebars. Future versions of the plugin will allow WordPress posts to be copied to a bbPress forum, much like the bbSync plugin does for earlier versions of bbPress. The difference is that bbPress Live does not require the bbPress and WordPress sites to be on the same server, as all interaction is via XML-RPC calls rather than direct database queries.
Over the coming weeks we will be releasing a series of 1.0 alpha versions for download.
The more adventurous among you may want to help out with testing these alpha versions. Probably the best thing to do is create a duplicate version of your installation (including a duplicate database) and then test there.
We would appreciate help with people looking for issues with upgrading, the user interface and any bugs in the new admin interface.
You can download the alpha releases via the download page.
You can use trac to report bugs as you would with the normal release. Please remember to add the version number to any new tickets.
I (Sam Bauers) will be speaking about bbPress at WordCamp UK in Birmingham this weekend.
I’ll be going through how to integrate bbPress (0.9.0.2) with WordPress (2.5.1) as well as talking a little about where bbPress is heading at the moment.
There is lots of other great stuff going on, full details are available via their blog.
Or just buy tickets here.
I hope to see some bbPress users there!
There have been several changes at bbpress.org over the last couple weeks.
First off, the content of this site has been updated substantially. There is now somewhat more thorough documentation, and a more fleshed out about page.
Second, bbPress’ code has been made just that much more pluggable and convenient by syncing several of its core functions with those of WordPress.
Third, Bryan Veloso has whipped up some stylin’ new style for the bbPress default theme. People expect great things from Bryan, and, amazingly, he just keeps raising their expectations. Tips on how to create your own themes can be found in our Customization Documentation.
Fourth, the bbPress Trac has been moved to http://trac.bbpress.org/. The tickets have all been cleaned up to make way for…
Lastly, the imminent release of bbPress 0.72. Expect an announcement and some forums (no!) here on bbpress.org within the next couple of days.
We’ve now gone around the site, swept up the corners and shined the mantel. If you visited when things first launched you’ll notice everything is tidier now. Please take a look around! The forums are already starting to buzz.
I’m really excited about getting bbPress out in the public with its first public release. Michael has been doing great work and I think today, just as two years ago when I first wrote bbPress, the forum arena is in dire need of some fresh air.
bbPress is also technically pretty fun if you’re a geek. It’s how I would’ve written WordPress if I could go back in time with everything I know now. The code is clean, fast, consistent, and extensible.
Many of you will remember the dark days of the bbPress Trac. For several months it was getting hit by spammers multiple times a day.
Matt put a stop to new spam a couple of months ago, but there was still a huge amount of garbage blocking up our ticketing system. All of that is now gone. Well, I’m sure I missed some here and there.
This daunting task would have been completely impossible were it not for the following three things.
To those of you who didn’t find the last post quite as exciting as I did, perhaps you’ll appreciate what the new architecture allows when you hear about its first feature: Customizable RSS feeds.
Users can specify a custom set of topics from which their personal feed will draw recent posts. Currently, users can specify a maximum of 40-100 topics (the exact number more or less depends on the total number of topics in your forums) to follow. If a user adds too many topics, the first ones added will get bumped off the list.
You can check it out by visiting your user profile in the most recent copy of bbPress (and, yes, better upgrading scripts are on the list!).
I just wanted to note that now bbPress can completely and seamlessly integrate and share a user system with any number of bbPress forums, and any number of WordPress or WordPress MU blogs.