Bulletin boards and forums are good old reliable tools to build online communities. There are plenty of open source forum softwares that you can install on your website. However, if you are running a WordPress site then integrating a third party forum with WordPress can be a mess. bbPress is the answer to that problem. In this article, we will show you how to add a forum in WordPress with bbPress.
What is bbPress?
bbPress is a forum software built the WordPress way. It uses your existing WordPress core which makes it really easy to add a forum in WordPress with bbPress. It is extensible, so you can add additional add-on plugins to extend the functionality. bbPress is light-weight and faster than other popular open source forum softwares.
How to install bbPress
bbPress is available as a WordPress plugin. You can install it like you would install any other WordPress plugin. Simply log in to your WordPress admin area and go to Plugins » Add New . Search for bbPress and then select bbPress from results. Install and activate the plugin. Upon activation you will see the welcome screen for bbPress.
Creating a Forum with bbPress in WordPress
Once installed, bbPress adds Forums, Topics and Replies menu items in your WordPress admin.
Click on Forum » New Forum. This will take you to a screen similar to WordPress post edit area. Provide a title for your forum and enter a little description of it. Then press the publish button.
Displaying bbPress Forum in the Front End of WordPress
Now that you have created a few forums, it is time to display those forums on the front end of your WordPress website. Create a new WordPress page. Give this page a title, like Forum, Community, Support Forums, etc. Paste the following shortcode in your page:
[bbp-forum-index]
Turn off comments and trackbacks on this page and then publish it.
Go to Appearance » Menus and add this page to your navigation menu.
Now when a user clicks on this page, it will show your main forum index.
Integrating bbPress with your WordPress Theme
In most cases, you would probably want to open your forum for new registrations. To do that you need to open your website for registrations.
Go to Settings » General, check the box next to “Any one can register” to allow registrations on your website.
Now that your website is open for registration, the first thing that your forum participants would look for is a registration page. To create this simply create a WordPress page, and give it a title, e.g. Register. Add shortcode [bbp-register] and publish the page.
Another page your users would need is the lost password recovery page. Create another WordPress page, give it a title e.g. Lost Password. Add this shortcode to the page [bbp-lost-pass] and publish the page.
bbPress comes with a handful of widgets. Go to Appearance » Widgets to check those widgets. The most important widget that you would need is the (bbPress) Login Widget. Drag and drop Login Widget to your sidebar or any other widget area. Enter the URI(s) for the registration and lost password pages and save the widget.
Now a login form with links to registration and lost password recovery pages will appear in your sidebar. Logged in users would see their usernames and a log out link instead of the form.
Managing bbPress Forum Settings
Unlike other popular forum software, bbPress has a very simplified configuration page. To manage settings for your bbPress forums, go to Settings » Forums. This is the bbPress settings page from where you can control several aspects of your forum.
The first option you would see on Forums Settings page is “Disallow editing after”. Default option for this setting is 5 minutes. This setting allows Forum participants to edit their posts after publishing. After this time they will no longer be able to edit their posts. However, a forum Keymaster or Moderator can over ride this setting.
The second option “Throttle posting every” 10 seconds is basically a forum flood protection measure. It allows you to control after how much time a new post should appear on the forum.
On the settings page you can configure forum and topic slug as well as the number of topics and posts to appear per page. You can also allow users to subscribe to topics or add topics as favorites.
User Roles in bbPress
bbPress comes with five pre-defined roles, each with different capabilities.
1. Keymaster – The website owner or the WordPress administrator is automatically assigned the Keymaster role when they install bbPress. A Keymaster can delete and create forums, can create, edit, delete all posts, topics, forums.
2. Moderators – Users with moderator user role have access to moderation tools, which they can use to moderate forums, topics, and posts.
3. Participants – This is the default user role, participants can create and edit their own topics and posts, they can favorite and subscribe to topics.
4. Spectators – Spectators have a read only access to public forums, topics and posts.
5. Blocked – When a user is blocked all their capabilities are blocked. They can still read publicly viewable topics and posts, but can not participate in the forums.
That is just how easy it is to create a forum in WordPress with bbPress. Ofcourse you can add other functionality by using over 100+ different bbPress plugins.
We hope that this article helped you learn how to add a forum in WordPress and how to install and configure bbPress. If you have any questions, best practice tips for working with bbPress or any other feedback, then please leave a comment below.
Hi
I want to create a forum but I want to use buddy press is it better than bbpress or which theme will be perfect for it and my last question is should I use subdomain for my forum
This article is last updated since 2013 I hope you will write a new one also using other plugins and themes
Please reply
The details above were really user friendly and immensely easy to follow. I have successfully configured my web site using your instructions. Thank you so much for such articles. I would additionally wish to learn how to add user account login and registration on my store or blog page. Waiting to hear from you soon.
Hi Pawan,
For a blog, you can see our article on how to allow users to register on your WordPress site. For online store, you will find the option in your WooCommerce settings where you can ask customers to register before checkout.
Good but i am running entertainment blog before so i want to add a forum page there , please how can i display the forum in my entertainment landing page so people will just click on the forum name then will now refer them to forum where registration or log in will take place
I already have user registration on my site, how can I set up bbpress so my registered users dont have to register again for the forum.
Thanks
Thanks! Huge help! Now let’s see if I can get a community built =)
I can start off by saying, thank you so much for this nice piece of information.
I like bbPress but I love Question2Answer. This is the reason why I am unable to decide which one would be more community driven.
Feature wise I think question2Answer rocks but support and Integration wise bbpress is the best. Could you write your view on this so that I can analyze and make a rightful decision?
Can I place the forum in a members area (page) , this is password protected
Does this plugin is compatible with optimizepress theme?
Thanks
Hi Juan,
It is compatible with all standard compliant WordPress themes. You can also checkout our list of best WordPress themes for bbPress.
Very simple and easy tutorial i have followed all this procedures but if i click the registar button it shows nothing found on the page.
Please how can i add the registration?
Good helpful article – I am looking forward to having a go at it
Hi!
my Page uses WP-Members to limit some Content to registered users only
If i show the forum pages only to “members” – do they need to register to bbPress again to post/create?
thanks
is there a wp plugin that can show thumbnails of post content previews in the admin panel?
I am familiar with the plugin ‘Featured Image Admin Thumb’,but it is not what I need.
I am looking for a similar concept, however I need to preview the actual post content via a thumbnail so I can quickly review actual post content.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Am grateful for the article, God bless you. After following this article to create a forum with bbpress, my register page and lost password page comes empty, What should I do please.
Thanks
The instructions are very clear but registration doesn’t work. If I visit my site and try to register I get the following error:
“Authorization Required
This server could not verify that you are authorized to access the document requested. Either you supplied the wrong credentials (e.g., bad password), or your browser doesn’t understand how to supply the credentials required. ”
I’ve been working on this problem long before I came to this site. I’ve been to bbpress support forums. People say it’s a server issue and to contact my host. I’ve been to my host and they are no help. They referred me to the bbpress forums. I told them I had been to the forums and then they asked me
“Is bbPress a plugin which requires outgoing connection from the server to it’s API?”
I think they asked that question because they knew I wouldn’t know the answer and it would end the conversation. Do you know the answer to their question?
Hi Peter,
No, it does not require an outgoing connection.
Hello. Thank you for this super clear explanation.
Somehow I don’t get the email with my password.
Have I done something wrong ?
And also is it possible to change the language?
Thank you
Hello Jamal,
Did you check the Spam folder? If it isn’t there, then WordPress probably failed to send email. See our guide on how to reset WordPress password using phpmyadmin. Yes you can change language on Settings page inside WordPress admin area.
I’m finding the same issue. I get the admin email saying a new user registered, but the new user never receives their password email to be able to use the site.
Nothing goes into spam.
Hi Sheldon,
For more information, please take a look at our article on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.
I’ve followed the instructions but oddly enough when someone registers they have acces to the wordpress dashboard (and see the black bar above the site). I only want them to have access to the forum. Where did i go wrong??
Thank you for this information. Is there an additional plug-in or way to create forum categories.
Category A
Forum 1
Forum 2
Category B
Forum 3
Forum 4
Thanks for such a well described and insightful post.
Actually it’s hard to build something unique using a theme. I couldn’t sort it out.
A friend of mine showed me a good theme, I tried it out and managed to create something. Turned out that it required a bit more effort to create a good site.
EXCELLENT post. This article made the difference for me. I literally followed it step by step, and got my forum up and running in less than 15 minutes. No video needed, in my opinion.
Hi Heather,
Thanks for the kind words. We are glad you found it help. Don’t forget to sign up for our free newsletter or follow us on Facebook for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
This Article Do not have any Video????
If it has then Please upload it.
This really helped thanks. Eternally grateful. Setting up my forum was a breeze and it was just because of your grand simple and thorough help. Thanks again.
Is there a way we can add the feature for users to include audio and images in forums ?
Very helpful and precise.
Hello,
I am using pilotpress to run a membership site and I would like to include a forum without people having to re-log in (as they have done it via pilotpress). Do you have any suggestion for doing this integration?
Thanks!
Martin
thanks, very helpful
Thanks so much because you really help me, am so much in love with all your posts because the are all helpful and straight to the topic
Nice article. Thanks so much.
please how do I paste the code in the page?
thanks for this article. please if i click on any topic on my forum it usually take me back or rather redirect me to my main home page.
1. Please i have a wordpress blog before now and i want to create forum as a category on the site.. Will that be a good idea?
2. When i choose the option ANYBODY CAN REGISTER, will it not affect my blog too because i am the only one that wants be posting on the blog, while forum anybody can post or register.
For my site I am using woedpress 4.5.1 version and Modern Blogger Pro child theme of Genesis. I have installed and activated bbPress. But bbPress has not added Forums, Topics and Replies menu items in my WordPress admin. So, I can’t make forums.
Please help…..
Is it possible to setup multiple forum pages? E.g one forum page for each admin member?
Thanks for this detailed info! I had a question which is perhaps not yet answered anywhere so far.
I have a website hosted by Hostgator but it’s operated as a custom domain from my earlier blogger interface.
I am interested to use my wordpress.org software which is lying idle in hostagtor to create a forum by using the method explained in the above article.
Kindly advise, would this be possible without having a prior wordpress.org site.
Thanks
Thank you very much for this tutorial. Now i have built my forum. However i am not sure that should i noindex-follow my forum or index and follow my forum?
Do let me know.
how to add theme in bbpress
Thank you for this clear, concise manual for setting up bbPress. Your instructions were far superior to the guide provided on bbPress website. I’ll be reading your blog regularly now.
Glad you found it helpful.
Hi, I installed the forum and it is ok when I use it with my log in, but when I want to register as a new user it shows only an empty page!.
what can I do to solve this issue??
Try updating your permalinks. Go to Settings > Permalinks and click on save changes button without making any changes.
Your post on How To Add a Forum…BBpress was very helpful and quickly got my forum all set up. A couple extra questions:
– As shown, I added both a registration page and a lost password page, and inserted the proper shortcodes, and I added the login widget to my right sidebar. My understanding is that a new visitor to my site who wants to subscribe to & post on the forums, will see a username & login box in the right sidebar. plus the links Register and Lost Password. If they click Register and fill in their choice of User/Pass, will it then automatically be sent to my email for approval & verification?
– AS Keymaster, when I want to start a new topic in one of my forums, I click on that forum title and it takes me to a page with an empty title & text editing box. Is that what subscribed users will see too, so that they may also easily get to start new topics?
— On the Forums index page, how do we get the forum titles in that nice teal-blue color instead of black. It is taking the titles from Forums I created, and the WP text editor allows you to select text color for the content body text, but not for the title box?
I have installed bbPress on my website. I want to allow automatic registration. I clicked on “anyone can register” and set this for “participant” level. However, my website still requires users to enter their name and email address and then wait for an email with a link to a long password, etc. This is too cumbersome. I assume this is the manual sign up. If so, how do I get rid of this? In the automatic registration, can users simply establish their own user name and password and automatically be registered?
Hi, I have it set up but the people that are requesting membership are not getting the emails. plus when I approve them on the backside, they are not showing up under members.
Also, do I need both bbpress and buddy press or just one? and which is the best one.
Julie
For emails please see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending emails issue. bbPress and BuddyPress are both different software. They can work together too. You need to set them up based on your requirements.
Thank you. Which is the better software? also why am i not seeing approved members in the list?
They are two different things that can run separately/independently. bbPress is a forum and BuddyPress is more like social network and discussion. You can have both or just one. I started off with both, but now I am not so sure I need BuddyPress. Can’t answer the other question….since I am just now installing it.
Hi, is it possible to create a forum where user access is only allowed by a certain subscription level defined in the membership rules of a WordPress site. For example a visitor purchases a level 3 subscription and by doing so they now have access to what is effectively a private forum.
Hope that makes sense and thanks in advance.
Hi,
I have followed your instructions and all went well until I published my forum (index) page. The formatting is all wrong. I don’t know if it’s due to my theme or some other reason. For your info., I am using a 3rd party child theme on a Genesis Framework. Also, I have installed the “bbPress Genesis Extend” plugin, but that hasn’t helped.
Thanks,
Doug
You can switch to a default WordPress theme to see if it resolves the issue. If it does, then you may want to contact your theme’s support.
hello admin,i created the forum page succesfully,but when i post a new topic,its doesnt appear in the forum page. Any help?
You also need to create a forum first and then add a topic. The forum index page, displays forums not the topics.
okay thanks,so how can i locate the topic that i have published?
Great forum plugin. Very easy to use, but is there anyway to lock a forum post ?
Why dont you have installed any GOOD comment system…………something SOCIAL
Are there any GOOD/RELIABLE ways to allow forum users the ability to add/embed/play multimedia files…specifically images and audio? I have looked at reviews of rtMedia, but it seems very flaky.
Thanks
Fred
Hi there! I’ve found your site to be very helpful in my discovery of which forum plugin to use. I’ve gone with BBpress…but seeing that it has issues with my template. The only issue is that you are not able to type anything to the topic text area…everywhere else you can. I know it’s my theme because when I change it to the default it works. Any ideas if this is an easy fix or not or do I need to scrap this forum plugin and move on to the next? I appreciate your time. Thank you!
Please contact your theme’s developers and they can help you with that.
i own a website, which is not with wordpress, how do integrate the forum to this website?
You can install WordPress on a subdomain and then use bbPress to create a forum. You can also look at other forum software like phpbb, invision board, etc.
Thank you so much for not presuming I would know anything about forums.
This was such an easy walkthrough and I have managed to create a forum on the site.
Thanks again
Jackie