Joomla or WordPress Forum Integration

May 16, 2008 8:54 PM

Integrating a forum into either Joomla 1.5 or WordPress 2.5.1

I'm trying to add a message board to a site. I installed Joomla 1.5 with the thought that it would be easy to add a forum, with the user functionality in Joomla integrated with the user login in the forum. I installed the SMF Forum, and the bridge which is supposed to link it to Joomla. (I followed the instructions directly from a Joomla book). A few PHP errors later, I found this. Apparently the bridge no longer works for Joomla 1.5?

So I got to thinking that Joomla is really overkill for the kind of site I'm building anyway. WordPress will do the job fine for the main pages. But I still need a forum. After googling around, I find either outdated tutorials, or people asking my same questions on forums with no responses.

Questions:
- Am I missing something obvious about Joomla and forum installation, or is it really as difficult as I'm finding it?

- If I need to go the WordPress route, is there a clear, up to date tutorial out there?

- Which forums integrate best with WordPress (Vanilla, SMF, PHPBB, etc...)?

- Is it possible to find a theme/template that will span WordPress and the forum?

What I'm reeeeeally looking for is someone to come along and say "Yeah, I tried this and had these problems, here's how I fixed them, and here's a tutorial from this year that walks you through it."

But of course any advice/links will help I'm sure. Thanks.

posted by eightball to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Are you perhaps looking at the Wordpress 'solution' from the Joomla angle? Why even "link" the Forum to the wordpress site, other than visually? Do you have that many ediitor/contributing users that it even matters?
posted by SirStan at 9:20 PM on May 16, 2008

The obvious answer for integration is bbpress.
posted by PueExMachina at 9:43 PM on May 16, 2008

Why even "link" the Forum to the wordpress site, other than visually?

The main reason people do this is so Wordpress Commenter logins and Forum Contributor logins are the same.

I don' t have any direct experience with what you're after, but I was a member of a forum that had Wordpress and Vanilla integrated. It looks like there's instructions over here on how to manage that.
posted by alan at 9:43 PM on May 16, 2008

SirStan, I see what you're saying and perhaps I am thinking about it like that now. And I realize that if I end up using WordPress I probably will just link to the forum (hyperlink-wise, not functionality-wise).

I'm trying Joomla right now because I liked the idea of having a login on the homepage. I might add features to the non-forum part of the site later that would require the user login stuff. So I'd want the user to then be able to go to the forum and not have to log in again.

So thats how I'm thinking I guess.
posted by eightball at 9:44 PM on May 16, 2008

Most Joomla to forum bridges have some quirks because they are trying to replicate the users between the two software packages. I have to use a SMF forum on Joomla and it drives pretty much everyone batty. If you do continue down this route, I would recommend FireBoard since it's not a bridge, it's a forum written for use only with Joomla and it natively uses the Joomla users code and data. Right now, it's not 1.5 native, but it works fine with 1.0 Legacy Mode turned on. (Side note: the legacy mode extension often ends up in the second page of extensions.) There's an alpha version that works in 1.5 natively and still works with 1.0! Amazing!

For Wordpress, I've generally linked to another forum product and learned to live with the fact that comment logins weren't the same as forum logins. But I haven't really worked on this problem nearly as much, so there may be a simpler solution.
posted by advicepig at 5:39 AM on May 17, 2008

Any reason why Drupal's not in the running? With some theming and add-on modules yo can make Drupal's forums pretty sexy, and it's fully integrated, no bridge necessary.
posted by thedanimal at 7:53 AM on May 17, 2008

Seconding Fireboard for Joomla.

I currently run a Joomla site with an associated forum that is using phpbb3. I tried some bridges that were a near disaster... in hindsight I wish I'd used fireboard from the beginning before my users got used to the current forum setup.
posted by matty at 8:43 AM on May 17, 2008

The obvious answer for integration is bbpress.

I can't agree with that. BBPress has incomplete integration with WordPress, doesn't offer sophisticated administration, and is slow to be developed. It's a C- forum, and that's being generous.

What you want is Simple:Press Forum. Its development is fast, its backend is mature, the community is large, and the integration with WordPress is superb. It's a B+ forum.

These reviews come from having installed, modified, administered, and used both forums.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:26 AM on May 17, 2008 [1 favorite]