How to Add a Forum in WordPress Using bbPress
Adding a forum in WordPress is a good way to build online communities. While there are many third-party tools you can use to integrate forum with WordPress most of them a mess. This is where bbPress comes in. This is forum software that runs on top of WordPress. The best thing about this software is that it is extensible which means you can add functionality using plugins. It is lightweight and faster and easier to use than most forum software.
What you will need
The first thing you obviously need is a WordPress website. Second you need to install and activate bbPress software. It is available as a plugin. Once the software is installed it will add Topics, Replies and Forums menu items in the admin area.
Creating a forum
To add a Forum in WordPress you need to go to Forums>>Add New from the admin area. This will open to a screen similar to WordPress post edit area. Enter the title and description for it. Once you are done click ‘publish’. You can create as many different forums as you want.
Displaying the bbPress Forum in the Front End of WordPress
Once the forum is created you need to display it on the front end of your website. To do so you need to create a new WordPress page and give it a title. The title can be Community, Forum, Support Forums or any other name you want. Once you are done paste the below code in the page:
[bbp-forums-index]
Once you are done pasting publish the page. You can then visit the page from a different browser tab to preview it. Now that the forum page is working fine, you need to help users find it. To do so you have to add it to the navigation menu. Go to Appearance>>Menus and then add the forum page to the navigation menu. Visitors will now be able to access the forum index page through the link in the navigation menu.
Integrate bbPress with your WordPress theme
You may want to open the forum for new registrations. To do so you have to open your WordPress website for registrations. Go to Settings>>General and then click the box next to the ‘Any one can register’. This will allow users to register. Save the changes. Next you need to add a registration page.
To add a registration page you have to start by creating a new WordPress page. Name it ‘Register. You then need to add the following code in the page and then click publish.
[bbp-register]
You can go ahead and preview the registration page. A registration form will be displayed for all visitors that are not registered. You should also add a ‘lost password recovery’ page. You need to create a new WordPress page and name it ‘Lost Password’. Add the below short code in the page and publish.
[bbp-lost-pass]
The last thing you need to do is add login form. There is a beautiful bbPress widget for creating a login page. Go to Appearance>>Widgets and then drag and drop the Login Widget to the sidebar or your preferred area. Provide the URL to the registration and lost password pages you created earlier and save the changes. You are done.