Do you want to add a forum to your BuddyPress social community website while using the Reign Theme for bbpress?
Forums are famous for various interests and purposes, including technology discussions, support communities, hobbyist groups, academic and professional exchanges, and more. They provide a platform for people to connect, share knowledge, seek advice, and build online communities around shared interests.
This article will show you how to add bbpress forum on your social community website.
bbPress Setup with Reign Theme
In this article, I am adding a forum feature for my social community website that was created with the BuddyPress plugin and Reign theme. For this setup, I have already Activated the Reign theme.
Step 1
In the WordPress dashboard, go to the “Plugins” menu on the left sidebar. Click on “Plugins” to access the Plugins page. On the Plugins page, you’ll see an “Add New” button at the top. Click on it to go to the Add Plugins page. In the search bar on the Add Plugins page, type “bbPress” and press Enter. WordPress will search for the bbPress plugin in the official WordPress plugin repository. Look for the bbPress plugin in the search results and click the “Install Now” button next to it.
After the installation is complete, the “Install Now” button will change to “Activate.” Click on the “Activate” button to activate the bbPress plugin.
Step 2- Reign Theme For bbpress
Create a forum on your social community website
With bbPress installed and activated, go to “Forums” in your WordPress dashboard.
Click on “New Forum” to create a new forum. Give your forum a title, and description, and assign it to a category if needed.
Apart from this, you can select the type, status, and visibility. And if you want someone else to handle your forum on your behalf, you can also select the moderator.
After setting up the forum on your social community website using BuddyPress and bbPress and publishing it, your members can actively participate by creating their topics and discussions within the forum.
Step 3- Reign Theme For bbpress
Customizing the layout and appearance of your forum typically requires knowledge of HTML and CSS. With the Reign theme, you can easily customize the layout within a few clicks.
To customize your forum layout you can go to the WordPress dashboard > Appearance > Customize
After going on the customize option select forum and click on it.
When you access the WordPress Customizer and navigate to the “Forum” option, you may indeed see two additional options: “Archive” and “Single”.
Archive
The “Archive” option allows you to customize the layout and appearance of the forum archive page. Customizing the “Archive” settings in the WordPress Customizer enables you to control the layout of the page including the sidebar.
Single
The “Single” option is related to customizing the layout and appearance of individual forum topics or discussions. When a user clicks on a specific forum, they are taken to a single-forum page, where they can topics and discuss them. Customizing the “Single” settings allows you to control the layout of this page.
So Select the “Archive” option and customize your forum page layout
From here you can customize your forum page. For example, you can remove or add sidebars from the page or you can use both the right and left sidebars.
For a forum point of view, we have three listing layouts. Default, Cart, and Cover. These layouts typically refer to how forums are displayed by default when users visit the forum page. These layout options can vary according to the themes. With the Reign theme, you will get these three layouts that help you to make your social community website more attractive.
Default Layout
For the default layout, your forums will be seen in a list layout. In a list layout, all forums are presented in a vertical list. Each forum is represented as a separate item on the page.
The list layout is a practical choice for forums with a focus on providing a straightforward and efficient way for users to access discussions. It’s particularly suitable when your forum has a substantial amount of content and you want to enable users to quickly find and engage in topics of their interest.
Card Layout
For the card layout if you have set the featured image of your forums they are going to display along with the title and description. If you didn’t set up the featured image it will be displayed like this.
The card layout is known for its ability to create an appealing and visually engaging presentation of forums and topics. It’s an effective choice when you want to capture users’ attention and encourage them to explore discussions further, especially when you use eye-catching featured images and concise descriptions.
Cover Layout- Reign Theme For bbpress
For the cover layout, you will see text over the featured image and if you have no featured image it shows only the background.
The cover layout is characterized by its use of large, full-width background imagery with overlaid text, creating a visually impactful and immersive presentation. It’s an excellent choice when you want to make a strong visual impression, especially when you have carefully selected featured images that complement the forum or topic content. When no featured image is available, it can still create a simple background with text overlay.
Also Read: 15 Best WordPress Forum Plugins free
Step 4- Reign Theme For bbpress
Till here we customized the forum page layout but we can customize single forum pages as well with the Reign theme.
Within the “Forum” section, you’ll typically see two sub-options: “Archive” and “Single.” To customize the layout and appearance of individual forum pages, click on the “Single” option.
From here you also get all the options for the page layout.
Also Read: The Advantages Of Having Your Community Forum Platform
Default functionality of the forum
The default functionality of a forum typically includes a set of core features and capabilities that allow users to engage in discussions, share information, and interact with one another. These core functionalities can vary depending on the forum software or plugin you are using.
bbpress plugin for creating forums typically provides subscription options for forums and forum topics.
Users can subscribe to individual forums to receive notifications about updates, new replies, or changes to those specific discussions.
But when you open a forum topic you have two options there, “favorite” and “subscribe”.
So you can mark your favorite topic and also you can subscribe to a topic level.
As an admin, you can only create forums on your social community website and community members can create the topics within the forums. Every member of your community including you will get a forum option on the profile menu.
Here you can see:
- Topics that you have started.
- Option where you can see how many replies have you created on other topics?
- Engagement, see who is engaging with your topics and on which topics you are engaging.
- Favorites, see how many topics you have marked as favorites.
- The last option is where you can see how many forums and topics you have subscribed to.
For Example, if you want to check subscriptions then click the option and you will see the list of forums you have subscribed to so far as well as topics.
You even change the layout of these options pages just like a forum page and a single page from the Archive option in customization.
Conclusion on Reign Theme For bbpress
Integrating bbPress forums with the Reign theme on your BuddyPress social community website offers a feature-rich platform for building and nurturing online communities. It provides customization options to tailor the forum layout to your preferences and fosters user engagement through subscription features. With these tools in hand, you can create an interactive and engaging online space for your community members to connect, share knowledge, and build relationships around common interests.
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How to Add Forum to WordPress Website with bbPress
