1. It allows users to log in via multiple sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Open Id, Yahoo and Disqus itself

2. It allows users to track all their comments made across multiple sites, at a single place

3. When users manage their comments through Disqus and / or log into Disqus via one of their social networking accounts, the comment they make also gets published in their social networking feed resulting in greater propagation of the source post where the comment was made

4. Incredibly easy and smooth integration with wordpress

Recently I learnt about a forum software by name bbpress which can integrate well with wordpress blogs. I decided to squeeze time out of my schedule to try this software and write about it.

bbPress is a very easy to use forum or bulletin board software from the creators of wordpress. To quote their website:

“bbPress is focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed. We’re keeping things as small and light as possible while still allowing for great add-on features through our extensive plugin system.”

This article will cover installation of bbpress for a wordpress blog and its deep integration with wordpress blog such that the blog and the forum share common logins, cookies and user databases. Make a note of the versions used before you proceed to read the installation/integration tutorial:

bbPress version: 1.0.2
WordPress version: 2.8.9

bbPress download and server setup

- As a first step you need to download bbpress from here. Unzip and rename the folder to what ever you like. Whatever name you choose will also become a part of your forum URL in the following format:

<wordpress blog URL>/<bbPress folder name>

- Now upload this folder under you main wordpress directory on the server where you are hosting your blog. For example, I had renamed my bbPress directory to “forum” and uploaded it under the folder techblog.viveksanghi.com on the webserver such that my forum url become:

http://www.techblog.viveksanghi.com/forum

WordPress Setup

bbPress Integration Plugin

- Now login into you wordpress admin panel, install the plugin bbpress integration into wordpress and activate the plugin. On the plugin’s configuration page enter the URL of your bbpress forum which will be in the following format as already explained earlier:

<yourblog URL>/<bbpress folder name>.

Do not change anything else and hit the save button. Scroll down on the same page and you will be shown some code that you need to enter into your wordpress config file. Make a note of this code as we will require it in the next step.

WordPress Config

- Apart from the above-mentioned piece of code from the previous step, there are some additional changes that you need to make to your wordpress config file. Let’s looks are what additions are to be made to the wordpress configuration file. Download and edit your wordpress config file. This will be located under your main wordpress folder by the name wp-config.php

You have to enter the following values in the wp-config.php file:

AUTH_KEY
SECURE_AUTH_KEY
LOGGED_IN_KEY

Go here to generate complex keys for the above mentioned items. Then paste these keys in the wp-config.php file as shown below:

Also paste the code we generated earlier from the bbpress integration plugin of wordpress as shown in the image above.

Now its time to start your bbPress installation. However make sure to have the following details about your wordpress database handy as we will use the same database for wordpress and bbpress.

- WordPress database name
- WordPress database hostname (Note that it will not be “localhost” if you are hosting on dreamhost or other such hosting site)
- WordPress database username
- WordPress database password
- WordPress table prefix

In case you are new to using databases and/or are not sure where to find the above mentioned details, then you might want to install the WP-DBManager plugin in wordpress and should be able to view all these above details from within wordpress.

Once these details are ready, you may start the installation by proceeding to the following link:

[your bbPress forum URL]/bb-admin/options-wordpress.php

Step 1 – Database configuration

First you will be presented with the following screen:

Now enter the database details you collated earlier, as shown in the image below. You may also use the question mark symbols to learn more about each of these fields.

And then proceed to step 2.

Step 2 – WordPress Integration Settings

To fill in the details required for step 2, load the options screen of your wordpress blog using the following link:

[wordpress link]/wp-admin/options.php

On the bbpress installation page check integration and cookie integration settings as shown in the image. Now add the auth cookie, secure auth cookie and logged in key values (we created these values earlier before starting installation of bbpress) from the wp-config.php file. The salt values will be available from the wordpress options screen we loaded a while ago.

If you do not find the secure auth cookie salt value, you may leave it blank and it should not be a problem. Then scroll down and also check user database integration settings. Fill in the values from the database values that you noted earlier. Most of you will only require the wordpress database table prefix. Now save the integration settings and you will be prompted to proceed to step three.

Step 3 – Site settings

Fill in a name for your forum and the site URL as shown below. Site URL will depend on the folder name you gave to the bbpress folder before uploading it under wordpress folder.

Select the wordpress admin name from the drop down as the bbpress keymaster unless you wish to alot this supreme role to anyone else. Give a name for your first forum, then hit the save site settings button and you should be ready to proceed to your forum page.

Now go to the admin panel of your forum and select wordpress integration under the settings tab as shown in the image below.  Here you have to map user roles between wordpress and bbPress users as the user list is now synchronized and/or common between the two.

Once you save these settings, your wordpress and bbPress will be integrated and you are ready to go.

I am also planning to research into a system/plugin such that the wordpress posts become topics and the comments on each wordpress post become forum posts under these topics. If I find out some thing on these lines, I will definitely update this post or create a second post on this topic.

References: I researched the bbPress forums extensively and did a lot of hands on tinkering to learn how to install bbPress and integrate it with wordpress. This link was particularly helpful in my learning process.

Contest Info: There are 31 participating web sites, with the sponsorship of HP where HP is working with them to offer 31 prize packages – one a day for 31 days during a period from 09 May through 08 June 2008. Here are the details of the price package (which btw is worth well over USD 5000 in retail value):

• Display: 20.1″ diagonal WUXGA High-Definition HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen (1920×1200)
• Operating system: Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core2 Extreme Processor X9000 (2.80GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
• Memory: 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Graphics Card: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS
• Personalization: HP Imprint Finish (Dragon) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone
• Networking: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM)
• Hard Drive: 500GB 5400RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (250GB x 2)
• Optical: Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
• TV & Entertainment Experience: Integrated HP HDTV Hybrid TV Tuner and 4 Altec Lansing speakers + the HP Triple Bass Reflex subwoofer
• Primary Battery: 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• Productivity Applications: Microsoft Office 2007, Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2, Corel Painter 4, Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus
• Games: Viva Pinata, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Microsoft Flight Simulator X Acceleration Expansion Pack, Gear of War
• Blu-Ray movies: The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy – The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End.

And here is a list of websites that are running/will run a seven day contest between the following dates (begin – end):

13 May – 20 May www.geekstogo.com
14 May – 21 May bink.nu
15 May – 22 May www.mediablab.com
16 May – 23 May www.last100.com
17 May – 24 May www.labnol.org
18 May – 25 May www.notebooks.com
19 May – 26 May www.slashdotreview.com
20 May – 27 May www.neowin.net
21 May – 28 May www.geek.com
22 May – 29 Mau www.lockergnome.com
23 May – 30 May www.planetx64.com
24 May – 31 May www.thegreenbutton.com
25 May – 01 Jun www.istartedsomething.com
26 May – 02 Jun www.bleepingcomputer.com
27 May – 03 Jun www.hardwaregeeks.com
28 May – 04 Jun www.geeknewscentral.com
29 May – 05 Jun www.geekzone.co.nz
30 May – 06 Jun www.thetabletpc.net
31 May – 07 Jun www.gearlive.com
01 Jun – 08 Jun www.gottabemobile.com

Some of the website site where the winners have already been declared are:

02 May – 09 May www.absolutevista.com
03 May – 10 May www.arstechnica.com
04 May – 11 May www.osnn.net
05 May – 12 May www.jkontherun.com
06 May – 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com
07 May – 14 May www.bostonpocketpc.com
08 May – 15 May www.the-gadgeteer.com
09 May – 16 May www.thedigitallifestyle.com
10 May – 17 May www.digitalhomethoughts.com
11 May – 18 May www.windows-now.com
12 May – 19 May www.windowsconnected.com

So I suggest you to head over to these website and track them to win the super prize package. For details about the contest please visit here. There is an RSS link and an OPML available so that you can track these sites conveniently.

In addition, most of these site have very good articles which techies and computer enthusiasts will definitely like. So go now and start participating, I am also competing

I hope I don’t end up breaking my monitor, keyboard or mouse the next time I see this:

BTW Google should hire someone who has written error messages for Microsoft ) Coz: “oops! I don’t like your error messages”. Better still don’t give me the donuts, just get the page working. Just a thought (pun intended)

Update: Page creator behaves much better after I turned off the experimental features.

I have been using a Firefox extension by name fasterfox. If slow browsing speed has been a problem for you, I recommend that you give it a shot.

Coming to beta hack, this blog now uses two hacks which I picked up from PurpleMoggy’s blog. It appears that a tutorial has been put up for the search box. Please find the tutorial on implementing a 4-in-1 search box (like I have) here.

The second hack I found in PurpleMoggy is a javascript based peek-a-boo system for linklists in sidebar. This is almost same as Blogger University’s expand-collapse menu. Just that the hack I am using was picked-up by PurpleMoggy from here and modified using CSS such that it blended very well with my template as well.

Yes. But how did you do that?

I was never into podcasting and had no clue about it. However, while browsing instabloke, I came across a link in its post footer which read “Listen to this post”. Through that link I found out about Talkr.

Talkr is a podcast server that’s very easy and free to use. To learn more about Talkr click here registering at Talkr, you can submit your blog’s RSS feed to them and the. Aftery will create a podcast feed with your posts converted into speech perhaps using some “text-to-speech” software at their end and it’s pretty fast too. So you don’t have to use podcast creation software, host the prepared MP3 files somewhere and setup a feed to it. Talkr will take care of it all. Talkr will also contain instructions on how to add the “Listen to this article” link and a Talkr chicklet to your blog. However, you may use the following piece of code for setting up the post footer links in your blogger beta blogs. (To learn more about working with post footers refer to my previous article

<a expr:href=’”http://www.talkr.com/app/fetch.app?feed_id=
[Your Talkr Feed id]&amp;perma_link=” + data:post.url’ target=’_blank’ title=’Click to listen’>
Listen to this article</a>

However, I have also faced certain problems. For example, even after setting up the feed over a day ago I still don’t see all of my articles in my podcast feed. Pronunciation of certain words by the automated voice it not very good (I love it when she pronounces my name ).

Moving on, once you have the podcast feed, you might want to use FeedBurner to dress it up i.e. optimize it and publicize it using chicklets and other features that they offer. To publicize you podcast further, just submit its feed link to podcast feed crawlers. A quick search for “submit podcast feed” in Google will bring up a number of such crawlers/ search engines. When submitting you podcast feeds to crawlers or blogging communities etc I prefer using a well dressed feed like feed burner’s and not the source podcast link because clicking on a feed burner feed link displays a page that your potential readers might like to go through unlike the code gibberish that they would see when they click on the source feed’s link.

Why podcasts?

Podcast is one of the few technologies that entered main-stream from obscurity in a very quick fashion. It’s in and people use it to keep a track of whatever they like. In addition, podcast feeds, promise a wider reach for an average blogger by way of supplying readers with downloadable audio file which they can store in their MP3 player and listen to anywhere or share with others. Such audio files may also be shared on P2P networks, BitTorrents and IRC thus giving you a wider reach. So isn’t that a reason enough?

Podcast feed reader

Well I am pretty new to this stuff but I think I have found a good feed reader for myself and it seems this one is pretty popular too. I am talking about Juice. Juice is a cross-platform podcast receiver which is available for free under the GPL open source. For more features of Juice, you may visit its website.

Click here to learn more about podcasts. If you find more examples of podcast servers (with text-to-speech ability) or a better podcast logo (see the subscribe section in the sidebar), please leave a comment about the same here. Thanks!