I wanted to create a secure forum, hopefully for free. My objective was to design an interactive intranet for a church, so that various groups or departments could interact privately. For instance, the youth could discuss their upcoming ministry trip and a Bible study could decide where they would next meet.<\/p>\n
I remembered hearing something about Buddy Press. There are several variations of Buddy Press, such as bbPress, MyBB, phpBB and punBB. After some research I decided on bbPress.<\/p>\n
This website helped me install and link bbPress with WordPress<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-tutorials\/how-to-add-a-forum-in-wordpress-with-bbpress\/<\/a><\/p>\n I installed it and visually it wasn\u2019t quite what I was looking for. Also, I wanted to have private areas only accessible to those with permissions. The only way to do that was using various plug-ins (some free\/some paid). I read through the various comment sections of those plugins and wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to join this bandwagon.<\/p>\n I remembered that there was a forum that I had enjoyed using in the past and decided to check out what tools they had used.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.thaivisa.com\/forum\/forum\/17-internet-computers-communication-technology\/<\/a><\/p>\n As a rule of thumb, your best approach is to check out those things that you have tried and liked. There\u2019s usually no need to reinvent the wheel. Here I discovered that they used MyBB.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.mybb.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n As I researched, I began to explore the playing field of forum software. This descriptive webpage helped me to compare features of some popular forum tools.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.forum-software.org\/forum-comparator\/bbpress-vs-mybb-vs-vanilla<\/a><\/p>\n I found another page that used MyBB here<\/p>\n http:\/\/letsforum.com\/Forum-Online-Marketplace-and-Classifieds<\/a><\/p>\n I tried to research plugins for private secure forums for MyBB, and couldn\u2019t find any. Was this because it wasn\u2019t as frequently used, or because it was automatically built in? I couldn\u2019t find the answer to that question, so I installed it. It was cram packed with features I would have never thought of. Yes! It was fully customizable for security.<\/p>\n Make sure you check that your server is able to host it. MyBB 1.8 have a few minimum system requirements:<\/p>\n Using MyBB, forums can be set as viewable based on various properties. A group could be created called \u201cCollege Group.\u201d Then users could be given direct access to \u201cCollege Discussion forum.\u201d As well as, perhaps, a general forum like \u201cUpcoming Projects.\u201d The possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n Along the way, I also learned various approaches to installation and it makes a difference.<\/p>\n Important<\/strong>: It is essential that you install Akismet or some other kind of spam protection.<\/p>\n Installation Procedure<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a couple of approaches to get the software on your server.<\/p>\n Personally, I like to use CPanel to get started.<\/p>\n Your\u00a0installation is ready. You can access it now by going\u00a0here<\/u>. If there is any login information, it will have been sent to the email address you provided.<\/p>\n Open this page in a new tab, or open this page from the link in your email. You will need it in a minute. The chmod permissions and other steps seem do be dealt with by cPanel.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t use a Cpanel approach you can follow the steps here.<\/p>\n http:\/\/docs.mybb.com\/1.8\/install\/<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve copied over a couple of the steps that you\u2019ll need to consider.<\/p>\n Certain file permissions are required for MyBB to function correctly. Once you’ve uploaded your files you will need to set the permissions on certain files and directories.<\/p>\n ** Before applying file permissions, rename config.default.php to config.php<\/p>\n If you have SSH access, you can apply the necessary permissions via the following command, executed from your root MyBB directory:<\/p>\n chmod666 inc\/config.php inc\/settings.php chmod777 cache\/ cache\/themes\/ uploads\/ uploads\/avatars\/<\/p>\n Optionally, you can also apply the following permissions:<\/p>\n chmod666 inc\/languages\/english\/*.php inc\/languages\/english\/admin\/*.php chmod777 cache\/ cache\/themes\/ uploads\/ uploads\/avatars\/ admin\/backups\/<\/p>\n Congratulations<\/strong>! You have successfully installed your MyBB. You should remove the\u00a0install\/\u00a0directory from your server now to prevent anyone else from running the installation again. MyBB will not run unless the installer is removed or locked.<\/p>\n If you simply wish to lock your MyBB install directory, create a new file in the install directory called\u00a0lock, which will disallow access to the installer\/upgrader while it exists.<\/p>\n Review<\/strong><\/p>\n Next we need to link them together. By this, I mean you\u2019ll probably want your forum to appear like the other pages in your site, with the same theme and menu. It will make it look more professional. Before<\/p>\n This page helped me, but I found it convoluted. Below it I wrote my own procedure.<\/p>\n http:\/\/mods.mybb.com\/view\/wordpress-bridge<\/a><\/p>\n The WordPress Bridge connects your MyBB forum and your WordPress site. It wraps your MyBB forum with the theme you are using on your WordPress site providing a seamless experience to your website visitors.<\/p>\n 1) To install place the file wordpress_bridge.php as well as the folder wordpress_bridge and it’s content in your MyBB inc\/plugins folder.<\/p>\n 2) Login to the administration panel of MyBB and go to Configuration > Plugins and activate the WordPress Bridge plugin.<\/p>\n 3) In WordPress, create a new page with title [BRIDGE-TITLE] and content [BRIDGE]. Remember the URL of that page.<\/p>\n 4) Go to Configuration > Settings > WordPress Bridge. In the field ‘WordPress bridge page URL’, fill in the URL of the WordPress page created in step (3). Enable the bridge.<\/p>\n That was their instructions above.<\/p>\n Let me try to make the above information more clear.<\/p>\n One thing I especially appreciated about the Private Forums is that they are not even visible until a person has signed in with the proper permissions. It definitely meets all my needs, and with a price tag of Free, I am happy.<\/p>\n If you feel this software meets your needs, please consider donating to them. You can learn more about donating to their efforts here.<\/p>\n\n
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Congratulations!<\/h3>\n
File Permissions<\/h3>\n
*nix systems via CHMOD<\/h4>\n
Finishing Setup<\/h3>\n
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\nFor me, I dropped it into the \/public_html\/forum\/inc\/plugins\/ folder.<\/li>\n
\nI opened up my wordpress http:\/\/websitename.com\/wp-admin\/index.php and created a new page called title [BRIDGE-TITLE]
\n(I then added some text above the forum link.)
\nWelcome Guest. To post in the Public Forum you need\u00a0to REGISTER<\/strong>. To post in the Restricted\u00a0Private\u00a0Forum you\u00a0must be approved.
\n[BRIDGE]<\/li>\n
\nDefinitely check out the plugins.
\nhttp:\/\/community.mybb.com\/mods.php<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n