how to install bbpress on wordpress blog

after 1 week of grueling work of a rushed insane project of setting up a wordpress blog + bbpress form, i'm still recovering from sleepless nites and fried brain cells. i think i ODed on ftp-ing the plugins and the reload button :(

i went with bbpress as a forum component for the wordpress blog as it was lightweight, focused on web standards and the best part is that it is also developed by the same folks of wordpress. as bbpress was something new to me, i did some research on how to install it on my server within the shortest possible time. but there weren't many tutorials written on it. so i decided to write one :)

Let's get started! the steps:

1. create a new database for bbpress at your hosting cpanel. remember to create new user & pw for the database and add user to the bbpress database. copy down the details, u'll need it later.
   e.g.
   database name: yoursite_bbpress
   user: yoursite_username
   password: (auto-generated)
2. download bbpress installation files. unzip it. here's what we need to do for database configuration: insert the details (from step 1) into bb-config-sample.php and save as bb-config.php (you can find bb-config-sample.php from the folder u have unzipped)
   e.g.
   here's what u need to change: (1) replace 'bbpress' with 'name of your database' (2) replace 'username' with 'name of your database user' (3) replace 'password' with 'password of your database password'. Extract below:
   // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
   /** The name of the database for bbPress */
   define( 'BBDB_NAME', 'bbpress' );
   
   /** MySQL database username */
   define( 'BBDB_USER', 'username' );
   
   /** MySQL database password */
   define( 'BBDB_PASSWORD', 'password' );
   
   
3. now, rename the bbpress folder as forum and upload via ftp to the same directory as your wordpress files.
4. go to http://www.yoursite.com/forum/ in your browser
5. wordPress integration is optional. so choose 'skip the WordPress integration' step. u can always integrate WordPress later from within the admin area of bbPress.
6. for site settings: finalize your installation by adding a name, your first user and your first forum. save site settings.
   
   
7. after clicking 'saving the settings' button, u'll see this: - just click 'complete the installation' button to continue.
   
   
8. when installation is completed, u will see this:
   
   
9. congrats! u're done! :) u can now log in with the login details at www.yoursite.com/forum
10. more controls at the admin dashboard. http://www.yoursite.com/forum/bb-admin/ u'll notice that the dashboard of bbpress is pretty similar to that of wordpress.
11. now, u can add various plugins for your bbpress forum :)

hope u've enjoyed the simple tutorial :)