bbPress Design and Formatting

bbPress is a forum software that is trimmed for simplicity and speed. There is a lot to customize if you want to be happy with it too.

bbPress advantages

• integrated perfectly into WordPress
• fast

bbPress disadvantages

• Lacks many typical forum functions
• Development is very slow

Also I have already adapted some bbPress forums. But really only what was absolutely necessary.

I would like to do without bbPress plugins completely. Only bbPress Notify is important to inform the admin about new threads and posts.

CSS:

#bbpress-forums {
	font-size: 14px;
}

#bbpress-forums .bbp-body div.bbp-reply-content {
    background-color: #fff !important;
    padding: 8px !important;
}

// font size sub-forums list
#bbpress-forums .bbp-forums-list li {
	font-size: 12px !important;
}

// Button background-color
#bbpress-forums div.bbp-the-content-wrapper input, #bbpress-forums .wp-media-buttons button, .wp-core-ui .button, .wp-core-ui .button-secondary, .wp-core-ui .button:hover {
	background-color: #444;
    min-height: 32px !important;
    padding: 0 10px !important;
}

// Editor styling
#bbpress-forums div.bbp-the-content-wrapper textarea.bbp-the-content {
	font-size: 14px !important;
	height: 320px;
	line-height: 22px !important;
}

// Table header titles
#bbpress-forums li.bbp-header, #bbpress-forums li.bbp-footer {
    color: #009999 !important;
}

// avatar styling
#bbpress-forums .widget_display_replies img.avatar, #bbpress-forums .widget_display_topics img.avatar, #bbpress-forums div.bbp-template-notice img.avatar, #bbpress-forums p.bbp-topic-meta img.avatar, #bbpress-forums ul.bbp-reply-revision-log img.avatar, #bbpress-forums ul.bbp-topic-revision-log img.avatar {
    margin-bottom: unset !important;
    border: unset !important;
    width: 20px !important;
    height: 20px !important;
}

// Avatar circle
.avatar {
	border-radius: 50%;
}

// Full width for some text fields
.bbp-form input[type="text"], .bbp-form input[type="password"] {
	width: 100%;
}

functions.php:

<?php
// List sub-forums vertical and remove counters
add_filter('bbp_before_list_forums_parse_args', 'j0e_bbpress_list_forums' );
function j0e_bbpress_list_forums() {
     $args['before']           = '<ul class="bbp-forums-list">';
     $args['after']            = '</ul>';
     $args['link_before']      = '<li class="bbp-forum">';
     $args['link_after']       = '</li>';
     $args['count_before']     = ' (';
     $args['count_after']      = ')';
     $args['count_sep']        = ', ';
     $args['separator']        = '<br />';
     $args['forum_id']         = '';
     $args['show_topic_count'] = false;
     $args['show_reply_count'] = false;
     return $args;
}

// Function to shorten freshness display from say '1 month, 2 weeks' to '1 month'
function j0e_short_freshness_time( $output) {
	$output = preg_replace( '/, .*[^ago]/', ' ', $output );
	return $output;
}
add_filter( 'bbp_get_time_since', 'j0e_short_freshness_time' );
add_filter( 'bp_core_time_since', 'j0e_short_freshness_time' );

// Allow upload media in bbPress
add_filter( 'bbp_after_get_the_content_parse_args', 'j0e_bbpress_upload_media' );
function j0e_bbpress_upload_media( $args ) {
     $args['media_buttons'] = true;
     return $args;
}

// Never show admin bar
add_filter('show_admin_bar', '__return_false');

// Add Recent Topics to BBPress
function j0e_recent_bbpress_topics() {
	if ( bbp_has_topics( array( 'author' => 0, 'show_stickies' => false, 'order' => 'DESC', 'post_parent' => 'any', 'posts_per_page' => 5 ) ) )
	bbp_get_template_part( 'bbpress/loop', 'topics' );
}
add_action('bbp_template_before_forums_index','j0e_recent_bbpress_topics');

// This function hooks to BBpress loop-single-reply.php and adds the post count to the reply display
function j0e_display_count ()
    {
        $post_count = bbp_get_user_post_count( bbp_get_reply_author_id( $reply_id ));
        echo "Beiträge: ";
        echo $post_count;
        echo "";
    }
add_action ('bbp_theme_after_reply_author_details', 'j0e_display_count');

// Register bbpress widget area
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'j0e_register_bbpress_widget_area' );

function j0e_register_bbpress_widget_area() {

	beans_register_widget_area( array(
        'name' => 'bbPress',
        'id' => 'bbp-sidebar',
        'description' => 'A sidebar that only appears on bbPress pages.'
	) );

}

// Add the bbpress widget area
add_action( 'beans_sidebar_primary', 'j0e_bbpress_widget_area' );

function j0e_bbpress_widget_area() {

	// Stop here if no widget
	if( !beans_is_active_widget_area( 'bbp-sidebar' ) )
		return;

	if ( is_active_sidebar( 'bbp-sidebar' ) && is_bbpress() || is_page_template( 'bbpress.php' ) ) {
		?><section class="uk-block">
			<div class="class=uk-container uk-container-center">
				<?php echo beans_widget_area( 'bbp-sidebar' ); ?>
			</div>
		</section><?php
	}

}

// Dynamically add a sub-menu item to an existing menu item in wp_nav_menu
function j0e_dynamic_submenu_logout_link( $items, $args ) {
  
    $theme_location = 'primary';
    $existing_menu_item_db_id = 4180;
     
    if ( $theme_location !== $args->theme_location ) {
        return $items;
    }
    $new_links = array();
  
    if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {
        $item = array(
            'title'            => 'Log out',
            'menu_item_parent' => $existing_menu_item_db_id,
            'ID'               => 'log-out',
            'db_id'            => '99954',
            'url'              => wp_logout_url(get_permalink()),
        );
    $items[] = (object) $item;
    }
    else {
        $item = array(
            'title'            => 'Log in',
            'menu_item_parent' => $existing_menu_item_db_id,
            'ID'               => 'login',
            'db_id'            => '99955',
            'url'              => 'https://bloggerpilot.com/forum/login/',
        );
    $items[] = (object) $item;
    }
  
    return $items;
}
add_filter( 'wp_nav_menu_objects', 'j0e_dynamic_submenu_logout_link', 10, 2 );

// Add carret down icon to the menu
add_action( 'beans_menu_item_link[_4180]_append_markup', 'j0e_add_carret_down' );
function j0e_add_carret_down() {
    ?>
    <i class="uk-icon-caret-down uk-margin-small-left"></i>
    <?php
}

Update 05/29/22: Removed theme-specific functions.

If you have any cool snippets of your own for the bbPress forum, I’d love for you to share them here! Just post them in the comments.