Hierarchical Forum and Category Layout theme

[jaredatch]

Topic for reference: http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/hierarchical-forum-and-category-layout/

As discussed, people often want some degree of hierarchy for their theme and right now it would require a completely custom theme. We should help them out.

I guess one thing to determine, which would give us a direction to go in, would be what degree of hierarchy should we look to provide?

One possible scenario would be what Lynq came up with in his custom theme: ​http://teamoverpowered.com/forums/

Thoughts?

[netweb]

Here's a quick summary of a chat I had with @jjj ~ 1 month ago...

... ideally, each subforum would have it's own freshness, topics, posts, etc...

... It will probably need to be a new function, specifically for this.

... WP_Query would need to include a 'depth' argument

... The loop in the template needs to check the post meta, bbp_is_forum_category() I think.

... If it is, loop through the parent (the category you just had) and output those forums

... The hard part of the logic will be knowing when to switch, based on where in the hierarchy we are, and if the current forum, is a forum or a category.

... And then knowing when to exit that loop and finish the container HTML.

... Because forums and categories can be mixed and matched, and the output will need to adapt to that.

[netweb]

The current train of thought has been to keep the option of a forum custom post type having either type 'forum' or 'category' assigned to each forum.

What about moving the 'category' option from the 'forum' post type to its own post type extending bbPress from the current three 'forum', 'topic' and 'reply' post types to four 'category', 'forum', 'topic' and 'reply' post types.

The current relationships are based on the database model 'hierarchical model' though introducing the 'category' post type to use one-to-many relationships with a 'network model'...

I may have now be over thinking this :)

​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_model#Hierarchical_model
​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_model#Network_model

eg. As an 'Apple' forum could be both software & hardware related you could have a single forum called 'Apple' but assign it to both the 'Software' and 'Hardware' categories. When setting up layout options for display on your site you can then have the 'Apple' forum displayed on both the 'Software' and 'Hardware' forum sections of your site.

Home / Forums / Software / Microsoft

Home / Forums / Software / Google

Home / Forums / Software / Apple

Home / Forums / Hardware / Google

Home / Forums / Hardware / Apple

Home / Forums / Hardware / Amazon

Further consider a standard WordPress site without bbPress installed and the author wrote a blog post about the recent release of the iPhone 5, this post could have both 'Software' and 'Hardware' categories added to the post as it would indeed make mention of iOS 6 and the physical iPhone 5 hardware device.

What side effects this would bring on performance or other headaches this may bring to bbPress is still at stage way beyond my skillset :P Just a thought I had on the weekend and now shared ;)

[johnjamesjacoby]

Let's try and get this going for 2.4.

[johnjamesjacoby]

No time. Moving to 2.5.

[johnjamesjacoby]

2.5 is going to focus on performance improvements. Moving to 2.6.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Bump to 2.7.

[Mycelus]

Please use IP Board's formatting, they have the best paid forum software by a LANDSLIDE, and this is what you should be referring to:

---

Hey guys. So I’m used to the regular forum format like phpBB and IP Board where it looks like this: ​http://imgur.com/XlyR6cc

So, where it says Welcome to IPS, that’s the category name.

Under that, you have News and Information, and Pre-Sales, those are your FORUMS.

Then you have a space underneath the categories as can be seen in the picture.

This makes sense because your CATEGORIES are SEPARATED from each other, and the FORUMS, are listed underneath.

The way bbPress it, you can click a category. This makes ZERO sense, there is NO reason to click on the category.

Also, as can also be seen in the picture, the amount of topics, and replies are to the right side, with the recent reply, time, latest thread, and time to the right.

[tharsheblows]

Hi - do you mean something like this? ​http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/ If you do, I have that.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Replying to tharsheblows:

Hi - do you mean something like this? ​http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/ If you do, I have that.

Very similar, yes; where root level categories are able to divide the mark-up for each "section" of their children forums. In our case, we'd want the root level categories to be linked to that category, where as yours ​never link to them.

Because not all forums in the root are categories, there needs to be some logic that asks "hey, if you're a root level category, switch to a new forum index "section" and show the child forums similar to how the root is now; or, if you're a root level forum, create a separate section without a root category.

The logic to pull this off within the templates in a flexible manner is surprisingly complex, so any experience you have (including code examples and patches) is helpful.

[tharsheblows]

I'm not exactly sure I'm getting what you're saying, so please just tell me if I've gotten it wrong.

It's easy in my template to link "Fast Exercise" to the correct page (eg ​http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/forum/fast-exercise/) , I just haven't done it because it seemed redundant. But I think that might not be what you mean? I don't suppose you could draw it? With arrows maybe?

This is the bit in loop-forums (I got the pluralisation wrong on loop-categories! But that's just another template that does the categories):

<?php while ( bbp_forums() ) : bbp_the_forum(); ?>

<?php if( !bbp_is_forum_category() ) {

bbp_get_template_part( 'loop', 'single-forum' );

} else {

bbp_get_template_part( 'loop', 'single-categories' );

} ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Apols too for any trac etiquette / style mistakes. Am still somewhat new to it.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Are you able to share the contents of your loop-single-categories.php template?

[tharsheblows]

Handles single categories in bbPress

[tharsheblows]

I was learning bbPress as I did that template, so there is much that needs to be cleaned up! I'm not sure it's the exact FD one, it's from an upcoming redesign but should be similar in the main.

[Bob1nz]

Hi,
Iv been working on a wordpress website to be used as a community website for a small gaming server. The forums are intended to be the main focus and i have smooshed together bits and pieces from all over the internet to make it look like how it is now.
It is still a work in progress and I am by no means a wizard with php like all you guys are but if you need any files or anything I'm more than happy to share them.
The forum is on a testing website at ​http://www.bob1nz.com/forum/

[Mycelus]

Hey guys. Sorry for the late reply, I didnt get a notification for some reason.

@tharsheblows

Yes that is the type of template I want, with the category not being clickable. A category being clickable is unnecessary, as the forums for it display underneath.

Here's a simple text format:

Category (non-clickable)

• Forum 1 Topics Posts Last Post
• Forum 2
• Forum 3

The threads in the forums would only be viewable upon clicking the forum.

Also it would be nice if we could rename the strings, so for example, I like "threads" better than "topics", and "Last Post" better than "Freshness"

What makes ANY software great, is customization. Options. Choice. Users always want more options, and since this software is for a website, customization is definitely key. Being able to edit the strings within the UI would be great for users, along with the breadcrumb separators and size, color, etc for example.

The bob1nz website showcases my template well, however, the categories should not be clickable (there could be a toggle for this). I never want a user to click a category and then have see only a portion of my forums. That is unnecessary and ruins the forum experience.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Yes that is the type of template I want, with the category not being clickable. A category being clickable is unnecessary, as the forums for it display underneath.

What's the point of categorizing them hierarchically if a visitor cannot drill down into the hierarchy?

Also it would be nice if we could rename the strings, so for example, I like "threads" better than "topics", and "Last Post" better than "Freshness"

You can change any of the strings in several ways:

• A custom English po/mo setup
• Custom templates in your theme
• A custom theme with custom templates
• Any combination of the above

What makes ANY software great, is customization. Options. Choice. Users always want more options,

Agree to disagree, respectfully. :)

Being able to edit the strings within the UI would be great for users, along with the breadcrumb separators and size, color, etc for example.

This isn't the WordPress way, and is unlikely to ever be a direction that bbPress goes. A plugin could go this route with relative ease though.

I never want a user to click a category and then have see only a portion of my forums. That is unnecessary and ruins the forum experience.

This is the default experience in vBulletin, phpBB, Vanilla, etc... Still not understanding the point of a hierarchy that cannot be traversed.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Replying to Bob1nz:

if you need any files or anything I'm more than happy to share them.

Neat. Share anything that you think is helpful; likely the way you loop through forums, and how you determine when to break between category sections and individual forums.

[Mycelus]

Please do share Bob1nz

I really need to get a proper forum formatting.

[Bob1nz]

OK so here is what I have

childtheme/bbpress/loop-forums.php ​http://pastebin.com/6W2AJhPm
childtheme/bbpress/loop-single-forum.php ​http://pastebin.com/ghd0hMvP
childtheme/bbpress/loop-single-reply.php ​http://pastebin.com/0zBAjmBi
childtheme/bbpress/loop-single-topic.php ​http://pastebin.com/TYR16XDB

The main loop-forums.php was taken from http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/forums-index-in-the-same-layout-as-other-bb-software so any credit due should go to kaliceos.

I have posted the other files as I have played with them in some way to get what i want.

It most likely needs tidying up as I said previously i just grabbed bits of code from hours of googling my intentions and beating it into place to make it work.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Bumping all 2.7 to 2.8 milestone.

[ebunny3k]

​http://teamoverpowered.com/forums/ is HORRIBLE. Better go that way -> ​http://tamrielfoundry.com/forums/

[netweb]

Replying to ebunny3k:

​http://teamoverpowered.com/forums/ is HORRIBLE. Better go that way -> ​http://tamrielfoundry.com/forums/

The issue of this ticket is the implementation method, not the aesthetic representation of the end result, I am pretty sure tamrielfoundry.com are using @Lynq's solution that he created for teamoverpowered.com, thus they are one in the same with different end results based on theme used, CSS changes etc.