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Are you looking for a way to add a forum or some sort of message boards but you do not want to spend the time integrating one of those popular message boards with your WordPress Blog? If you are looking for an easy way to integrate wordpress and a message board, then I have found a solution that might work for you.
Earlier today I came across a WordPress Plugin that creates a message board right from your admin panel. That plugin is called Simple:Press!
What is Simple:Press?
Simple:Press is a forum plugin for WordPress and it fully integrates into WordPress Driven website. It will use the same user records, database, and display them on a single wordpress page. This plugin is flexible, you can run it as a private membership only message board or you can run it as a public message board.
For more information about Simple:Press and its features, check out their Wiki Pages.
Simple:Press Installation
Before installing Simple:Press make sure you are running the latest version of WordPress or at least WordPress 3.0. Anything lower and the plugin will work properly. Also make sure you are running the latest versions of PHP and MySQL.
Simple:Press Minimum Requirements
- WordPress version 3.0
- Php version 4.3 or newer including the GD graphics library.
- MySQL version 4.1.21
Your WordPress Theme Must have:
- call to wp_head() in the header theme file
- call to the_content() in the man display page theme file
- call to wp_footer() in the footer theme file
I noticed that some themes may not have these functions embedded in the theme code. If your theme does not have these functions, then Simple:Press maybe display properly or it may not work at all.
Once you have checked that your system meets all of these requirements then you will need to download and install the plugin. The installation page warns that this a very large file and they recommend that you use a desktop FTP program to upload the plugin.
The next step is to activate the plugin. This does not do anything, but it does add an install link to the activation page.
Finally, click on the install link. Follow the instructions. Since this a large plugin and there are a lot of things going in the background as the plugin is installing, it could take a few minutes.
For the complete instructions, check out the installation page.
Final Thoughts
Although I haven’t tested this plugin, I found several major sites recommending this message board plugin. I have been looking for a plugin like this for a while and I hope to have a use for this plugin in the near future. The plugin looks great, its easy to install, and its already integrated with WordPress, these are just a few of the things I like about this plugin.
About James
Cool plugin. I once also thought of creating a message board but felt lazy for it. But this plugin looks promising. I’d love to try them too.
Hey John, if you end testing this plugin out, let us know what you think…
I really like to try this kind of plug in..It sound like cool..Thank you for sharing.
James, I think we’ll give this a try and see how it works. Any idea how it integrates with normal WordPress login process? That’s always been a concern for us for any other type of secure unique logins in addition to WordPress admin.
Hi John,
I haven’t had the chance to test this plugin yet and I really do not know how the login works and how secure it is. I do want to test this plugin. But I need about 10 or 15 people to help test the plugin. I can build it and setup a sub domain, I just don’t have the people to test it.
If you end up setting this up, let me know it works and your thoughts about security and everything else you think is important.