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Properly Adding A Forum To Wordpress Site


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Hello! I hope everyone is having a splendid day.

 

Overview

Now, I've spent some time noodling around with Wordpress and MyBB, and trying to figure out the best way to have them behave together as one site. I have the official site that I'm working on, hosted on the Shared Hosting server plan that I bought a few weeks ago, and I have it running wordpress already. (Which will be the front end of the website. I have it situated so that it displays like a static website, and has a blogging section.)

 

On a separate server that I'm using for testing, I uploaded MyBB to the same database as the wordpress site, in a subfolder of the root directory. (I added it manually from the cpPanel. I called it 'forums.')

In this database, I have a user for the Wordpress site and a user for the MyBB forum site. It seems to be working okay.

 

NOW.

 

Onto my questions!

Question 1

If I want to run Wordpress as the main site and add a MyBB forum under a subdomain, (mysite.com/forum) should I set up two different databases for each one? With their own designated database user?

 

Question 2

Is it okay to upload a MyBB forum to a 'forum' subdirectory in the root directory, where all the wordpress stuff is?

 

Question 3

Can Wordpress and MyBB share a database and database user? Can they share a database, but do they need different database users?

 

Question 4

In short, what is the best way to set up wordpress as the main site, with a forum added to it? (With out using too many wordpress plugins?)

 

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Info

- I don't mind if users need to independently sign up to each version of the site. (Wordpress site, Forum.)

- I'm not interested in the wordpress forum plugins. I'll test those later on my test site.

- I'll be manually linking the forum subdomain to the main site, and vice versa.

- I already figured out how to actually install the forum, I just need to know which is a best set up for my website.

 

- ALSO, I'm not terribly well versed in website, server and web designing terms and phrases! I know how some stuff works, but I'm still learning.

 

If there are any questions, or if I need to clarify anything, let me know. :)
Thanks!

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Please forgive me in advance, I know you are not interested in the WordPress forum plugins, but I wanted to cover both sides.

 

 

Question 1
If I want to run Wordpress as the main site and add a MyBB forum under a subdomain, (mysite.com/forum) should I set up two different databases for each one? With their own designated database user?

Based on a quick review of MyBB, Yes, I would create them as separate setups/databases. In general, I would not combine another scripts database with my WordPress database unless it was designed to work that way like many plugins are. This is a personal preference and combining databases is perfectly acceptable and safe if you are comfortable with doing so.

Question 2
Is it okay to upload a MyBB forum to a 'forum' subdirectory in the root directory, where all the wordpress stuff is?

This is not an issue and is common practice. Just keep in mind you may need to adjust the Wordpress rewrite rules to exclude your directory/subdomain, if you run into any issues.

Question 3
Can Wordpress and MyBB share a database and database user? Can they share a database, but do they need different database users?

Yes, if you want to and this is handled by table prefixes when making your queries. You should consider connection tracking and connection limits when using just one user.

Question 4
In short, what is the best way to set up wordpress as the main site, with a forum added to it? (With out using too many wordpress plugins?)

I have never added a forum to any my WordPress sites, so I can not recommend a best method, plugin, or forum. I can say that there are many viable options that include forums designed for WordPress(plugins) and bridging scripts/plugins to sync your forum and WordPress users (including some for MyBB). I can definitely understand not wanting to use to many plugins with WordPress, so in that case I would focus on the separate forum and a bridging script/plugin. If you are wanting an all in one management setup, I would take a look at some of the forums designed specifically for WordPress.

 

Alternatively, You could consider not allowing your user base access to WordPress in any manner. You can integrate/display your forum content in your WordPress posts/pages and leave the forum for commenting and discussions. This way you can serve up static or dynamic content to your liking without having to manage users and their privileges within multiple setups.




I am not familiar enough with any of the following to recommend them, but they might give you some ideas:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/mybb
https://wordpress.org/plugins/external-db-auth-reloaded/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbpress/
http://www.mybbaddons.com/board/thread-5974.html
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Hello good sir! :)

Thanks for your reply and advice! I think from now on, I'll just go ahead and set up a separate database for the forum with it's own user.

 

I'll save this information for future reference.

 

I'm trying to keep things simple (since I'm not sure how to do a lot of the more advanced stuff) so super integration isn't a big concern.

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