Dev4Press support forum was powered by bbPress standalone forum. Now, that changes and that is migrated to new and better bbPress 2.0 plugin forum. This is first among many changes that are coming to Dev4Press website. New features and more forum improvements are coming soon.
bbPress 2.0 is still in release candidate stage, but it is very stable and time has come to drop old standalone forum and get new one that integrates into WordPress and uses custom post types and custom taxonomies. Image on the right shows how the main forum list looks like now on the Dev4Press website. Since Dev4Press website uses lightScape theme and xScape Theme Framework, and since framework fully and directly supports bbPress 2.0, we have a luxury of close theme integration and additional customization features.
Right now, forum is fully functional. But, some things from old forum are lost: users favorite topics, old attachments. Now, attachments are handled by Dev4Press own plugin: GD bbPress Attchments. To restrict access to some of the forums based on available licenses, we can now do it easy with a filter that checks for access to forums and topics. But, more things will be added over time: improved front page with recent posts lists, better widgets and few other things.
Sidebar uses some custom elements on the top where you can see status of the support team (well, mostly me), notice about the posting and list of the recommended tutorials for common problems. All this will be expanded over time to help with easier solution finding on the forum.
More planned forum changes will be rolled out in the next couple of weeks. If you find any issues with the new forum, or if you have suggestions on improving it, please leave a comment.
To see the forum in action, visit it here:
http://www.dev4press.com/forums/
