Blog Documentation Book a Demo
Vanilla 1 is no longer supported or maintained. If you need a copy, you can get it here.
HackerOne users: Testing against this community violates our program's Terms of Service and will result in your bounty being denied.

Vanilla/Wordpress integration examples?

AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
edited April 2009 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
I'm trying to figure out if I really want to do this--or if I should just use a one of the WP forum plug-ins. Much as I love Vanilla, the integration seems too daunting and I can't figure out exactly what an integrated forum will DO. Would any of you who have or know of integrated forums, point me to the sites? I'd like to look them over carefully. Here is what I'm looking for: •A site that allows live commenting on most blog entries, but I want the comments to each blog entry to end up in a forum--along with the posts from readers that are NOT comments on blog entries. In other words, I want all the reader comments in the same place so that folks can browse comments on blog entries and comments on other topics all together. • One log-in whether to comment on blog entries or to begin/comment on a regular forum discussion. • Blog entries that show the number of comments made on them in the forum. • Front page listing of most recent forum posts, whether blog entry comments or regular forum posts. • I'd like to keep the posts I currently have in the forum. I suppose I'm asking too much, but I'd like input on what will best serve my needs. Alison
«1

Comments

  • squirrelsquirrel
    A site that allows live commenting on most blog entries, but I want the comments to each blog entry to end up in a forum--along with the posts from readers that are NOT comments on blog entries. In other words, I want all the reader comments in the same place so that folks can browse comments on blog entries and comments on other topics all together.

    I just finished writing a Vanilla extension that does this more or less: Janine. Whenever you post to WordPress, Janine will create a matching discussion in Vanilla that links to the WP post and it will update the WP post with a meta tag that has a link to the Vanilla discussion. It's intended as a replacement for the WP comment system.

    One log-in whether to comment on blog entries or to begin/comment on a regular forum discussion.

    Several people have done this using the guide that Mark wrote. I posted about my personal experience, though I need to update that post with a few bug fixes.

    Blog entries that show the number of comments made on them in the forum.

    There's no existing solution for this that I know of. I'm 99% sure it would be possible to write a Vanilla extension that does this, though it might be kind of clunky.

    Front page listing of most recent forum posts, whether blog entry comments or regular forum posts.

    I haven't done this myself this but it should work. Try installing the RSS2 extension for Vanilla and the feedList plugin for WP.

    I'd like to keep the posts I currently have in the forum.

    That's the easiest part. Integrating Vanilla and WP won't touch your existing posts and won't change the WP code. I installed WP from my web host using Fantastico and I was able to upgrade from 2.0.7 to 2.1 with no trouble.

    I was surprised just how easy the integration is, a testament to how flexible Vanilla is. I found Vanilla when I was looking for a forum to integrate with WP, though now I find myself wishing there was a Vanilla blog so that I could dump WP entirely.
  • circuitcircuit
    my site is quite integrated

    http://www.copsandrobbers.net


    i'll be adding janine to the site today for testing.
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Now that is cool, squirrel. I swear you wrote that just for me, didn't you? A couple of questions, I understand that you're using the WP login. Does your process transfer all the existing Vanilla usernames/passwords to the WP database? I assume your code automatically puts in the: "This discussion is for comments about the front page article Integrating WordPress and Vanilla. Thank you for participating." Is that right?
  • strawberriesstrawberries New
    edited February 2007
    Alison, I followed the instructions, several months ago, and integrated wordpress and vanilla. It worked ok, after a few days of hair pulling.......obviously the key issue is enabling the user to have to login only the once to your site. But after a week or two, i took wordpress off my site. There just wasn't the need for vanilla and wordpress. It wasn't what I sought in the end. I had hoped wordpress would allow me to post a few key points/threads each day, as way of my home page. But it was justtoo big a pain in the arse, for such a small thing. Now if Swell would be released, and work seemlessly with vanilla, i'd be mighty keen.
  • jimwjimw
    I thought about integrating Vanilla and WP when I first learned about Vanilla. But I never proceeded because I have never gotten it through my thick skull why you would need both. It seems to me that you can do pretty much everything in each.
  • squirrelsquirrel
    Heh, actually I wrote it just for me. If nobody else uses it then I don't have to support it!

    Yup, the text you see in the Vanilla comment is all Janine's doing, automatically. Sadly, according to circuit it seems to not be working for versions 2.0.X, only for 2.1.X.

    The guide that Mark wrote, the one I followed, is for installing a brand new Vanilla alongside an existing WordPress. You have to add several fields to the WP users table to make it work but the extra fields don't affect WP at all. Vanilla and WP will both use the WP users table and the Vanilla users table will sit idle (you can even drop it).

    Transferring an existing Vanilla users list to WordPress could certainly be done but I don't know of anyone who has done it.
  • TomTesterTomTester New
    I want what alison wants, but integrated with 30boxes like circuit has.

    @circuit... is 30 boxes a manual entry affair or linked to WP/vanilla?
  • circuitcircuit
    the 30boxes integration is just a URL which EventCalendar3 (a wordpress plugin) generates. i had to change the code slightly so that it outputs a .vcal file instead of an .ical (i think that's right).
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    edited March 2007
    Strawberries, I will tell you what functions I want that I can't get with either program alone. One of my sites (http://www.mormonmomma.com) has a number of authors. These authors post columns periodically. Currently this is all done manually (and has been since 2003). The authors write the article, send it to me, I post it. When readers want to respond, they email the response, and I post it. The author then responds...and on and on. Obviously that is tedious and would be automated with blog software. This also allows organizing by column and category automatically--another thing I'm still doing manually. OTOH, I do like to provide an area (though not on the front page and not catalogued) where readers can post and discuss whatever they want. But having both areas (as far as I can tell) requires both a blog and a forum, two logins, two posting areas, etc. I'd like to streamline the posting process. Does that make sense?
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Thanks for the link, circuit. I'm trying to figure it out. I see your front page has only a teaser for the article, and a link to the whole article, but I can't find the comments. Can you help me out? BTW, I lived in Leeds about 20 years ago. My dad was on sabbatical teaching at the university. We lived in a flat on Grove Lane.
  • TomTesterTomTester New
    @Alison It's http://www.mormonmomma.com/, right?
    or did you guys start a competitor to the museum in NYC? :-)
  • circuitcircuit
    alison, the comments are found via the speech bubbles. not many people use them. that's partly why i want to integrate the vanilla forum as the comments system, but i'm not really ready to upgrade wordpress so i can use the janine plugin above.
  • circuitcircuit
    oh yeah; also, if you read the full article, the comments appear below it, if there are any. if there aren't, there is a form to add comments.
    you may need to be logged in to see it working.
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    edited March 2007
    Sheesh, Tom, yeah, sorry.

    I'm still working on this. Got the wp integrated and using Janine, so it creates a forum discussion and adds the "Forum Discussion" link, now working on getting rid of "No comments" link.
  • squirrelsquirrel
    edited March 2007
    Would delete this if I could...
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Sorry, squirrel. I found how to fix the comments link and so edited my post--apparently at the same time you were replying. Thank you.

    My last question, posted in a new thread, was about how to get the same link (to the associated vanilla discussion) into the archive index pages. (In other words, the pages that show up with a list of articles either within a certain month, or in a particular category.
  • squirrelsquirrel
    Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    edited March 2007
    squirrel, I was just re-reading the integration entry on your site, and came across something odd--I think. You posted your rework of the WP login. I wanted to ask a question about it, so tried to sign up. Sure enough, whether I tried to log in from Vanilla or WP, I ended up at the WP login screen--but I had no way to sign up as a new user. Perhaps you intentionally disabled the ability to sign up?
  • squirrelsquirrel
    Huh, so I did. Must have forgotten to undo that when the site went live. Fixed now.
  • CoviCovi
    One of my sites:
    http://www.laguardiadejaen.com (Spanish).
    Foro is forum... obviously ^^!

    I'm working to edit the post system of Wordpress to try to post a discussion on Vanilla...
    One probability is the use of CURL... I haven't tried still directly.
    Prob... Janine it's the best way but i like make this and without DB tables.

    Now... I'm about to upgrade both systems to WP2.3 and 1.1.4 :S

    PD: srry lang :(
Sign In or Register to comment.