MiniBB News is a widget plugin for WordPress that shows the latest discussion on the sidebar. It is developed for my needs because i love the miniBB forum and i have integrade it to my blog. Feel free to download it, try it and and make any suggestions!
MiniBB News version 2.0
updated @ 21/07/2008
Download MiniBB News
(from the Wordpress Repository)
Minibb News plugin sets a configurable widget that displays the latest miniBB discussions from your miniBB forums. It is functional and works without problems as you can see at my sidebar.
After activating the plugin go to the widgets area and load the minibb news widget at the widgets sidebar. Configure it and save. You can set the widget’s title, the path that your miniBB forums are installed, the number of posts that will be displayed at your sidebar, you can choose if you want to display the latest reply or the first post of the latest topic and the maximum number of words for each post. Every value is optional EXCEPT for the path that miniBB is installed and that MUST be somewhere inside your wordpress installation (with an ending slash). So if miniBB is installed at a folder named forums the correct value should be forums/ etc. If it is installed in a directory outside your WP installation you must edit the plugin by hand declaring it’s absolute path. The widget also assumes that WordPress and MiniBB shares the same database.
For users that posts with UTF-8 charset: In my installations of miniBB, even if i have changed the default iso-8859-1 at lang.php file and even that all my pages in which i integrade miniBB are all UTF-8, miniBB was storing the data in my database and was returning wrong charset and i couldn’t display the right UTF-8 characters from my forums.
The fix i found in miniBB support forums was that code:
As you see i added line 8 in the file setup_mysql.php and then all data in my DBase was stored with the correct charset.
- Decompress and upload the folder minibb-news to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
- Configure the widget minibb news and that’s all!
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- Deactivate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
- Delete the folder minibb-news from your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Decompress and upload the new folder minibb-news to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
- Reconfigure the minibb news widget (if needed).
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- Deactivate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
- Delete the folder minibb-news from your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
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| MiniBB News plugin is tested with WordPress 2.3 and later and with miniBB 2.1c and later installed. Installation of miniBB should be in a directory INSIDE the WordPress installation for the plugin to work. It also assumes that WordPress and MiniBB shares the same database. If not it requires manual editing to work correct. |
- Version 2.0: WP2.6 compatible.
- Version 1.8: A fix for WP2.5 Widget panel.
- Version 1.7: A fix to latest msg link.
- Version 1.6: If sorted by latest reply then link to latest msg.
- Version 1.5: Minor fixes and put it in subversion.
- Version 1.3: The date of latest post can be displayed. There’s a separated file which include 2 functions and some minor changes.
- Version 1.2: Still a Beta, fixed minor things.
- Version 1.1: Still a Beta realease, included some functions instead of all files, assumes that WPress and MiniBB shares the same DBase.
- Version 1.0: First Beta realease with lots of things to be done.
- Is this plugin free? Yeah, this plugin is free. That means you can do whatever you like with it without paying, donating or doing anything dealing with money.
- May I alter it, change it, recode it? You can do whatever you like with it. Just remember that its functions are based on the code of the official FIRST PAGE NEWS addon of miniBB which was written by Paul Puzyrev, author of miniBB forum.
- It didn’t work at my blog! This plugin works for MY BLOG as i have already described in this page. If you meet all the requirements above but you cannot make it work you ‘d better leave a comment here and I will try to help you. But if you can’t use it just uninstall it.
- It destroyed my blog or my forum! This plugin CAN’T destroy a blog or a forum. Read carefully the uninstallation process and everything will get back to normal.
- Does this plugin change my database/data/tables? NO! This plugin just calls some functions and displays the latest discussions of your miniBB forums but doesn’t changes your data or messing your database in anyway.
- Will this plugin make my pages load faster? NOT in anyway. Your pages will load all that it should plus that it will make a query to the database about your last forum discussions and will display them in your sidebar.
- Is it useful for my blog/forum? If you ask me i ‘d say that IT IS because it will let your visitors see if there’s any activity on your forums without having to visit them.
- Does this plugin integrade miniBB forum with a WordPress blog? No, it doesn’t, it just displays the latest discussions of your miniBB forums in your WordPress sidebar. Integration or synchronization is a different procedure and you can read more in my forums or visit the official miniBB website for more info about this.
- OK, so it’s working but how can i integrade my miniBB forums in my layout as you did? I have written a guide about it in my forums and you should read it first. Then just ask for help and i will reply to you ASAP.
- Can you make it do “this” or “that”? I could make almost anything but it takes time and the right mood. Just leave a wish and expect no promises.
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MiniBB News plugin is based on the code of the official FIRST PAGE NEWS addon of miniBB which was written by Paul Puzyrev, author of miniBB forum. I did nothing but modifying it’s code to use it as a widget in my wordpress installation. More info for miniBB and it’s addons can be found in the official site.
