WP-United is a powerful yet compact modification for phpBB 3. The package integrates WordPress, the leading blogging and content management tool, into a phpBB community.

Use WordPress as a stand-alone portal, or as a fully-integrated blog system

The choice is yours! The multitude of clean, well-designed templates for WordPress make it an excellent choice for a site homepage. If you want, you can allow community members to comment on WordPress posts, or give them their own fully-fledged blog with a choice of themes.

Combine WordPress, or phpBB, into the look and feel of your site

You can choose to have WordPress appear inside your phpBB header and footer – as users browse posts or articles in WordPress, they will also have access to phpBB function such as log in/out, profile, and private messaging.

If you prefer, you can also choose to have phpBB appear inside a WordPress page!

Many owners of phpBB sites will have spend a long time customising the look and feel. You won’t have to duplicate this as WordPress will sit inside your existing header and footer, without any modifications! And the reverse is true too, for owners of WordPress sites.

New in v0.7.0: If you want phpBB integrated inside a WordPress page, the phpBB3 header can be auto-removed, while still retaining the phpBB3 quick search box. For existing WordPress users, this means that with a few clicks they can deploy a phpBB forum to their blog sites, with little fuss.

Automatic login integration

Users don’t need to register for a separate WordPress account – it is all managed behind the scenes by the integration package.

You can choose how user levels are mapped from phpBB to WordPress – for example, you could give phpBB users the ability to create posts, mods the power to edit posts, etc… or you could allow only phpBB admins to create posts, and everyone else to comment… the choice is yours. You can even turn the mapping completely off – allowing WordPress to use its own login system.

A management panel is provided so you can view a list of WordPress users and see how they are mapped to phpBB users.

Cross-posting from blogs to forums

Using the phpBB3 permissions system, you can earmark forums for “cross-posting” from blogs. Then, when you write a blog post in wordpress, you can choose for a post summary to be cross-posted as a new topic. A post summary, with tag and category information, is generated, and HTML formatting is automatically converted to BBcode.

Smilies and avatars

phpBB avatars will automatically be used for integrated users on WordPress comments. You can also choose to use phpBB smilies in WordPress posts and comments.

A full set of WordPress template tags is also provided, so you can modify your WordPress templates with all sorts of phpBB forum information.

To blog or not to blog?

WP-United can provide the ability to give each community member their own blog. Members can choose the title, description, and even the theme of their own blogs. WordPress itself doesn’t even natively support this functionality!

For members who have blogs, a “Blog” link will show up in their profile and under their posts, which, when clicked, will take visitors directly to their blog.

Users can show their phpBB avatar in their blog – and community members commenting on blog posts can have theirs show up too.

WP-United can also auto-create a “Blogs homepage” with a summary of each user’s blog, effectively providing an out-of-the-box blogging system for your users

Of course, any or all of these features may be turned off.

Plug n’ Play — Zero Changes Required!
WP-United is a 100% phpBB mod. No changes whatsoever are made to WordPress files – which makes upgrading your WordPress install a breeze! You don’t even need to install a WordPress Plugin!

The mod applies all its behavioural changes to WordPress through a unique WP-United Connection. This Connection controls how WordPress behaves while it is integrated into phpBB.

The WP-United Connection is very flexible – WordPress can be installed anywhere on the same host relative to phpBB (provided they use the same subdomain name). You can install WordPress inside or outside your phpBB folder – or you can even install phpBB inside your WordPress folder!

WP-United is also very modular — you can disable or enable each feature individually. [b]You choose[/b] which features to use! An uninstaller is also provided so you can cleanly reverse any changes you make. Changes to phpBB files are kept to a minimum and are minimally invasive.

Easy Setup Wizard

WP-United comes with an easy-to-follow Setup Wizard that resides in your phpBB Admin Control panel.

The Wizard walks you through setting up WordPress, and includes AJAX-enabled tools to auto-detect some of the key options for you. The Wizard establishes the WP-United Connection with your WordPress install with one click.

Theme / Plugin / Mod compatibility

WP-United will work with almost any WordPress theme and plugin, out of the box. (However, the template integration is not currently compatible with phpBB’s SEO Mod.)

Plus much more!