Lalaley and bbPress

The Lalaley bbPress integration, included in the Lalaley core, adds the features to bbPress:

• Forum and Topic Membership Restriction Settings: Enable forums to be restricted to Lalaley Memberships just like posts and pages
• Course Forums: Link forums directly to a course to enable targeted course discussion within the forum
• Topic and Reply Engagement Triggers: Reward your students for contributing to forums with these new triggers

Lalaley provides forum functionality by integrating with the bbPress plugin. Before you begin, ensure the bbPress plugin is installed and activated on your WordPress site. Once bbPress is active, follow these steps to enable the integration:

1. Navigate to Lalaley > Settings > Integrations.
2. Locate the section labeled “bbPress“.
3. Check the “Enable / Disable” box to activate the integration.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
5. Click Save Changes.

Once enabled, bbPress forms can be restricted to one or multiple Lalaley Memberships.

Visit the forum on the WordPress Admin panel and locate the “Membership Access” box. Check “Restrict this Forum” and then select one or more membership levels to restrict the forum to.

When visitors attempt to access the forum (or any topics within it), they will be redirected based on the restriction settings for the associated membership.

To add a forum to a course:

1. Head to your course and click the “bbPress” tab
2. In the Private Course Forums area, search for and select the forum(s) for the course
3. Click the Update or Publish button to save

Course forums will be available only to students currently enrolled in the course.

To best display the course forum(s) to your students, we recommend using the Lalaley Course Forums List, which can be added to your course or lesson sidebar.

Note: If you are using a block or full-site editing theme, or a page builder such as Elementor or Divi, the forum may not appear automatically on the course page. In these cases, use the [bbp-single-forum] shortcode to display the forum manually. See the section “When to Use the Shortcode Instead of Course Forums” for full instructions.

Lalaley can automatically show a forum on your course page when you select a forum from the “Private Course Forums” dropdown menu. This automatic feature works best when you use a classic WordPress theme and the default page editor.

However, some themes and page builders prevent this automatic display. You must use a shortcode if you experience any of the following issues:

1. You use a modern block theme or a full site editing theme.
2. You edit your course or lesson pages with page builders like Elementor or Divi.
3. Your theme overrides the default template files, which hides the forum output.
4. The forum tab on your course page shows a blank space instead of the discussion area.

Why this happens

Block themes and page builders often replace the standard WordPress template that bbPress uses for forum output. When this template is bypassed, the Lalaley can’t inject the forum in the expected location.

In these cases, manually adding the forum via the shortcode ensures it displays correctly for students.

You can embed any bbPress forum directly into a course or lesson using the [bbp-single-forum] shortcode.

Step 1: Find the forum ID

• Go to Forums in the WordPress dashboard.

• Hover your cursor over the forum you want to embed.

• Look at the bottom-left of your browser. You’ll see a URL preview containing something like:post=2236. The number is your forum ID.

Step 2: Add the shortcode to your course or lesson

• Open the course or lesson where you want the forum to appear

• Add a Shortcode block (block theme) or a Shortcode widget (page builder)

• Insert the shortcode:

[bbp-single-forum id=”123″]

(Replace 123 with the ID of your forum.)

Step 3: Save and test

Update or publish the course or lesson. Visit the page as an enrolled student to confirm the forum displays as expected.

Troubleshooting

The forum appears twice

If a theme or builder automatically displays the forum and you added the shortcode, remove it.

Topics load but return a 404

Permalinks may need refreshing. Go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save.

The forum layout looks broken

Page builders and FSE themes sometimes conflict with bbPress styling. Try placing the shortcode in a full-width container or disabling theme blocks on that section.

You can configure Lalaley engagements triggered by events that occur in bbPress forums.

Student creates a new forum topic

This action will be triggered when a student creates a new forum topic.

Student creates a new forum reply

This action will be triggered when a student creates a new forum reply.