Protect your community’s forum with the bbPress Integration for Paid Memberships Pro. This Add On seamlessly extends PMPro’s membership access controls to your bbPress or BuddyBoss forums. Key features include:

  • Membership-Level Access Control: Specify which membership levels can view and participate in each members-only discussion forum, safeguarding your premium content.
  • Custom Error Messages: Tailor the experience for non-members with custom error messages, guiding them towards membership options.
  • Enhanced Member Engagement: Incorporate members-only forum links on account pages, encouraging deeper community involvement.
  • Role-Based Forum Settings: Assign unique forum roles and display options by membership level, adding a layer of personalization and recognition for members.

How it Works

This plugin adds the Require Membership panel to your single forums, allowing you to create a members-only discussion forum. Specify exactly which membership levels can view and participate in the forum.

After restricting forums by level, people without access will be redirected away from the page when trying to access a single topic or the main forums archive page.

In addition to access restrictions, you can also define several members-only forum settings to help you control deeper features and display options within bbPress.

Installation

You must have the Paid Memberships Pro plugin installed and activated to use this Add On.

  1. Navigate to Memberships > Add Ons in the WordPress admin.
  2. Locate the Add On and click “Install Now”.
    • Or, to install this plugin manually, download the .zip file above.
    • Upload the compressed directory (.zip) via the Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin screen in the WordPress admin.
  3.  Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in the WordPress admin.

Note: This Add On requires bbPress and Paid Memberships Pro to be installed and activated.

Restrict a Forum by Membership Level

Here’s how to create a members-only discussion forum with PMPro and bbPress:

  1. Navigate to Forums in your WordPress admin and select a forum to edit.
  2. On this page, you will see a Require Membership panel in the right column of the editing screen.
  3. Select membership levels in this box to allow members-only access to the forum. This action protects the forum’s main topic page as well as individual topics.
  4. Click Update to save your changes.

Members, users, and site visitors without these levels will not be allowed to view forum content, including single topics and single topic replies.

Note: This Add On also works with the Forums features of BuddyBoss.

bbPress Integration - Edit Forum Settings

Configure General Forum Settings For Memberships

Navigate to Settings > Forums in the WordPress admin. Here you can specify additional Paid Memberships Pro behavior for your forums including:

  • Error Message: This message is shown when users attempt to view a forum or thread they don’t have access to.
  • Member Links: Add links to member forums in the “Member Links” section of the “Membership Account” page.
  • Hide Member Forums: Hide member forums content from forums list and search results.
  • Hide Forum Roles: Hide forum roles in replies.
  • Show Membership Levels: Show membership levels in replies and on the bbPress profile page.
bbPress Integration - General Forum Settings

Custom Forum Settings by Membership Level

In addition to overall membership forum settings, this plugin also supports level-specific forum settings.

  1. Navigate to Memberships > Settings > Levels in the WordPress admin
  2. Select a membership level to Edit.
  3. Locate the Other Settings section at the bottom of the screen.
  4. In the bbPress Settings section, adjust your settings for this specific level, including:
    • Forum Role: Assign a specific Forum Role to members of this level. The Role will be reset to the site default role if membership is cancelled, as defined under Settings > General.
    • Background Color: Highlight the topic replies for members of this level with the specified background color. You can also add custom styles to your site’s CSS. Replies by members of this level can be targeted with the CSS selector .pmpro-level-{level_ID}.
  5. Save your membership level to update the settings.
bbPress Integration - Membership Level Settings

Video: How to Lock a Member Forum by Membership Level

Action and Filter Hooks

The following actions and filters are available in this Add On:

apply_filters( 'pmprobb_filter_forum_queries', true );
apply_filters( 'pmprobb_filter_topic_queries', true );
apply_filters( 'pmprobbp_check_forum_redirect_url', $redirect_to, $forum_id );
apply_filters('pmpro_bbp_error_msg', __( 'You do not have the required membership level to access that forum.', 'pmpro-bbpress' ) );

Screenshots

Single forum with list of topic built with bbPress, BuddyBoss, and Paid Memberships Pro
A members-only discussion forum with list of topic built with bbPress, BuddyBoss, and Paid Memberships Pro
Single forum topic with replies built with bbPress, BuddyBoss, and Paid Memberships Pro
Single forum topic with replies built with bbPress, BuddyBoss, and Paid Memberships Pro
bbPress Integration - Edit Forum Settings
Edit a single forum to define membership access.
bbPress Integration - General Forum Settings
Configure General Forum Settings for Paid Memberships Pro
bbPress Integration - Membership Level Settings
Define membership level-specific settings in the bbPress Integration for PMPro

This is a Free Add On.

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