After much searching followed by some searching and then some more searching I have finally struck upon a method for showing recent PHPBB3 posts in Wordpress. There are a lot of methods out there and little bits of code but they are not all packaged up neatly in plugin form. Thanks to Nick Bettison of linickx.com I found that there is at least one solution that is easy for non-experts to implement.

(You can jump right in by visiting the phpbb_recent_topics page at Wordpress.org.)

The one really useful bit that I would add to Bettison's documentation is that you can get the required PHPBB mysql database information (sounds a bit daunting but really isn't) by simply opening the folder where your forum is installed on your website and copying a line from it.

Go to your PHPBB folder (in my case http://www.metro-east.com/forum) and open config.php. You will find the information you need listed here and then you just need to go back to the phpbb_recent_topics settings page in Wordpress and enter the database name.

Next either place the widget according to the instructions at the plugin's homepage (linked above) or use the instructions to place the code in your sidebar.

Here is that code for the sidebar:

While placing the code in the sidebar the only issue I ran into was that the plugin returned an error. The error was a missing argument in the sidebar code.

Here is the code as it should be:

...where the '5' is the limitation on the number of posts you want. (The plugin settings page asks you how many posts you want to display. I believe the issue is that when you enter a number at the settings page you are only addressing the plugin's widget. If you are installing it in the sidebar you need to add the '5' (or any other number as you wish) in this manner.

I am working on some formatting issues but the main work has been done. You can see it in action on the blog posts at my site, for example: http://www.metro-east.com/the-sporting-blog/the-playoffs-are-still-within-reach/

UPDATE: Here is how I was able to style the list.

Go to your Plugin Editor in Wordpress and select the phpbb_recent_topics plugin. Find these lines:

and replace them with lines similar to these:

The only difference is that you are specifying

and

before and after each phpBB topic link. Then all you have to do is select how you want to style your CSS class for the list item.