not a support question
View mockup image
View mockup image (revision 2)
Here's a mockup of a potential home theme for BuddyPress installs. I'd be interested in hear people's feedback.
The idea would be for it to consist of a bunch of widgets that could be selectively enabled and moved around. Widgets such as "Members" and "Groups" could dynamically load lists based on the selection of "Newest" or "Popular" etc.
There will dedicated pages for some components, where users can search and browse a directory.
Looks great Andy! One thing I noticed: the "What's hot" link for blog posts - is there going to be some kind fo rating system (or is there one already I've missed)?
Actually, looking at this and the similarities with the default profile template I see quite a few opportunities to create site-wide style templates which may be edited by users. Think: changing the background and text colour for your blog, but keep the actual layout etc.
I guess it's all dynamic, so's the bbpress feed too?
Also are the member widget tabs dynamic or hard coded?
I like it. Aggregating this information makes an immediate statement about the site and its users. As it is, it's easy on the eye and the page isn't overloaded.
Loving it! I think it does what its supposed to do (Aggregate), and a component/ widget arrangement sounds pretty good.
I like this, very impressed that it seems that their will be a sitewide activity feed (as opposed to a per user feed) Am I right Andy?
What I don't see is categories and tags. I know Wordpress MU does not support sitewide categories, and I know theres a plugin to make Tags sitewide.
Any plans for these features in Buddypress?
My suggestions:
First look - nice and clean.
But I would say it's too spacious and "nice" for daily use.
Last year I did a similar page for a client - who wanted several columns for widgets (Blogs, Login, Chat, Community, Forum, etc).
http://orangeguru.biz/clients/bizzlounge/index.html
If the layout / type is too big you hardly see anything what's going on on a normal sized monitor (1280x800 or x1024) without scrolling. On the other hand you'll never fit everything on a small or big screen anyway. So the layout has to be compact on one side - but also prioritize the widgets / elements.
I suggest deflating your design a bit, resizing some sections. It doesn't need to be as tight (in my opionion too tight) as my design mentioned above - but it would help.
D.
For orangeguru:
Nice, but did you have published this website ?
What kind of configuration do you used ? Wordpress MU + Buddypress + what widget ?
Add
I like all the aggregation. I find the layout a little bit to spaced out. My suggestion is tighten it up a tad.
Yay! I got featured on the screenshot :-).
Great work Andy. I remember someone asking for video support. Maybe you can download some free FLV player and brand it 'BuddyPress Player' or something and use it for video content throughout the website!
Looks amazing Andy! I am really looking forward to what trying it out!
Woot! There's my nose!
Looks good Andy.
For video support, MU strips out any script, like those in embed codes, so you need to add some generic video plugin to allow them.
@MrWiblog - Not sure exactly how the "Hot Posts" will work yet. It was more just an idea. A rating system would be good if there is one out there that would work?
@milo317 - Everything is dynamic, although content will likely be cached to reduce server load.
@wildebees - I think a site wide activity feed shouldn't be too tough. Every members activity is cached in the DB, so merging those together to produce a site-wide feed should be ok to do.
@Member - Site wide categories and tags would be a big plus. Not sure if that will make it by December though.
@orangeguru/dazednconfused - Some people love padding, others hate it. :) Thankfully you can edit the CSS, so it should be fairly simple to tighten up the theme.
@exchequer598 - I think someone was working on a BuddyPress video component, but I'm not entirely sure.
@trent @andrea_r - Thanks!
I'm liking v2!
Wow. I'm super impressed and excited for the future of buddypress. Do you think a version 2 will be part of the dec release?
Keep up the great work Andy!
- Brian
@brianbrey - Yes, I'm working on it right now. It's important for this to be in the first version of BuddyPress.
What I'd look for in a default theme is not necessarily the styling but the functionality. It should provide all possible features of BuddyPress and be documented reasonably well to make customisation easy. Hardly anyone will use a theme out-of-the box anyway. If anything you wouldn't want to overload it with too many styles and graphics :).
The theme looks nice and goes with the look and feel of the BP profile theme.
By the way, what will the criteria for the active/popular groups and members tabs be?
Very impressed...
Nothing but "WOW!" to say for now. :) We're all waiting for this.
Great job!
I like it. My only comment would be that it seems a bit too busy. Maybe a bit more white-space would help. If you're looking for suggestions, maybe align the left edge of the "Home" menu item up with the "Members" bar below it, just to keep things in line.
I want this checked in next week.
This is pretty amazing!!!
If I had to choose between the two color sets, I like the second one better. (I think that is the only difference....)
Can't wait to test this out!!!
@wondercore: The site went live some time ago - https://bizzlounge.com/ - with some ugly additions. It's based on the SocialEngine - and loads of custom code.
I've messed with Social Engine before...not a bad script at all.
Here's what I've done with my BP home page for a site that worked better with a static 960px width layout. I know it's not perfect, but please view with either Firefox, Chrome, or IE7 (I think 6 bugs out a little).
@brandtd, back from the dead... Looks good and I like the colors a lot.
Something I noticed is that the page links in your main navigation start with "www." when it doesn't need it. If you're using RC1 then that is hard coded and you can just omit that and be good to go.
@Andy, question that I didn't see asked... For the recent forum widget, are you using the existing widget for non-mu WordPress, or did you make a special one for BuddyPress?
make sure you submit it to http://www.freebuddypressthemes.com :)
we need more themes!
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