Development for version 1.2 of BuddyPress is beginning to wind down and we’re looking at a feature freeze at the end of this month. I’d expect the new version to be released some time at the end of January after a period of beta testing. We’ve got a host of new features to look forward to in this new version and I’d like to give you a glimpse of a few of them.
One of the biggest changes is the activity stream. There has been a lot of focus on making the activity stream far more interactive in 1.2, and to do this we have merged together some of the features in previous versions of BuddyPress. Instead of having to post messages on a group or profile wire, or posting a separate status update, you can now post messages directly to the site wide stream, your profile stream, or a group activity stream. This stops fragmentation of the interface and brings content posting into one unified input box.
One of the benefits of this interactive activity stream is that we can now provide the ability for other members to post direct replies to your updates. In 1.2 the activity stream includes the ability for threaded commenting. 
This allows for full conversations to take place around activities and makes the activity stream that much more of a two way process.
Another major update in 1.2 is the introduction of a new default theme. We’ve worked hard to produce a theme that will help both end users and developers. The new theme offers a more usable and unified interface with far more personal customization than the previous default. The theme also greatly simplifies the HTML, CSS and Javascript that powers it, allowing for greater ease of customization. If you’re fully invested in the previous default, don’t worry, this theme is not going anywhere and has already been updated to support the new features in 1.2. The new default simply provides a fresh alternative.
If you’re itching to start trying out some of the features in the new version, you can head on over to the BuddyPress Test Drive. The test drive runs the latest development version of BuddyPress and represents the state of the newest version as it currently stands. If you’d like to start working with the development version you can always check out the latest version from our svn code repository. However, remember that until the final version is released code is subject to change.
I hope everyone has a wonderful festive season and an even better new year celebration. 2010 is going to be an exciting year for BuddyPress, I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.
Funny, my comment to 1.1.3 came just before this post. So my comment better fits here:
Andy, I see you working on the new design.
It looks great, but…
a) my theme is based on the old bp default: http://netzkritzler.de with two sidebars. Do I have to change everything if I want to use the new theme? This would be a lot of work.
b) Will the admin have the possibility to set a filter by default? I Don’t like the sozial-network stuff where everybody can see what other’s are doing, but only want the posts and no other activity being displayed on the home and on the profiles.
c) Is there any chance (now and with the new theme) to get the posts in the profile, if the activity-function is deactivated? How?
Thanks
Rita
@nickrita: You will not need to change anything over, you can continue exactly as you are with the original theme. The new features will pass through to your theme if you created a child theme of “bp-sn-parent”.
The new theme will provide an option to switch between blog posts or the global activity stream on the front page. Of course you have the ability to override this in your theme and put whatever you’d like on the front page.
I think the last question would be better for the forums since you’d need to explain exactly what you need.
Hey Andy,
Any idea when a 1.2 beta will be available for testing?
Also, will there be a way for the new design to display folks’ bbPress activity? (example, JoeSmith made a forum post in integrated bbPressForum1.com, Sally made a forum post in integrated bbPressForum2.com
If not, I think this would be a great feature to include in the future. Please consider it!
The new 1.2 default theme is great. It’s far more simple to build a child theme with it. I like the new select boxes most. Jqeury is using clear selectors now and isn’t relative to .parent elements so often. Theme designers can move things around in their child theme and also rely on the bp-default javascript and ajax functions!
It took me so far 1 day to convert our old 1.1.3 custom theme to the new 1.2 theme structure.
Buddypress is shaping up and up! We’re looking forward to start a non-profit Network for our students in May 2010 and are excited about upcoming core privacy features and media upload / attachement.
Great work!
Brilliant!
Thank you – and everyone else – for all your hard work and Happy Christmas!
PS Will we be able to allocate an avatar to user or group blogs? I think someone mentioned that this might be the case.
Hey, i’m building a new site with the trunk right now… Andy, could you enlist me in the Beta Testing team?
my interest will now be to focus on “site-wide” features and widgets, like Brajesh’s ones… i need a direct communication between blogs and the main site. something we do not have right now is a “friends latest posts” block, where as you imagine, would display activity of my own friends in a widget…
ok, let’s see if i can do something with that trunk.
BP 1.2 is a thing of beauty. I’ve tried both the new theme and the legacy theme. Love how the new interactive activity-stream widget, with the “what’s new?” box, works seamlessly across both versions. Any chance that image attachments will be built into box, ala P2, in the near future?
Kudos. The new theme looks like a great improvement. Please take your time til automatic upgrades work without a hitch.
Thanks for all of your hard work Andy.
Is it possible to have a “quiet period” after beta testing and before the release? It would be great for plugin developers to have two or three days to do final testing and tweaks before everyone starts doing the automatic upgrading. If not, then at least a warning a few days before 1.2 is tagged would be appreciated.
come a long way from ChickSpeak, eh?
will def come out with a bp 1.2 theme to finally replace my old one =)
This is all good news. I like the new design and look forward to the functionality. I begin work in earnest after Football and Food on Friday.
What version of WPMU is BP trunk running on?
Do you anticipate specific challenges with 2.9 (e.g. commentmeta)?
I’m wondering whether to wait for WPMU 2.9 or go with 2.8.6 for testing purposes.
Also, does the new theme framework better enable projects like Buddymatic or the one I’ve seen with Thesis? For sites where interaction is only a small subset of content/purpose, developers are going to want to use existing WP theme structures and just apply BP functionality where needed.
Currently, when a WP theme framework is the parent (Thesis, Thematic, Hybrid) and BP is a subset of the child (as needed based on functionality), this may fit developers, but makes upgrading a nasty proposition. Something to think about.
I frankly don’t want to jettison Hybrid to get access to BP functionality. I know I don’t have to, but I also want a good plan for upgrading both Hybrid and BP in the future.
All versions of BuddyPress – including trunk – run fine on 2.8.6. I’m not personally tested against WPMU 2.9 but I understand it works fine from people I’ve spoken to.
[…] Peatling has announces BuddyPress 1.2 release for the end of January. This new version should allow a better sitewide interactivity for the […]
Congrats, Andy. Take a well deserved break…until Saturday. j.k
Happy Christmas, as you say across the pond
Thanks and Merry Christmas to you as well. Looking forward to this release.
Testing new theme and the Forums worked and then after a few topics were posted all the groups show the same topics now matter what group forum you posted topic in.
Has anyone else had this happen?
oh just noticed it’s the same way on the http://testbp.org/ site.
Is this how the forums work? Whats the point of having group forums if its not separated?
Modemlooper: No, this is just a temporary bug while some of the filters are worked on.
😉 gotcha just loving new theme
MrMaz: That can definitely be arranged.
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First I wish you all a Merry Christmas!
Andy, I postet my problem in the german forum and here, but nobody seems to be able to help.
http://netzkritzler.de is a community of authors posting their articles. Some have own blogs, some post in the main blog.
Those without own blogs want to see a list of their articles in their profile.
I have the activity-function disabled, because I don’t really want it and I thought, that I don’t need it to display the blog posts in the profile.
If anyone could tell me how to get the blog posts into the profile, I would be very happy.
For now and for 1.2 it would really be good to have the chance to get a posts-list without having to the store the whole activity on the server.
Thanks
Rita
Confirmed:
latest trunk of BuddyPress *(1.2-bleeding) with latest truck of WPMU *(2.9 rc1) working crystal clear this morning, updated 10 minutes ago!!!
Thank you Andy, JJJ, Matt & team for all your hard work !
Just relax for a bit and enjoy what you have achieved so far…..
Also special thanks & Merry Christmas to Jeff & DJPaul for your “Privacy-Plugin” and great support at the Forums !
Andy,
I am brand new to buddyPress but I love it. It is like BuddyCrack a person can’t get enough. (hopefully that’s not a bad analogy). But once you start using it you do tend to spend hour after hour on it, sometimes to the neglect of other thing.
But I am very interested in what I interpret will be easy site wide communications in the new release. Maybe permission based somehow?? The community that we have started are not necessarily made up of bloggers or blogger want to be’s. But it is necessary to easily and briefly communicate with the whole communing at times is a big need.
Anyway thanks for all your hard work, keep it up!
And Merry Christmas to all!!
Merry Christmas. Thank you for your hard work. Bottoms up!
I like the interface of bp1.2 however some of the features are still lacking. I wonder is there an option for me to choose simple press rather that bbpress.
New theme
Fatal error: Call to undefined function bp_is_member() in\bp-default\header.php on line 47
why?
Please help me..thank you.
Great News,I love BuddyPress!
Yep , the new theme looks very cool.
thanks man !
merry christmas buddypress
Dude. Just …. Dude.
I was (am) running a small site with a lot of ‘sub blogs’ for my friends and family. I was about to start making multiple blogs when I thought “Gee, WPMU would be great.” Then I thought “Wonder if BP has rolled out the new stuff…”
And look! You did! Much easier for me.
Curiously, only for my admin do the blogs show up under ‘My Blogs’. Even when I add another ID as an admin for a selected blog. Of to do more testing and, as needed, open my eyes or a trac ticket 😉
Hi, when is Buddypress coming to single member WordPress sites so we can all use it?
[…] fort possible puisque le développement est passé en feature freeze, c’est-à-dire qu’il n’y aura plus d’ajout de nouvelles fonctions. Le […]
@R Lawrence: The future is now. Go and check out the latest trunk version of BP 1.2.
You can run it on single WordPress Installations.
Looking great, Andy and JJJ. Really massive improvement in layout and functionality to draw people in to using it. I can’t describe how much I’d like to cut over my live site to 1.2 right now, but I AM AFEARD. I’ll wait, I guess.
Thanks also for implementing that @user notification feature request I made. Very cool.
Thanks so much guys for all you do and a Happy New Year to all! I’m really looking forward to the new release ‘cuz I’ve been announcing the launch of my site for March 1st. That will give me February to get everything up and running.
hi
the box “Site Activity” will be a widget or no?
(i am french)
yes, I agree with you, I am working on it.
I like the new theme a lot. I like how the navigation links are at the top rather than taking up vertical space. However, I can’t log in to the test site. I’m logged in here just fine, of course, but can’t get into the test site. It knows my user name is registered, but I’m not receiving the password change email. I’ve tried to re-register with a new name and don’t get the activation email either. I’ve checked my SPAM folder.
Regarding activity stream changes in 1.2, is the idea that there will be only one stream and this new activity stream is basically the wire combined with old activity (ala 1.1)?
This looks to be the case with testbp.org were, the “wire” where you could post messages is gone and now there is only “activity”.
Good benefits and features on buddypress!
I am looking forward to install one in my website and enhance the website content..
I will definitely work on this soon.
Thanks,
Rick
Opps … I mistaken this plugin for WordPress blog too.
After visiting the download page, I realized it is for WordPress MU only. Is that any plugin for WordPress blog?
If not, then I have to look for alternative solution for forum features.
Thanks for developing the great plugin.
Rick
Just updated to 1.2 and now my theme doesn’t seem to work. The home page loads, I can login and out. But it seems like most everything under /members will not load.
I can get /groups and /groups/[groupname]/ to load, but /members and /members/[username] redirect to my home page. Could this have something to do with the new activity stream and the old wire and activity calls are screwing with something?
Are there some major changes around members that I need to update or is there another update/upgrade i need to do to get an older 1.1 working theme working in 1.2?
Any advice would be appreciated .
thanks,
Bob
it seems very strange to me that you can just leave a comment on someones profile anymore.. that’s just about the most used part of facebook or any social networking site, so why has it been left out? I understand that you can do so with @user from your own box.. but is the common user going to take the time to figure that out? I doubt it.. any comments on this?
hmn…i think it is better for me to use this development version since I’m just about to start a new site. I used the test site and it’s way better the previous one. great job, andy. thanks and congratulations to those who contributed for this project.
@peter: if I go to a user’s profile, I want to see that user’s activity, not a bunch of other people’s.
With this new model you will only see a user’s activity, but other people are still able to leave replies. When they do this the reply will also show on their own profile.
This has been discussed before and the concensus is it is a much better model moving forward.
Would anyone be willing to help me with this BuddyPress?
Thanks Andy I’m very excited.
My community keeps growing larger and larger and I have you to thank for this amazing and free social networking blogging software.