BuddyPress.org

Hello BuddyPress community,

I’m developing a plugin to enhance BuddyPress group functionality by restricting group creation, membership, and access based on member types and group types. The goal is to dynamically control access to specific groups while allowing flexibility for users to create their own groups within defined restrictions.

What I Want to Achieve:
Restrict group creation:
Example: Only users with the member type “Femme” can create or join a group of type “groups femmes”.
Other member types (e.g., “Homme”) should be unable to interact with these groups.
Dynamic flexibility:
A member type (e.g., “Femme”) can create and join multiple types of groups.
Group access permissions are defined by admin-configured mappings of group types to member types.
Admin interface:
An admin page where:
Group types can be created dynamically.
Group-member restrictions can be managed and displayed in a user-friendly table.

What I’ve Tried So Far:
Admin Page Code:
I’ve built a basic admin page that allows mapping group types to member types:


function bpga_admin_page_content() {
// Example group-member mapping.
$group_restrictions = get_option( 'bpga_group_restrictions', [] );
$available_member_types = [ 'femme', 'homme', 'autres' ];
$existing_group_types = groups_get_group_types();

echo '<h1>Group Access Settings</h1>';
foreach ( $existing_group_types as $group_type => $label ) {
echo '<p>' . esc_html( ucfirst( $label ) ) . ': ';
echo isset( $group_restrictions[ $group_type ] )
? implode( ', ', array_map( 'ucfirst', $group_restrictions[ $group_type ] ) )
: 'No restrictions';
echo '</p>';
}
}


Restricting Group Access:
I attempted to restrict group access during the creation process using the groups_create_group() hook but struggled to tie this seamlessly to member types. Here’s an example snippet:


add_filter( 'groups_user_can_create', function( $can_create, $user_id ) {
$user_type = bp_get_member_type( $user_id );
if ( $user_type === 'homme' && groups_get_current_group_type() === 'cercle_femmes' ) {
return false; // Block "homme" from creating "cercle_femmes".
}
return $can_create;
}, 10, 2 );

Dynamic Group Types:
Group types are created using groups_register_group_type():


groups_register_group_type( 'cercle_femmes', [
'labels' => [ 'name' => 'Cercle des Femmes' ],
'has_directory' => true,
] );

Challenges I’m Facing:
Group Creation Logic: How can I seamlessly enforce restrictions at the group creation stage?
Permissions for Existing Groups: What’s the best way to enforce membership restrictions for already-created groups?

Dynamic Interface: Any advice on building a scalable admin interface for managing these mappings?
Looking for Guidance:
Am I approaching this the right way with groups_register_group_type and bp_get_member_type?
Are there better hooks or filters to enforce these restrictions dynamically?

Examples or suggestions for enhancing the code structure are welcome!
Thanks in advance for your insights. I’d be happy to share progress and refinements once this is functional.