Published on September 21st, 2011 by Boone Gorges
BuddyPress Template Pack is a Totally Tubular plugin that helps you to bring BuddyPress functionality to any WordPress theme. And now, after a bit of elbow grease, the latest version (1.2) is fully compatible with the so-close-it-hurts BuddyPress 1.5!
BPTP works, in brief, by copying over some necessary template files from BuddyPress into your existing theme, where you can customize them to your heart’s content. In order to protect any customizations that you may already have made if you’re already using the Template Pack with a BuddyPress 1.2.x site, BPTP won’t overwrite the any BP-specific template files in your theme, even after upgrading to BPTP 1.2 and BP 1.5. If you’re upgrading, and you’d like to get the shiny new templates from BP 1.5, you’ll need to remove the BP template directories from your theme (activity, blogs, forums, groups, members, and registration), and hit “Reset” under Dashboard > Appearance > BP Compatibility. If you’ve previously made customizations to the BP templates copied into your theme, you’ll then have to copy those changes over to the newly moved template files. Sound like a lot of work? Don’t worry – the template changes between BuddyPress 1.2.10 and BuddyPress 1.5 are not huge, so it’s likely that your old templates will continue to work just fine. In any case, make sure you back up your theme before attempting any monkey business!
Special thanks to r-a-y, who did most of the work to make BuddyPress Template Pack compatible with the latest BuddyPress. Woo hoo, r-a-y!
Download BPTP 1.2 from the wordpress.org plugin repository.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve released three – count ’em, three! – beta versions of BuddyPress 1.5. During that time, we’ve gotten some great feedback, and some great patches, from our user and developer community. With a clear mind (and a clear milestone), today we are releasing the BuddyPress 1.5 Release Candidate.
The “release candidate” label means that we think that the current codebase is rock solid, and this final stage in the release cycle gives users one more chance to find any remaining kinks before the stable release.
We’d like this RC period to be short – we’re as anxious for the 1.5 release as you are! – so please give the RC a go in your test environments, and try the latest code in a live testbed at testbp.org. As usual, we recommend that you don’t run pre-release code in mission-critical production environments.
You can download BuddyPress 1.5 RC 1 today, from the bottom of our Trac page.
In addition (it’s been quite a weekend): available immediately is BuddyPress 1.2.10. This minor update includes an important security fix, as well as fixes for a few deprecated function calls. It’s a recommended update for all BuddyPress installations. Upgrade through your WordPress Dashboard, or download BuddyPress 1.2.10 from WordPress Extend or BuddyPress.org.
With BuddyPress 1.5 due any day now, we’d like to invite you to take the next major release for a test drive. If you’d like to help us out or even if you’re just curious what’s coming in 1.5, check out the official test site at testbp.org. It’s always running the latest versions of BuddyPress and bbPress, has almost 30,000 members, and is the best way to help us make sure everything is ready for release while letting you be safely behind the driver’s seat.
As a general reminder, we’re keeping running list of API changes for 1.5 in our codex at codex.buddypress.org.
We are putting the finishing touches on the forums component now, and are aiming to release 1.5 as soon as this week. Keep an eye out!
Available today for developer testing is BuddyPress 1.5 Beta 3. We’re keeping our momentum going and squashed enough bugs in Beta 2 that we want to give it another trip around the block to make sure it’s solid.
If you are a BuddyPress plugin author, please take the time to test your plugins against the latest code and let us know if something isn’t working quite right. We have an extensive change-log for 1.5 and we want everyone to transition from 1.2 as painlessly as possible.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one… Please don’t run BuddyPress Beta software on your live production site. We know there will be quirks and we are keeping up with your bug reports as they come in. Install BuddyPress 1.5 on a local installation or a test site, and let us know if you find anything that isn’t working the way it should. The end of August is upon us, and we’re ramping up for a release in the coming days.
You can download BuddyPress 1.5 Beta 3 today, from the bottom of our Trac page.
Just 5 days after 1.5 Beta 1, up for grabs today for all you early adopters and plugin and theme developers is BuddyPress 1.5 Beta 2. It fixes a few bugs that cropped up early in Beta 1, and we want everyone to test with the newest code available.
If you are a BuddyPress plugin author, now is your time to help us help you, and check out all the work that’s gone into making the next version of BuddyPress faster, more efficient, more secure, and easier to code against.
As always, please DO NOT run BuddyPress Beta software on your live production site. There are going to be quirks with existing plugins, and we will be updating code rapidly as bug reports come in. Install BuddyPress 1.5 on a local installation or a test site, and let us know if you find anything that isn’t working the way it should. We are hoping the beta period will only last a few weeks, with a release in August.
You can download BuddyPress 1.5 Beta 2 today, from the bottom of our Trac page.
Huge thanks to all of our testers!
Wait… 1.5? What happened to 1.3? Or 1.4 for that matter?
You see… BuddyPress 1.2 was released on February 16, 2010. We’ve shipped 9 point releases since then, but it’s been over 17 months since a major release of BuddyPress has come through the tubes.
We do our best to mirror the WordPress development cycles as closely as possible – maybe a little too closely. Back in 2004, WordPress went through a growth spurt of its own, going 9 months between major releases (also between versions 1.2 and 1.5) so we are doing the same, and skipping ahead to 1.5 ourselves.
Here are the stats we’re using to justify the version inflation:
- 792 tickets closed
- 494 confirmed bug fixes
- 2,161 total code changes since 1.2 was released
The similarities between BuddyPress and WordPress development symbolize the nature of developing something totally new and exciting, so we think it’s fitting to bump our version number in a similar fashion.
Because of the volume of changes internally, we’re packaging up a developer beta so plugin authors have time to review our changes, report bugs, and give everyone a few weeks to tie up any loose ends that are left.
If you are a BuddyPress plugin author, now is your time to help us help you, and check out all the work that’s gone into making the next version of BuddyPress faster, more efficient, more secure, and easier to code against.
If you are a user or a designer, check out the changes to the BP Default theme. We’ve done our best to turn it into a theme you want to use, and have it still show off all the features too.
If you are neither (or both) of those things, you can help by documenting the codex. We’re trying to do our part by writing the phpDoc as we go, and if you can help move some of that into the codex, it helps everyone!
As always, please DO NOT run BuddyPress Beta software on your live production site. There are going to be quirks with existing plugins, and we will be updating code rapidly as bug reports come in. Install BuddyPress 1.5 on a local installation or a test site, and let us know if you find anything that isn’t working the way it should. We are hoping the beta period will only last a few weeks, with a release in August.
You can download BuddyPress 1.5 Beta 1 today, from the bottom of our Trac page. Happy Testing!
We’ll be doing some maintenance to BuddyPress.org this week, so don’t be alarmed if a few things aren’t working or go missing for a little while. We’ll try to make it as painless as possible, and we promise it will be worth it in the end. 🙂
Available immediately is BuddyPress 1.2.9. This is a bug-fix release of the 1.2 branch to ensure full compatibility with WordPress 3.2. (Note: This does not use the new bbPress 2.0! We’re working on it!)
BuddyPress 1.2.9 includes fixes related to the new version of jQuery (1.6.1) that comes packaged with with WordPress 3.2. These changes affect the javascript and ajax behaviors in the bp-default theme. You can read more about them on the WordPress development blog. If your BuddyPress site runs bp-default (or a child theme of it) you’ll need to update to BuddyPress 1.2.9 immediately after updating to WordPress 3.2.
Questions? Let us know in the comments or in the support forums, and stay on the lookout for an early preview of BuddyPress 1.3 sometime in July!
Download BuddyPress 1.2.9 from WordPress Extend or BuddyPress.org.
I’ve just released version 1.1 of the BuddyPress Template Pack. BP Template Pack is a plugin that provides you with the necessary templates to make your existing WordPress theme BP-compatible. The plugin now provides templates that are 100% up-to-date with the latest stable release of BuddyPress, which means that users will get all of the features and AJAX niceties enjoyed by sites that use the bp-default theme.
Those upgrading from an older version of the BuddyPress Template Pack can replace their existing BP templates, using the “Reset” button at Dashboard > BP Compatibility. Keep in mind that you’ll need to delete the BP template folders from your active theme (activity, blogs, forums, groups, members, registration) – for purposes of safety, this is must be done manually via FTP. Remember to back up any changes that you’ve made to these template files before deleting.
EDIT: As r-a-y points out, it’s a very smart idea to *back up* or *rename* your existing template directories instead of simply deleting them. Test this on a development installation before you do anything in a production environment, if you can.
During the day of Monday, April 4, we will be taking BuddyPress.org down to perform some routine maintenance. This will effect profiles.wordpress.org as well. We’re not doing anything fancy yet, just updating some of the inner workings to pave the way for future updates and enhancements.
