[agrundner]

@boonebgorges @nuprn1 thanks for posting the instructions. It answered my query. I think it’s odd that topic tags don’t show up in threads in the default theme. Anyway, it works Next thing BP needs to do is provide a forum tag manager tool (unless there’s already one and I didn’t see it) similar to Dashboard > Posts > Post Tags and allow the topic creators to edit tags like they can their Title and Content under Edit Topic. Right now I have to do forum tag management using phpMyAdmin.

[agrundner]

Here’s a thought — and I say it with respect. Maybe @apeatling should just make all the mods to BuddyPress.org public so members can package them up as BP plugins. Would help other devs from trying to re-create the wheel. So far I’ve seen a lot of interest in BuddyPress.org’s unified search, group types, group/plugin home description, group/plugin reviews + star ratings. CC @r-a-y @boonebgorges @hnla

[agrundner]

@firetag I like the idea of Group Tags (plugin already available) AND Group Types (needed). I also like @pcwriter’s suggestion of having a drop-down with group types when members create groups. The groups types should be general, high-level categories. For example, if you look at BuddyPress.org’s Groups, you’ll see that some are labeled “Support Group,” “Plugin Group,” “User Created Group” — I like that (though I’d consider having some Group Type labels for the Admin to see and use only).

[agrundner]

Wish there was a plugin for this. I think a lot of people would use it. Be nice if the star ratings showed up in the list of active groups as well.

[agrundner]

@andrea_r the thought just occurred to me: How would BP plugins work in this setup? I’d like to see plugins like @MrMaz‘s BP-Links keep sub-domain activity separate as well.

[agrundner]

@r-a-y I’ve been MIA from this site for about a week. I just wanted to say THANKS for posting this!

[agrundner]

Aside: This morning I came up with the idea to create a server script that would update all the multiple wpmu installs to match the root’s files/folders/plugins whenever there’s an upgrade. Of course, the script would ignore the uploads folder and wp-config.php file. It’s an option, but I want to see what Andrea_r and friends comes up with.

[agrundner]

Thanks @mercime @vee_bee! I’m now following the the thread Andrea_r posted related to this:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/requests-feedback/forum/topic/multiple-budypress-networks-one-install/

Any solution that comes from the discussion there should fit the bill nicely.

[agrundner]

@andrea_r I’m following this thread with great interest. I’m the guy @vee_bee referred to with a similar query/setup as being discussed here.

https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/single-login-with-multiple-bp-sub-domain-installs-is-it-possible/

Brief recap from my earlier post
Example:
petlovers.com
– dogs.petlovers.com
– cats.petlovers.com
– birds.petlovers.com
– fish.petlovers.com

You can see from the above example that most people would probably only want to see things relevant to their pet type and not be overwhelmed by all the other animal group activities.

---

Glad to read that this is slowly being worked out by putting our collective heads together

[agrundner]

Sounds good @r-a-y. I agree the display name should still appear in the profile page along with the @username.

[agrundner]

@dwenaus another option for plugin development would be to create a project on http://GitHub.com. There’s a handful of BP plugins up there already and GitHub can provide a DONATION widget powered by http://Pledgie.com. Example project with the donation widget: http://github.com/gmate/gmate

Personally, I’d rather see a leader take charge of a plugin and then invite other developers to collaborate. The plugin itself would be FREE, but any funds gathered through GitHub and BP > Extend > Plugin > Donate will be split amongst the developers involved.

[agrundner]

@rebeccageiger I checked out your screencast. To edit the style.css file (not folder) through your cPanel File Manager you’ll have to click on the HTML or Code Editor buttons at the top. That should show you a blank file that you can cut ‘n paste the code you wish to add. After that follow @r-a-y‘s instructions to activate the theme and then you’ll be able to edit your files in WordPress under Appearance > Editor.

Essentially what you’re doing when following the BP child theme instructions is importing the CSS files from the default BP theme — you’ll need to add your own overriding style instructions to your new theme’s style.css file (underneath the CSS Inherit text).

Heads up: making a child theme isn’t as easy as it sounds. You’ll have to know CSS pretty well to know what areas from the default BP theme style.css to alter/override to create the child theme to your liking. For a newbie, I’d recommend downloading a free theme where you can edit the site name and maybe its header color. However, if you want to dive in head first, try downloading a simple, free theme and edit its style.css file to see what happens (I’d stay away from tweaking the default BP theme in case you get around to making a child theme at a latter time). Good luck!

[agrundner]

Agree with both statements above. The @mention process isn’t intuitive for a newbie when a member’s display name is different than their username. Perfect example above… Andrea is the display name, but to @mention her I would have to use @catagirl (found by clicking through or hovering over her member name link).

[agrundner]

Interesting idea. I was thinking the same thing. Why should a group only have one forum. Why not sub-forums as well?

[agrundner]

@stwc we’re on the same page. This is exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this morning. I guess we’re supposed to start with “BuddyPress Skeleton Component” and learn how to extend BuddyPress by creating our own plugins to add this kind of functionality. I just wish there was an online resource guide or advanced BP dev book on building BP plugins. For front-end guys like me, it’s easier to see basic working examples than try to look over the code of complex plugins to pick out the relevant code. The BuddyPress Skeleton Component is a good step in that direction, but would love to see basic how-tos.

It seems all we need to tweak from the default groups setup:
* “Home” is a comprehensive page about X instead of an activity stream with additional form fields (i.e. Description, FAQ, etc.)
* Create an “Activity” tab/page for the activity stream
* Create a “Reviews” tab/page for group comments
* Integrate a ratings component

[agrundner]

I’m researching the same thing. Found this thread on the topic as well:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/creating-extending/forum/topic/profile-field-setup-for-groups/

No easy solution so far, but an outdated plugin has turned up.

[agrundner]

@firetag I’m interested in seeing how you did it. How are you planning to filter the group types for browsing on your site?

[agrundner]

I’m interested in doing this as well. Would love to be able to add additional fields to a Group Profile besides the default “Group Name,” “Group Description”. A tool like the Dashboard > BuddyPress> Profile Field Setup would be awesome. I’m guessing the only solution would be to edit the current group admin form that handles this and the group template page.

[agrundner]

@sbrajesh excellent tutorial! Dig the site, BTW (I’ve got it bookmarked).

@bowromir looking forward to the edits for the BP default theme compatibility.

[agrundner]

As an aside, I came across this “sitewide” solution using Google Custom Search (not a bad option):

Google Custom Search for BuddyPress / WordPress MU

[agrundner]

@sbrajesh interested in seeing your tutorial as well.

[agrundner]

@apleating thanks for pointing us to the location of the template file. Easy enough to fix for a child theme, though it probably would have been better if the activity permalink page template followed the theme’s default template.

Fix:

1. In your child theme create the following folders members/single/activity/
2. Copy over permalink.php from the default bp theme (/wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/bp-default/members/single/activity/permalink.php)
3. Modify the permalink.php code to show the following — replace the asterisk with the appropriate tag:

*?php get_header() ?*

*div id=”content”*
*div class=”padder”*

*div class=”activity no-ajax”*
*?php if ( bp_has_activities( ‘display_comments=threaded&include=’ . bp_current_action() ) ) : ?*

*ul id=”activity-stream” class=”activity-list item-list”*
*?php while ( bp_activities() ) : bp_the_activity(); ?*

*?php locate_template( array( ‘activity/entry.php’ ), true ) ?*

*?php endwhile; ?*
*/ul*

*?php endif; ?*
*/div*

*/div*
*/div*

*?php locate_template( array( ‘sidebar.php’ ), true ) ?*

*?php get_footer() ?*

#####################

In your child’s style.css file add:

body.activity-permalink {
min-width: YOUR-PIXEL-NUMBER !important;
max-width: YOUR-PIXEL-NUMBER !important;
}

[agrundner]

@r-a-y Got it working! The instructions you gave are correct. I didn’t realize that both “Front page” AND “Posts page” under Settings > Reading had to be altered. I originally only altered the Front page.

Working solution:
Front page set to “Activity Stream”
Posts page set to “Blog”

Thanks @r-a-y!

[agrundner]

@r-a-y So close… I followed the instructions:
1) Login to the WP backend, navigate to “Pages > Add New”. Create an empty, new page called “News” or “Blog” or whatever you want. This page will contain the blog updates.
2) Under “Settings > Reading”, set front page to “Activity Stream” and your posts page to the new page that you just created.
—-

Using: Default BP Theme
Front page shows “Activity Sream” but the new “Blog” page I created shows a normal page similar in format to the About page, not the blog’s latest posts.

Page attributes:
Parent > Main Page (no parent)
Template > Default Template
Order > 0

[agrundner]

Thanks for your feedback @mercime. I checked the default’s theme header, lines 73-77, and it points to “Blogs” not “Blog” singular. Clicking on the Blogs menu link shows me the blogs in the network — not the latest posts.

I’m open to doing it the way buddypress.org does, but I can’t seem to get both /blog (“latest posts” page) and a custom homepage to work hand-in-hand. I have a feeling it’s something simple I don’t have configured properly. When I previously installed wpmu with sub-directories I was getting the following URL http://example.com/blog/2010/04/26/hello-world/ … going to /blog would redirect to the site’s front page.

Disclaimer: I’m new to wpmu and buddypress, though I do have experience with single wordpress installs.