[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

If it offers any comfort, the days of radical template changes in every version are over.

Oh man, have mercy, AndyP

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Thank you David. I will just adjust my child themes based on bp-sn-parent accordingly. Cheers.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Personal preference is Amazon S3. Beyond that, the Gallery should be able to integrate streams from user’s Picasa albums, Flickr albums, plus YouTube and Vimeo videos in his/her BP Gallery/Album – now that will save on storage space on Site Admin’s end as well

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Thank you Andy. Just downloaded BuddyPress from trunk-r2614 to test and saw that only the bp-default theme is in bp-themes folder. Is bp-sn-parent and bp-classic being phased out?

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

ACTIVATE PLUGINS FOR ALL BLOGS – First and foremost, one has to read the installation instructions of plugin authors. Some plugins might require uploading to wp-content/mu-plugins folder and some to the regular plugin folder or some plugins require to be uploaded to both mu-plugins and regular plugins folder.

Plugins uploaded to mu-plugins folder (per plugin author instructions) are already activated site-wide and will not be seen in Plugins > Installed unless that’s the way the plugin author set it up. Some mu-plugins do not need further configuration in Site Admin > Options or anywhere else, but some mu-plugins still need additional configurations in Site Admin > Options or somewhere else the plugin author specified.

Plugins uploaded to regular plugins folder may need to be activated sitewide in Plugins > Installed panel or may only be activated for a specific blog AND some plugins made for single WP may not be compatible with WPMU. Some Site Admins use the Plugin Commander plugin to activate a specific plugin sitewide. Even so, in certain cases where such plugin is not WPMU-ready/aware, Site Admin has configure settings of such plugin in each new blog or create a function to do so.

Finally, as DJPaul mentioned above, a better way to check if a plugin for single WP works in WPMU install, is to check out the WPMU forums or WPMU related forums and always check installation instructions of plugin authors.

THEMES ONLY FOR MEMBERS – BuddyPress setting – if you allow the BP members to create blogs and these members purchased a theme for their use only, you could activate the theme for that specific blog via Site Admin > Blogs > Edit link and associate that theme with the specific blog. Only that member will see the premium theme in his/her Appearance > Themes panel.

Site Admin needs to be vigilant about uploading free or premium themes in that there might be obfuscated or encrypted codes within the theme as you don’t exactly know where theme was downloaded from. In addition, some advanced themes would require uploading different theme files in root of installation to wp-admin and/or wp-includes folder which might totally break your install.

Excuse the long post, going thru a lazy rainy afternoon.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

@tmort – as AndyP. will be setting up a better way to make it easier to have a custom home page, you won’t have to go thru my gnarly functions and processes to ensure my custom home.php worked with 1.2 bp-default. It’s great to have these issues being resolved as BP 1.2 is enroute to stable version release. Thank you Andy P.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

@Erich73. Indeed you do not need Brajesh’s Unique Article Image plugin to change the header image of bp-default theme.

However, I got the impression from your earlier post that you wanted to implement a unique article image which members can use in their respective blogs with bp-default theme. I may be wrong, but I assume that was Brajesh’s impression as well, which is why he mentioned something about updating the plugin … to work with bp-default for a unique image per article.

In any case, it’ll be interesting to have a souped-up Unique Article Image header plugin to work with bp-default.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

DCartwright. Will be testing it out and making a Wiki Page at your site about test results Cheers.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

@ScotM – Although converting a WordPress theme to a BuddyPress child theme is a bit more challenging than converting an HTML template to a WordPress theme is, the basic concepts are the same – knowing at the very least, HTML and CSS plus basic PHP and JS, and adapting it to the required environment.

The level of difficulty and required skills for conversion of a WordPress theme to a BuddyPress theme depends on what aspects of that WordPress theme you want incorporated into your BuddyPress theme.

– If it’s the styling or layout, then level of difficulty and required skills = Medium.

– If it’s incorporating/combining functionality and design of a WordPress theme framework like what @designodyssey and @Windhamdavid are discussing above, then level of difficulty and required skills = High.

– If it’s incorporating/combining functionality of truly advanced layout designs and functions like what you would see in say, Headway theme or ithemes’ Builder Theme, then the level of difficulty and required skills = Superduper.

So to better address your question, my question is what WordPress theme were you thinking of porting over as a BuddyPress child theme?

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Hi Grosbouff, thank you for all the update. As nexia mentioned above, the classifieds theme folder, css folder and js folder are not in the buddypress-classifieds 1.002 download. So does this mean we use the classifieds theme, css and js from buddypress-classifieds 1.0 beta download?

Those are tags you have to create in your data-blog and then put their “ids” in (eg:7,4)

My bad, read too fast and missed the last phrase Thank you.

The roles are retrieven from your blog. I don’t understand your question very well but you should find the usual wordpress roules there

Thank you. Strange thing really, when I checked the roles for classified ads in my test install this morning – there was no Keymaster role, and I could have sworn it was there in the classified roles list last night

Looking at the Roles & Capabilities panel of Classifieds (cool tool), almost all capabilities are self-explanatory except that I am not familiar with “Republish my Classifieds” – what does this mean and how can this be done? I haven’t explored the plugin that thoroughly yet so may be missing something.

Kudos Grosbouff for getting this plugin up and running with the bp 1.2 default theme.

Thanks again.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Hi Grosbouff, just saw your post. Have to leave again, will be back later tonight and check it out.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

========== Continued ==========

Using 1.2 bp-default theme. Based on roles set in classified settings page, I allowed contributors upward to post classified ads.

Posting Classified Ads from BP frontend

1. Clicked on Classifieds on Main Nav.

2. In Classified Ads Directory Page – click on Create A Classified

2.1 – Classified Details – page has fields for Title and Description, then click on “Create Classified and Continue

2.2 – Classified Setttings – page has list of categories created per classified component instruction via special new blog and field box where you could add tags, and click on “Next Step”

2.3 – Classified Invites – page where you can send invites to other members re classifieds, click on “Finish”

Classified Ad Entry posted appears in Classified Ad Directory Page. The ad was also posted on the special new blog as post entry per my check. In addition, under member Profile Page, there’s now a link “My Classifieds” listing all entries posted in Classified Ads.

Posted Classified Entry from Special Blog Created for the plugin component

– Tested posting from the special blog to see if it appears in the BP-installed site. It Does.

Also, when you post the listing from the special blog, the tags show up in the Classified Directory Page and in single Classified Ad Entry page

Other Notes:

1. Classified Ad Entries do not appear in Activity Streams of Member nor Home Page

2. Site Admin should delete Hello World first post in new private blog set up for classifieds – if not configured to delete before

3, Created Blog for Classifieds plugin Settings > Privacy was set to Block Google but allow online visitors – but the special blog is showing up in Blogs Directory even when Site Admin is logged out.

4. Single page for a Classified Ad Entry – does not have navigation back to list of classifieds or have a “Reply” field box for possible interested clients.

5. Categories chosen and Tags added during set up of Classified Ad Entry, are not showing up anywhere in Classified Directory Page or single page of the Classified Entry.

6. Feature Request: ability to upload even a small single 150×150 image to go along with the classified ad entry.

Great job, Grosbouff. Thank you for continuing development on this component. Really Cool.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Hi Grosbouff, thank you. I auto-installed your plugin to test installation. Cannot activate plugin. Double-checked server, buddypress-classifieds folder is there but it is double-nested.

Fixed double-nesting. Went to Plugins > Install. In addition to BuddyPress Classifieds Plugin, I also activated the new BuddyPress Classifieds Roles & Capabilities Plugin sitewide. But there is still a nag – “There is a new version of BuddyPress Classifieds Roles & Capabilities Plugin URI: http://dev.benoitgreant.be/2010/02/01/buddypress-classifieds …”

Moved classifieds theme to my bp-1.2 child theme in wp-content/themes/mercime-bp12child/classifieds.

Created new blog named bpclassified tests; set Privacy settings, set categories like Backpack, Tents, Shirts, Shorts, etc.

In admin BuddyPress > Classified settings

a. Options Page

– input the blog ID of special classified ads blog

– input days active

– “If you want special tags (e.g. : propositions, offers) to sort your classifieds, put their ids here – comma-separated” – so I wrote some tags like : new, used, giveaway, red, blue, black

– Checked option for Auto-suggest Tags

b. Roles and Capabilities.

– Very Nice.

Question, there is no Site Admin or Admin Role there, so do I assume that Keymaster ala forums is for Site Admin, correct?

c. System Reset – great add-on thanks.

d.Support and Donate page – cool.

So all settings saved. Went to front page and see that “Classifieds” is now part of the main navigation menu in 1.2 bp-default theme.

======= got to leave for a while, will be back later to continue with results of test =======

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Arturo, there are other ways to stop sploggers. Check this out

http://www.bp-tricks.com/tips_and_tricks/stopping-the-sploggers/

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

You can download BP 1.2 trunk via trac – https://trac.buddypress.org/browser/trunk – click on zip file near bottom of page or svn – https://svn.buddypress.org/trunk/

P.S. If you want BP 1.2 stable version, it’s not out yet, but many are developing on trunk – not for production site unless you’re up to it.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

@thetico: Ning vs. WPMU/BP

In addition to what Mike Pratt said, while NIng may look good out of the box, the question is do you want total ownership and stewardship of your community? If you do, WPMU/BP is the way to go. If you go with Ning, you are subject to terms and conditions set forth by Ning which could change at any time … just as many are subject to TOS of Facebook, Grou.ps, etc.

– With Ning, you as a Ning community owner have no way of backing up all the data and uploads your members contributed. Though I’m sure Ning would have backups of all your information – but you don’t.

– With WPMU/BP you can export and backup data via XML exports, cron database backups and backups of server files and folders. When anything happens like your server crashing, you have all the backups you need to restart anew by importing your backups within an hour or less.

Another question is, do you or your staff have the technical ability to implement WPMU/BP community and/or do you have the time to do so?

– Ning will perform out of the box, they have many paid staff to handle the administrative, technical, and logistical aspects of the Ning installations.

– WPMU/BP install will need a big measure of TLC from at least one Site/Super Admin who has the expertise and experience to implement the project.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Tested it DCartwright. Good luck on the site wiki launch next week

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

henrybaum, you might want to try using gettext filter instead of hacking core file. Went through this a week ago when I wanted to cut down big chunks of code and DJ Paul pointed me to the right and much easier direction,

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

WPMU version? BuddyPress version? Theme used?

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Tutorial for creating BuddyPress Child Theme – https://codex.buddypress.org/how-to-guides/building-a-buddypress-child-theme/

Use Google for more info re creating WordPress Child Themes

BuddyPress Codex – https://codex.buddypress.org/

BuddyPress Components/Features – https://buddypress.org/about/

Examples of BuddyPress sites and usage – https://wordpress.org/showcase/flavor/buddypress/

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

In child theme’s style.css, add BuddyPress tag ala bp-classic’s style.css where at top you see

Tags: buddypress, three-columns, white, orange

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

@foralien – You are not alone While there is a cool option to change what appears in home page – blog or activities – in 1.2 bp-default, when install is used as CMS neither of those will suffice. I used the same solution – custom home.php in child theme of bp-default. Primary navigation is for site content and BP components are in secondary navigation. Just have to double-check any relevant changes in parent theme’s header.php code whenever I upgrade.

Cheers.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

@Brajesh – Thank you as always for clarifying the issue

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

@Grosbouff – what Bowe said. Thank you.

[@mercime Participant 16 years, 8 months ago]

Thank you Andy. So per your other posts re 1.2 default theme and now the BP documentation, this import path for bp-default

@import url( ../../plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/bp-default/style.css );

is a confirmation that developers/super admins no longer need to upload the bp-default and bp-sn-parent themes in BP 1.2

To extrapolate: So in effect, plugin/component developers for BP 1.2 cannot ask users to upload plugin-specific themes into bp-default which is now in wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/ because auto-upgrade would delete the buddypress folder. A better way to put it is that plugin/component developers for BP 1.2 should come up with a way to make their plugins work whilst keeping plugin-specific themes within the said plugin (without requiring users to move themes to bp default). Am I reading this right even in a convoluted way ?

Thanks again.