BuddyPress.org

@pjbursnall , I wouldn’t say that it is pretty easy here

<?php global $current_user;
		get_currentuserinfo();
		$display = $current_user->display_name;
		$login = $current_user->user_login;
		$userid = $current_user->ID;
                $home = get_home_url();
?>

add that above your custom drop-down then its pretty simple just echo out the username, url etc <li class="li-fourth"><a href="<?php echo $home . '/members/' . $login . '/activity/mentions'; ?>">Mentions</a></li>

EDIT –

Oh the other bit you’d have to google for is the avatar but here
<?php echo bp_core_fetch_avatar( array('item_id' => $userid, 'type' => 'full', 'width' => 100,'height' => 100));?>
You’ll want to adjust the width/height accordingly

@pjbursnall yeah that code replicates the notification element only (the only part that is somewhat confusing to replicate) you place the code in the plugins directory in bp-custom.php you may have to create the file yourself.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9953482/how-to-make-a-pure-css-based-dropdown-menu – shows you how to create a drop down menu, https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_currentuserinfo get the current users info so you can create links to their profile pages, etc.

Just a note, to add the notifcations to your custom bar your code will look something like <li><?php bp_notification_badge(); ?></li>

@pjbursnall Personally I think buddypress should disable admin access anyway as most users don’t want it but that is neither here nor there. Recreating the admin bar is pretty easy, you need to know some css, html and a few bp functions to get the current users details like username etc, as for the notifications @modemlooper or @mercime posted this a while back (my apologies for not remembering which).

function bp_notification_badge() {
	if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {
	global $current_user;
	get_currentuserinfo();
			$notifications = bp_core_get_notifications_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() );
				if ( empty($notifications)) {
				echo '<li class="li-first" id="li-first-right"><a href="' . get_home_url() . '/members/' . $current_user->user_login . '"><span class="circle-zero">0</span></a><ul class="second-level" id="second-level-right"><li class="li-second"><a href="' . get_home_url() . '/members/' . $current_user->user_login . '">No new notifications!</a></li></ul></li>';
				} else {
						echo '<ul class="second-level" id="second-level-right">';
					$counter = 0;
						for ( $i = 0; $i < count($notifications); $i++ ) {
						$badge = count($notifications);
						echo '<li class="li-third">'.$notifications[$i].'</li>';		
						}
				echo '</ul>';
				echo '<a href="' . get_home_url() . '/members/' . $current_user->user_login . '"><span class="circle-badge">'.$badge.'</span></a>';
			}
	}
}

As for actually disabling the admin bar + backend that can be done with a plugin, plenty of them just google.

The buddypress.css file is inside the plugins folder.

wp-content / plugins / buddypress / bp-templates / bp-legacy / css / buddypress.css (copy)

If you wanna change or add to this file this file you can copy-/paste it inside your WP theme folder inside a css folder and this new file will be used instead of the old one.

wp-content / themes / [ your theme name ] / css / buddypress.css (paste)

@bradlyr – Can you give me more details? I’m looking for some code to start out as a base for a buddypress / bbpress app for our site. Are you writing that?

It may be a conflict with buddypress.css and the WordPress theme. Have you inspected the element in Google chrome?

I think what you’re really looking for is this plugin: BP Direct Menus. You can put a menu item or shortcode that links to any buddypress page. It even lets you customize the menu name with the user’s information.

Full disclosure: I wrote the plugin after I couldn’t find a more elegant solution to this same problem.

@alleycakes add to your theme’s stylesheet:
#buddypress a.button {
background: -webkit-gradient( linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(.2, #f43b32), color-stop(1, #d2231a) ) !important;
background: -moz-linear-gradient( center top, #f43b32 20%, #d2231a 100% ) !important;
-webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 1px 0 hsla(0,100%,100%,.3) /*Top*/, inset 0 0 2px hsla(0,100%,100%,.3) /*Shine*/, 0 1px 2px hsla(0, 0%, 0%, .29);
-moz-box-shadow: inset 0 1px 0 hsla(0,100%,100%,.3) /*Top*/, inset 0 0 2px hsla(0,100%,100%,.3) /*Shine*/, 0 1px 2px hsla(0, 0%, 0%, .29);
}

Theme compatibility lets you use BuddyPress with themes built for WordPress. So build your theme and when you activate or deactivate BP it will continue work seamlessly:

Theme Compatibility & Template Files

@synaptic I noticed @modemlooper actually put an incredibly valid point across about plugins, I’ll extend that to themes. You didn’t really pick up on this in my opinion. Buddypress gives you the foundation, plugins give you the rest. I imagine nearly every Buddypress powered site has multiple plugins and custom themes. If these were added to Buddypress itself, it would be bloated and have features others simply do not need.

Whilst your thread is about how to contribute if you’re not a programmer, you mentioned that you are currently learning html/css. With a good grasp of these and an understanding of PHP and jQuery you could start developing Buddypress themes.

Creating a theme obviously takes time, and you have to “learn” how to do so but as you are currently learning html/css it makes the next leap pretty straight forward, you could start a new project to build a Buddypress theme, by the time you’re done you’ll have a good grasp of html/css and probably a fair understanding of PHP and jQuery. With the added bonus of a new theme for the community.

Btw I didn’t mean for that to read with any animosity but nearly everyone could contribute to Buddypress building complicated components may very well be out of bounds for the average user, but like yourself most have some degree of knowledge that could be put to good use.

@chouf1
Oh sorry about that! I’m using:
Wordpress 3.7.1
Buddypress 1.8.1
bbPress 2.4.1

After having deactivated everything and tried things 1 by 1 and because i’m running a subscription based shin-dig, like i suspect a few others here are doing, running the show from the back end seems like the best course of action (althought the back end version works if i’m using another account with similar access).

The former is another work around if one wants to use less plugins.

I’m getting an XMLRPC: 500 Error when I try and connect.

Any ideas?

Thank You.

Also what app did you use to compile the source?

I haven’t been around enough in the past number of months to know exactly where BuddyPress stands now, however in the past there were a couple of areas that really effected my ability to use BP.

1. Privacy – There were way to many holes in the privacy settings for users. Meaning that users were not able to define EXACTLY what was shown and to whom it was shown. Any public facing field ever entered by a user should have the ability to define who sees what is being posted.

2. Speed – There were way to many ‘joins’ throughout the code and on a somewhat ‘large’ site it basically made using BP impossible for us. We had tied together using bbPress with BP via the group forums, and even with only a few million replies a fully dedicated server would consistently be brought to its knees. There have been tons of tickets with numerous ideas on patches and fixes for this, but overall I would say that anything which can be done to help optimize some of the more intensive queries would help a lot.

When you do anything like upgrading an app and you’re not 100% familiar with the process you MUST read the documentation, looking for any guides or instructions to follow.

You are attempting to update a really outdated version of BP, and you cannot do a straight jump to the latest stable:

Read this page and link to upgrade process for 1.2 versions to 1.5
https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/upgrading-buddypress/

And strong word of advice, keep current with latest releases of BP in the intervening version releases there have been a few critical security fixes that left un-patched leave your site and others vulnerable

@synaptic
This may sound a bit off but it is just a suggestion so please do not take it as down playing what you are trying to achieve. Instead of relying on the Dev’s to do the coding for you all the time, try learning something new like how to code. It is possible for you and I personally think people only set their own limits because they are afraid to take things to the next level. It will free you to make things happen on your own without always asking someone else to do it for you. If you sit around waiting on the the BP dev cycle to provide you all the solutions to the issues you have, then you probably could have used that time waiting to empower yourself and learn the skills necessary and that would make a bigger impact than just telling people what you would like to see happen. Then you could actually contribute more than just wants. This is just my opinion so please do not take it negatively. Take it as an inspiration to empower yourself and not have to wait on others to get a job done that you can do yourself if you put forth the effort. Godspeed!