BuddyPress.org

OK I still need a little help here:

I am creating custom pages on my site the following way:
in bp-custom.php I am adding:

define(‘BP_MYPAGE_SLUG’, ‘mypage’);

function mypage_page_setup_root_component()
{
global $bp;
bp_core_add_root_component( BP_MYPAGE_SLUG );
}
add_action( ‘plugins_loaded’, ‘mypage_page_setup_root_component’, 2 );

function bp_show_mypage_page() {
global $bp, $current_blog, $wpdb;

if ( $bp->current_component == BP_MYPAGE_SLUG && $bp->current_action == ” ) {
// The first variable here must match the name of your template file below
bp_core_load_template( ‘mypage’, true );
}
}
add_action( ‘wp’, ‘bp_show_mypage_page’, 2 );

I am also creating a file called mypage.php inside my theme. this works great and already many custom pages like that.
What I want is to add the content of a widget (for example activity widget) into this page.

here is what i did: i created a new sidebar in functions.php lets assume its called mysidebar:

register_sidebars( 1,
array(
‘name’ => ‘mysidebar’,
‘before_widget’ => ‘

‘,
‘before_title’ => ‘

‘,
‘after_title’ => ‘

‘
)
);

then within my newly created file called mypage.php i have the following code:
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar(‘mysidebar’) ) : ?>

then i added the site activity widget in the admin to the mysidebar that I created.

So far it all works great. my problem is that when the widget gets added to my custom page mpage.php it pretty much goes all over the page and messes up things like the left hand side navigation menu, options-bar etc.
even placing it within html table doesnt help as it seems that it is trying to conform to the 3 widget areas I have on other sections of my site (like home page etc).
How do I control the location of the widget’s content on a custom page like that?

Help is much appreciated!

Thanks,

Shai

1. Which version of WP/MU are you running?
WP2.9.2
2. Did you install WP/MU as a directory or subdomain install?
subdomain
3. If a directory install, is it in root or in a subdirectory?
4. Did you upgraded from a previous version of WP/MU? If so, from which version?
5. Was WP/MU functioning properly before installing/upgrading BuddyPress (BP)? e.g. permalinks, creating a new post, commenting.
6. Which version of BP are you running?
1.2.3
7. Did you upgraded from a previous version of BP? If so, from which version?
8. Do you have any plugins other than BuddyPress installed and activated?
commentluv, smartlinks, akismet, blogroll page, blogroll widget with RSS feed, buddypress album+, group activity subscription, import from ning, tdlc birthdays,
9. Are you using the standard BuddyPress themes or customized themes?
standard
10. Have you modified the core files in any way?
added a frame for blockquotes
11. Do you have any custom functions in bp-custom.php?
no
12. If running bbPress, which version? Or did your BuddyPress install come with a copy of bbPress built-in?
don’t know
13. Please provide a list of any errors in your server’s log files.
n/a
14. Which company provides your hosting?
hostgator

Would someone please help me. More and more people are having issues either with registration in the first place or with changing profiles. I’m debating whether buddypress was the right way to go at all. I would really love some help here.

@Mike Pratt yes there is really a distinction to be made between blogs and forums, but deciding on which to use? If one disables forums in groups one is simply left with ‘updates’ there is no blog functionality per se (I’m ignoring plugins in the context of this thread) and I’m thinking that the nature of ‘Updates’ is tending to be confusing to users?

“BP tends to be better at constructing grown up environments that focus on quality content contributions” I would agree but not sure why. Quality content contributions are what I perceive as the core of a community or social network as designed using apps such as BP or Ning whereas I tend to view FB as somewhat ephemeral nonsense (sorry not one of those that consider FB or Twitter as hugely vital) My biggest issue is that as things stand I’m struggling to see my way to a custom configuration based around default BP that does actually facilitate the quality content – this isn’t necessarily a BP ‘fault’ but there are issues that I feel need highlighting such as the confusion that tends to arise around the sitewide activity stream

@lph2005 This is the sort of feedback that I felt would play a crucial part in this thread, so it would be interesting if you could explore this further and update the thread. As regards the static front page I’m guessing that this static page did not include the hubbub that is the Site Wide Activity Stream?

That was a GREAT lead for me, @pcwriter! Modemlooper has actually created 2 widget-supported themes and I’ve been playing around with both of them. I like the 3-column theme for what I want to show up on the site. It’s working well.

If you’d like to take a look, see: http://citizensofinfluence.com

Thanks for the heads up, @pcwriter! I’ll take a look at that.

@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!

@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

@hotforwords

I don’t have a file named config.php in the plugin that has the lines you posted above.

The next release (which I’ve been teasing for awhile now) will allow you to customize the size in the activity stream, and hopefully the activity permalink page.

Actually, I’m trying to get BP features to work with the Thesis Theme. I need to use the registration/activation feature, and several other features like Members and Activity.

What I tried to do is create a custom template with the register.php code, and assigned it to a page called Register.

Anyway, I’ve looked for days on topics to integrate Thesis and BuddyPress. So I decided I wanted to try and get these plugins to work. I’ve gone down the Thesis road pretty far.

*bump* – Would anyone go to the lengths of reproducing this issue?

Oh, just to comply with the When asking for support rules:

1. Which version of WP/MU are you running?

WP 3.0-beta1

2. Did you install WP/MU as a directory or subdomain install?

Subdomain install

4. Did you upgraded from a previous version of WP/MU? If so, from which version?

Nope. Fresh from scratch.

6. Which version of BP are you running?

1.2.3

7. Did you upgraded from a previous version of BP? If so, from which version?

Nope. Out of the box install.

8. Do you have any plugins other than BuddyPress installed and activated?

Nope.

9. Are you using the standard BuddyPress themes or customized themes?

Standard.

10. Have you modified the core files in any way?

Nope. Learned not to do that while BP was in early 0.8 :p

11. Do you have any custom functions in bp-custom.php?

Nope.

12. If running bbPress, which version? Or did your BuddyPress install come with a copy of bbPress built-in?

The built-in one.

13. Please provide a list of any errors in your server’s log files.

None thrown.

14. Which company provides your hosting?

Self-hosted V-Server.

@Dimensionmedia Nice and valuable list of tips, thanks.

I’m glad that my topic have generated such interesting discussions.

The community website I build up is for Cure fans (you know The Cure, right?), and since they all are already active on Facebook, MySpace and other existing (traditional) forums, it is quiet a bit of a challenge to bring them over to my site and actually use it.

The motivation that made me wanna do Cureuphoria (http://cureuphoria.com) is that I felt that althought many places already exist for Cure fans to interact, there isn’t a real Social Network with features “à la Facebook/MySpace” that is specifically built with that particular community in mind.

I feel that the major value of using BuddyPress, and the main difference with the above mentioned social networks is that you can offer basicly the same feautures, BUT in an environement created and adapted around a specific community, which is the strongest point to my opinion.

From look and feel, to functionalities, you can build something up that is indeed unique to a given community.

Something that a rather impersonal environement such as Facebook, is not able to offer.

For example, I used custom profile fields to build a Cure-oriented member profiles, because it is about The Cure, right?

You can check an example here: http://cureuphoria.com/gian, which is my profile, but you can go and see others too.

Also, because I believe the register page is a key page of the site, I designed a very simple, basic form with a prominent call to action button, and argued some benefits about registering and using the site, that would accompany the registration form.

And, because during the intial lunch phase you don’t see many members profile avatars active, I decides to design a visual graphic with different avatars in order to give the potential subscriber a feeling of community. To do so, I asked permissions to Facebook users (within the Cure fans community) to use their avatars, and they all agreed. That gave me already the possibility to communicate the existence of the new site to some.

By the way, this is the register page: http://cureuphoria.com/register

At the moment I did get quiet a few registrations in a week time period, but unfortunately, users don’t turn out to be as active as I expect them to be. So, beside the first point of bringing people in and register, the following point would be, how to make them use the website and be active? Maybe it takes time to achive that.

Maybe their passivity is due to the fact of being troubled by the slight diffrences with (again) Facebook, or other traditional forums structure.

I mean, the majority of other Cure forums out are built with calssical bulletin board systems, such as phpBB or vBulletin and are (sorry, but I need to say it) quiet ugly. Still they are widely populated with topics.

My users, I feel, are probably troubled by the Groups/Forums relation. Some posted on the Group homepage activity, thinking that it was answearing to a topic in the forum for that Group.

I mean, I do think that the Group/Forum as a value and I totally understand the principle behind it. But do my users?

In order to push them to post Topics that are not necessarily associated with a Group, I did create a Group called Open Topics, that would act as a general topic forum.

And, I wrote a sticky topic on “How to use Cureuphoria”, which you can find here, even if not finished yet at the moment of this writing: http://cureuphoria.com/groups/cureuphoria-feedback/forum/topic/how-to-use-cureuphoria-read-this/

I would like to have them create their own groups, write topics, invite their friends over and all that, instead of coming to the site, putting up a video form YouTube, add a friend and then leave to just check if something more exciting is happening after a day, and since it’s not the case, leave again.

Anyway, I don’t think there is a magic formula to make your BuddyPress site have the success you expect, but it is probably a lot of little things that need to be manged toghether, from design, to functionalities, to constant marketing (social public relationship). Or… something I am just missing.

I want to thank all of you who contributed to the topic. Keep it going: advices, ideas and thoughts about this are never enough.

Hmm – strange. It mostly works. For some reason on some pages of the site something breaks:

One page would be /groups/GROUPNAME/admin/ – I get the following error:

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/smartauk/public_html/wp-content/plugins/bp-custom.php:3) in /home/smartauk/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 868

Any idea what might be causing this?

Thanks

I’m at a convenient but vaguely unsatisfying stopping point in this saga.

I ended up nuking all the lovely AJAX buttons on the /activity page in favor of HTML form buttons like this one

<li style="float:left;" <?php if ($_POST["activity-tab"] == "friends") { echo 'class="selected"'; }?>">

<form action="" method="post">

<input name="activity-tab" value="friends" type="hidden" />

<input style="border:0px" type="submit" value="My Friends" />

</form>

</li>

Then later include()ing a custom stream and resetting the $_POST value to empty:

...

<?php if( $_POST["activity-tab"] == "friends" ) { $_POST["activity-tab"] = ""; include( 'activity-loop-friends.php' ); } ?>

...

The ideal solution here would be to somehow rewrite the cookie/display functions in global.js to “forget” the user’s last selected tab, but I was not smart enough to figure that one out…

Thanks @boonebgorges — I got it partially working, but then got stuck. I put the function as is above in my functions.php file, and added this to member-header.php:

<p><?php echo get_activity_count_by_user( bp_current_user_id() ) ?> Forum posts</p>

This returned ALL posts for a user, including blog posts. Obviously, based on the text I added above, I only want to include Forum posts (should include both Topics and Replies). I looked at the page you suggested — https://codex.buddypress.org/developer-docs/custom-buddypress-loops/the-activity-stream-loop/ — but I couldn’t figure out how or where to implement the filter: what syntax, and where does it go, in the function or in the call-out?

Also: Using “bp_current_user_id() ” allows the post count to display on the user’s profile page, but how do I display the post count on a different page, such as /single/forum/topic.php, the Forum topics display page, where “bp_current_user_id()” is no longer applicable? On that page I’d like to put a user’s post count in parenthesis next to the user, like this: “John Doe (54 posts)”. That way when you scanned the list of Replies to a Topic, you would quickly see if a user was a long-term and/or hardcore user or a noob based on the number of posts they have contributed to the site, and I’m hoping that little ego boost will help nudge people into posting more frequently. Does that make sense?

Thanks again for all your help.