BuddyPress.org

” so we’re left with two choices: 1) Switch to WPMU/BP or 2) Install WPMU/BP in a subdirectory.

My first question is this: Am I right about our two choices above?”

Yes.

Switching the whole thing over to WPMU is actually not so bad. The biggest worry there is plugins. Depending on what ones they are, and which ones are a dealbreaker, you will need to test them somewhere ahead of time before even deciding which option to pick.

posts, comments, users, the theme itself and ad placement – ALL those can be *exactly* the same in WPMU.

“The only drawback we have with installing WPMU/BP in a subdirectory is that we’d lose the ability to pull in BP features onto the homepage of our current site such as recent blog activity, avatars, etc. Is that correct or is there some way for the two to communicate even if on separate installs?”

Actually, you can do that. We did it here on http://wanderlustandlipstick.com, a client site. Note it’s not a BP site, but the main site is a single WP install and the WPMU part is under /blogs/. With some lightweight custom code, we pulled in avatars & recent posts to the front of the main blog.

Overall, your choices are pretty much 50/50. The big kicker here is how you want your URLs to be formed in the end.

If you want or don’t care about an extra folder name in the URL where WPMU will live, then it may be “easier” to have it as an add-on, and share databases to share users.

Personally, I’d lean towards moving the whole site to WPMU. Do the move in a dev environment, then in a low-traffic time planned ahead with full notice, make the switch to the new WPMU site (at the same URL basically).

Well, put it this way, the default buddypress home theme is really just a widget framework accomodating the BP widgets for activity, members, groups, who’s online, welcome etc.

You need to decide where you want to show what and look for themes that fulfill your requirements. There are dozens of mag style themes out there… As long as you have a good range of widget positions in the theme you should be able to put your home page together the way you want to. Besides, it’s easy to create custom widget positions if you need to.

In any case, some php / theming skills may be needed to get stuff exactly how you want it.

copy this, add to it, paste it below in your post…. this will get a little overboard i’m sure, but we should list as much as we can and then narrow it down based on:

– if it’s possible

– time to complete

– cost

Features Request:

browser=person browsing the website

user= the individual user/profile owner

– seamless integration with buddypress

– this becomes a component that is activated through the bp admin menu

– and general settings are controlled by the admin in the wp-admin subnav

– not a plugin/mu-plugin

– user can select to only show pics/vids if your the users friend, or show anyone

– user can subscribe to pics/vids gallery rss just like activity rss

– browser can select “view random gallery” or “view random video” from the bp nav bar

– user has “gallery options” under their profile menu

– add/upload/remove/rename/add caption to images and videos

– user has “gallery settings” under their settings menu

– make pics/videos public, show to friends only, etc

– all media uploaded is searchable through the /members page

– a new <directory> is created called “Media” just like the “groups” or “members” or “events”

– this directory shares the default theme of BP and yet is customizable because it has it’s own directory/index.php and directory/media-loop.php (just like BP)

– admin decides how media should be stored

– on the website server

– or on kultura (i have no need for this)

– etc

– admin decides max file size, max storage amount per user and is able to delete any media uploaded

– user is able to choose which uploaded image is set as their avatar

– user is able to create galleries and select a default gallery icon/image (myspace)

– galleries could contain both video and images and are browsable as thumbs

– thumbnail image is “thickbox ready” and pops up both pics and video into a jquery thickbox with button for next / previous / close etc

– Gallery content/information/descriptions etc becomes bp-Xprofile data that can gotten and displayed much the same as regular bp-xprofile data (get_bp_xprofile data ect)

– except for the admin options, all gallery controls and content remain on the front-end/profile only

the list goes on and on… and there’s many ways this could all be done

add to the above, remove stuff (say why you removed)

I dont think these features are “too much” considering there’s $700 available for this project… I’m also open to a different developer…. this should be someone who lives and breathes buddypress and who keeps current with both wpmu and bp trunk versions

we would also need to know/specify which install we want this created for

wpmu 2.7.1 + BP RC1

wpmu 2.7 + BP RC1

wpmu 2.7.1 + BP latest trunk

etc… because chances of this working well on all the different install variation is tricky

worst case scenario, all we get is the $200 job and we have to make due

(im still down with that too)

I would like the developer to brainstorm and come up with a list of features that THEY think are possible considering the budget

$200 gets you ___________.

$700 gets you ___________.

($700 would get us something pretty damn cool from the right dev… and remember, if it’s done right Andy will add this to the BP core which I believe is the best option)

The bp home theme is really just a widget framework. You can install any widget you like in that theme. You can modify the standard ‘activity’ and ‘recent blog posts’ widgets. You can install a plugin that aggregates feeds from specific blogs. Your requirements are pretty specific so you have to decide if you are going to develop custom code or try to utilize some off the shelf plugins.

To answer your question. No there isn’t a mechanism in place that allows you to be selective in the posts that show up using the ‘sitewide activity’ or ‘recent blog posts’ widgets.

Have fun. (but don’t tell anyone we are though)

The bp home theme is really just a widget framework. You can install any widget you like in that theme. You can modify the standard ‘activity’ and ‘recent blog posts’ widgets. You can install a plugin that aggregates feeds from specific blogs. Your requirements are pretty specific so you have to decide if you are going to develop custom code or try to utilize some off the shelf plugins.

To answer your question. No there isn’t a mechanism in place that allows you to be selective in the posts that show up using the ‘sitewide activity’ or ‘recent blog posts’ widgets.

Have fun.