BuddyPress.org

@tonyaccardo – We have spent the past 5 or 6 months now working on a new vb/wpmu/bp system and it’s getting close to completion. I have no plans of releasing the software, but I can give you a little insight into why no-one has responded to your request.

Bottom line:

It’s a HUGE job. It has taken the coders hundreds of hours of work to complete the project. The amount of code is actually rivaling the core of bp itself. You REALLY have to have a specific reason for wanting to take on wpmu-bp-vb.

What we’ve built:

Well I also run a number of very large vb communities, and while vb has ‘blogs’ they suck, and many members asked to have blogs and social networking. The ‘easiest’ solution would have been to simply dump vb for bbpress, and migrate all of the data over to bbpress.

However bbpress is nowhere near what vb is, not even close. Yeah it’s nice code, but vb has years and years of development behind it and bbpress is just beginning. So for us dumping vb was not an option.

So we needed a real plan and decided to bridge the programs together, but the bridge is the smallest part of the equation. Not only did I want one registration/session setting for the users, I also wanted auto vb forum creation upon group creation within bp. I also wanted automatic vb forum creation upon new blog creation within wpmu.

Simply put, if you signup and create a blog, a new vb forum is created behind the scenes that belongs to that blog. The same thing goes if you create a group within bp.

Well that’s all and good, but as vb is commercial software, there is no way I wanted to have to install new copies of vb for each blog. I wanted to run only one copy of vb, just like bbpress does. That is where the HUGE amount of work came into play.

Not only did I want each blog to have their own vb forum, but we also had to deal with member roles and forum creation. So we built the system so that ‘technically’ each blog is able to manage every single aspect of vb from styles, to membership, to permissions, heck you name it. As far as the blog owner is concerned, they are running their own full blown copy of vb, fully integrated.

There are many other things to consider as well. Many of the function names within the programs are the same, so you can’t just call functions from bp within vb. Even including things as simple as your wordpress header within a vb template took a bit of work. You see, wordpress header navigation is dynamic, add a page/category, and you have a new link. Obviously you do not want to have to manually change your header in vb to match wp everytime a navigation button is added, so you have to automate that part. Well the function names are the same in both, so now you have to create your own header nav functions so it stays dynamic. Not hard but still more work.

If all you are after is bridging wp/vb together, there is a basic bridge script you can use from vb.org. It does not work with wpmu, but can be modded to work. We started out with this route and after making the changes it worked perfectly.

However, it is designed to use vb for reg/sessions, and this caused some major issues that we had not thought of in the beginning. Think about hosting ‘paid’ blogs on your network, and telling them that their members have to go to another site forum to register, yeah that went over real well. LOL.

So that is where we are at now. We are rewriting the bridge code to use wpmu reg/sess so that users signup on whatever wpmu blog they come across and they are registered into the entire system (even having the ability for a visitor to signup directly from a sub-blog in wpmu took a bit of custom code which is done). I expect the coders to have this part finished shortly.

Once that code is finished then we begin work on bringing in the vb posts into the wire and activity streams of bp. There seems to be little to no documentation on doing this within bp so I can imagine it’s gonna be an interesting project.

We will then begin work on filtering out the pm system within bp and replacing it with the pm system from vb. (I’d rather use bp pm system, but it’s a kiddy toy compared to vb right now, and I don’t care to wait years for bp to catch up).

We are not touching the core code of either wp, bp, or vb so future upgrades are not going to be a problem. That is another thing you have to really consider.

Bottom line is, it was a massive job that took months of work, but we’ve mu’d vbulletin and should have the perfect deep integration replacement for bbpress shortly.

I hope now you can see why you are not getting any responses. Even in it’s ‘simplest’ form, what you are asking is going to take someone hundreds of hours to build, and that’s only if your coders know vb/wpmu/bp code inside and out.

anyhow, hope it helps.

@david lewis

it’s not hard: the plugin still exist.

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbpress-latest-discussion/

And works with 1.1 new forum integration. Even if not necessary because latest post appearing in the side wide activity. So the plugin is only interesting if you don’t use SWA or if you use a custom homepage or an external bbpress install…

If you use it, don’t forget to set the right DB table prefix in the plugin option (default is bb_, but now it’s wp_bb_)

select the forum you want to exclude, enter connection infos and that’s it !

Have fun !

WOW – great!!! That was what I was searching for!

Can you tell me, how to implement that in my Custom-Friends-Activity?

(I am using this to get the friends activity for logged in users to the start-page)

<?php if ( bp_has_activities('type=friends&user_id='.$user_ID.'&per_page=10&max=10&timeframe=-4 Weeks') ) : ?>



<div class="activity-list">

<ul id="activity-list">

<?php while ( bp_activities() ) : bp_the_activity(); ?>



<li class="<?php bp_activity_css_class() ?>">

<?php bp_activity_content() ?>

</li>



<?php endwhile; ?>

</ul>

</div>

Would be great – thanks!

The way that bp_has_activities is now, you won’t be able to show your friends activity on your own profile page. There’s a few checks to change the type to “personal” if you are viewing your own page or if the current action is “just-me”.

You could, however, duplicate the function (located in bp-activity-templatetags.php) inside your own functions.php file, remove those checks, and call your custom function instead of this one?

There are other platforms and have tried a few myself. As new as the bp platform is, it is by far the quickest out of the box that enables much of what you need already (together with wpmu). However other platform might offer more fine grained control, but it comes with a hefty learning curve as the platform is simply more complex. The upside to bp’s less complex architecture makes it also easier to develop for.

I’ll see if I can give some input on your requirements.

The main feature is an easy and somewhat restrictive way to post content. The only thing girls can publish is pictures of outfits, and then tag the clothes (describe, tag, categorize…).

It looks like you need a custom content type that omits the post message. Flutter allows you to create a specific post type. I haven’t tried it with wpmu. There is also a wpmu plugin called ‘toggle_meta_boxes’ which allows you to hide unneeded post boxes to make it super easy for your users to just upload content.

We want to have some level of control here. BTW not all users can upload content.

Since you only have one subject users post on I would recommend NOT giving every user a blog at sign up, but just let them post to the main blog. Keeps you in control over categories, tags, etc. Plus it lets you control the user level. I however you do want to give users a blog there are wpmu plugins which allow you to set blog defaults like categories, predefined pages and posts and such. Also you can make new blog users have an editor role rather than an admin role if you want to control what they can or can not do.

The content published by everyone goes to the main page, same of today.

This is done by buddypress through widgets or even custom loops if you are adventurous.

No problem there.

People con vote their fabs.

I haven’t looked at this, but I imagine there would be a wp plugin which would let users vote on posts. If you can find a vote plugin that serves an RSS feed you could pull that into the bp user profile. EVen link it to the activity stream with a small custom plugin.

When user is logged in, she sees the content of the girls she is following (not pictures of everyone, just pictures of the ones that inspire the user).

In bp through making friends with other users you can follow the activity of your friends only. At the moment the activity stream is text only, afaik, but I think images in the activity stream is in the pipeline?

User profile is built by the outfits she publishes

The profile page shows the latest activity, blog posts, wire messages, etc. of the profiles user.

and the outfits she favorites.

This is the most dificult part, since I haven’t looked into it. Assuming you can find a good vote/favorite plugin it should be doable.

You can search for/discover/subscribe to trends, types of clothes, styles, colors, people…

This is where bp shines as the search is very well done. Combine it with bp_contents plugin which allows your users to tag themselve, groups, blog and add categories…your archiving possibilities are endless.

Some pitfalls (already mentioned):

Privacy controls, inappropriate content flagging (is coming in 1.1 though), it is still not an out of the box solution (however for you requirements there is none that I can think of).

There are still even other approaches when I think about it, I would recommend wp and bp in a heartbeat. Especially since the backend of both are really solid. Plugins are installed and upgraded easily. It is a widely supported and growing platform and would not hesitate to recommend it to you.

I hope this helps a little bit.

I Love the Dashboard Andy! Been waiting for something like that which gives a complete overview of the site that i’m involved in and activity.

Maybe it could even be the first page you see (instead of the profile page) when you click your own username… Making it more visible and easy to customize (Maybe widgetize it in future versions).

I hope the Dashboard can be implemented in the next/future version of the member theme as a standard.

Dennyhalim-

I just took a quick visit to the Hoard Hunter plugin page. This is what is says about:

Hoard Hunter is an online treasure map game designed and developed for people who would like an easy (and fun) method of fund raising online. The system comprises of a custom plugin and integrated theme. The Hoard Hunter site is powered by WordPress MU (though the system will also run on standard WordPress) and uses a number of WordPress plugins to provide additional functionality.

My First thought is that I would not even attempt to use this with BuddyPress. This looks like a complicated plugin that relies on many other plugins and its own custom theme to do some complex stuff. It is ripe with problems waiting to happen.

Also, it is not clear if this plugin suite, as it really should be considered, works with WPMU 2.7.1. You need to contact the developer and ask. There does not seem to be an activity on that plugin’s thread for almost 6 months and the images do not load on the website. This is never a good sign.

As is stated above, Hoard Hunter is a “system [comprised] of a custom plugin and integrated theme” and it relies on “a number of WordPress plugins to provide additional functionality”. You are dealing with a potentially large mess here in figuring out what is going on.

As John and I both suggested, you need to deactivate the Hoard Hunter plugin and all other plugins that Hoard Hunter is using. Furthermore, you need to switch back to the default BuddyPress themes. In other words, to troubleshoot this issue, you need to strip down your install to the lowest common denominator and see if the problem goes away.

So, just using the BuddyPress plugins and no other WPMU plugins, and just using the standard, default BP themes, does the problem go away. If so, you then start working your way backwards, adding a plugin at a time until either everything works or you find the problem.

It could also be an issue with Hoard Hunter’s “integrated theme”.

I hope this is just a development install and not an ongoing WPMU community to which your trying to add BP. If it is an ongoing community, perhaps you should stick with what you have and forget using BP.

If you wish to continue troubleshooting, and you have important data to protect, please make sure you know what you are doing, that you are comfortable with troubleshooting this issue. You’ll need to make backups of your database, your themes, upload directories, plugins–in other words everything. Why? Because there are no guarantees.

KitWit-

Okay, I’ve made a mistake. I did not even notice that you had linked to the members’ theme, not the home theme.

My widget is for the home them. What you’re asking about is not a widget. It is a coded into the /directories/members/index.php file in the bphome theme.

You can make your own custom theme, edit this out, and get what you want:

<div class="item-meta"><span class="activity"><?php bp_the_site_member_last_active() ?></span></div>



<div class="field-data">

<div class="field-name"><?php bp_the_site_member_total_friend_count() ?></div>

<div class="field-name xprofile-data"><?php bp_the_site_member_random_profile_data() ?></div>

</div>

Just make sure to place your custom theme in the proper place and then select it in WPMU’s backend via “BuddyPress > General Settings > Select theme to use for BuddyPress generated pages”

” 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)