BuddyPress.org

Spammers target all social networks. They literally overran an elgg site I have and I’m rebuilding with WP/BP. A few still get through with the latest BP and anti-spam and custom profile fields, not a lot, two or three a day, but that’s nothing. I found about 600 in my first month in my users that never made it to the surface. As for the few that did, having a couple fill in custom profile fields is really helpful. The bots that do sneak through fill those two spots with gibberish, in my case age and location, so it’s easy to identify spam members.

Just installed the plugin on WP 2.9.2 + BP 1.2.4.1 and as jpl888 points out on the WP forum, it can work with a little fettling:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/399989

To install it I added the code from the pastebin link: http://pastebin.com/bw0suXwe to my members list page (members/index.php), changed the bp_filter_profile_field(”) argument to be the name of the profile field I wanted to filter on and on testing it, I got hit with the following error in the logs:

`PHP Warning: Parameter 2 to bp_replace_members_filter() expected to be a reference, value given in snip…/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 166, referer: snip…/members/`

So I found the bp_replace_members_filter(…) method at line 265 in the plugin file bp-member-filter.php and removed the ampersand from the 2nd parameter so the method signature becomes:

`function bp_replace_members_filter( $has_members, $members_template )`

After that filtering works for me where the profile field to filter on is a select box. Filtering on a multiple select box does not work for me, and as posted earlier filtering on checkbox profile fields is not yet implemented.

Be warned though, I just checked the error log and removed the ampersand from the param and it then worked, I don’t know if that change will have any other side effects. I can see that it means I’m telling PHP that the method now expects a value rather than a reference, and that appears to be what BP is giving it, but beyond that…

Hey Mike! Is there any way to customize this so that you add a tab to filter activity based on one of the profile fields? Thx for your help!

Ok, I have feedback for you on the “Import from Ning” plugin if I use it to upload a normal CSV file that is not originally from Ning. I hope the developer @boonebgorges of the plugin reads this to give him some ideas about expanding the ability to use this

The plugin does work, but not entirely. In your CSV columns, you must have Name and Email as the first and second columns, respectively. If you do not have them in that order, it will not import. That is an easy thing to do though, so not a headache

Here are some problems I found:

1) I want to create usernames for my imported users. How are usernames generated for users when you import them? The “Import from Ning” plugin takes the ‘Name” field and makes that the username automatically. So if your name is “George Bush”, it will automatically create a username called “georgebush”.

However, I do not want this. I have separated by “Name” field from the “Surname” field, so my user would have Name=George and Username=George. I do not want that. Instead I want to create my own usernames. However if I upload a column called “Username”, the importer does not recognize that.

2) The “Import from Ning” plugin does a decent job of automatically aligning your xprofile fields with the columns in the CSV file. For selectbox fields, there is no problem. For textbox fields, there is no problem. For radio fields, there is no problem. However there are problems with these two fields: datebox and checkbox.

What happens if I try to upload data into datebox? I tried uploading in the formats “1 January 1950” and “January 1, 1950” but the plugin ignored those, so I am unsure how to upload dates correctly. When I tried “1 January 1950”, it changed that and instead displayed “January 1, 1970”, so I feel that maybe I am near a solution…. however when I tried “January 1, 1950” in my CSV field, it just left that entire area blank… I have no idea about the correct protocol for uploading dates tat include months, days, and years together. But I feel I am near a solution….

What happens when I include data from a checkbox? Nothing is included. For example, I have a field that is “Favorite Foods” and users can select more than one choice. In my field, I am using “~” as the separator. So I have “Pizza~Noodles~Fruit” in my CSV field, but the plugin ignores this. Therefore, for the “checkbox” field data, I am unsure of the correct protocol for how to prepare my data to upload using this plugin.

I feel that this is a great plugin and we only maybe need some help figuring out the details from above.

That be cool.

@DJPaul: tks for the info, though it doesn’t make me smile

I searched for other plugins that allow for bulk import that include xprofile fields, but I find none. Any thoughts on ways to handle this? direct import via mysql is not a good solution as my client needs as wysiwyg as possible.

Are we sort of in a “dead zone” now as people wait for WP 3.0 before coming out with plugin updates?

@boonebgorges and his work may help with both

1. Under BuddyPress, Profile Field Setup, you can add a new field or field group, including text box type fields. As stated on that admin page, “Any fields in the first group will appear on the signup page.” An URL entered will be picked up as a link in the profile’s public view.

While setting up profile fields, have a look at Custom Profile Filters for BuddyPress https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-profile-filters-for-buddypress/ with which, among other features “Administrators can specify certain profile fields that link to social networking profiles.”

2. See BuddyPress External Group Blogs https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/external-group-blogs/ with which individual users might include RSS in group and site activity streams even without blogs being enabled. See BP External Activity https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-external-activity/ for more admin options, or even FeedWordPress https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feedwordpress/ for user blogs.

Agreed. I would love this functionality.

You might also want to try this plugin, https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-profile-filters-for-buddypress/, read the third option

“Administrators can specify certain profile fields that link to social networking profiles. If I enter my Twitter handle ‘boonebgorges’ into a field labeled ‘Twitter’, for example, this plugin will bypass the default link to a BuddyPress search on ‘boonebgorges’ and instead link to http://twitter.com/boonebgorges. See custom-profile-filters-for-buddypress-bp-functions.php to configure this setting.”

You might be able to hack it in a way that works for your site.

Not sure if this will help you, but you might consider trying this trick (see post by Boone Gorges), https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/remove-automatic-links-in-profile/.

Hope this helps.

Here’s that plugin I was referring to: https://buddypress.org/community/groups/bp-profile-privacy/

BP can’t fill every feature gap nor everyone’s wishes – why plugins are created. Sure this can be easily done with bypassing some of the xprofile data (or create your own fields) and hook into the wp_usermeta first/last name. (even though xprofile is syncing that data)

@thelandman, in my solution I use javascript to generate the username from the weird semi-optional xprofile fullname field, hide the username field on the form, use the email login plugin so members don’t need the username to log in, add more custom code to synchronize the fullname and the fullname-derived username to all the various similar fields in the database, etc. It’s messy, but somewhat workable.

The point is that it should not be that hard. Using full names, Firstname Lastname, should be part of the core. Seeing that none of this is fixed in 1.2+ and probably will never be fixed, I have no plans to upgrade to newer versions of Buddypress and will continue developing my version as a fork, more suited for professional and business use. If anyone is interested in working with me on that, please contact me directly.

I use a Profile Privacy plugin created by http://www.jfarthing.com/. Sadly, the link to the plugin in my dashboard comes up 404 in the wp repositorty, and I can’t seem to find reference to it on his site. That said, the plugin allows for you to manage who can see certain fields in the profile (everyone, friends, user). When profile fields are set to “user” only the user and the site admin can view the info. Perhaps an attempt to contact jfarthing will met results. Good luck.

I would use this, cool idea.