BuddyPress.org

@Peter: WordPress is the same. If you want to do something that it doesn’t do by default you have to dig into the Codex and forums and figure out a little bit of PHP. The only changes you can make with “some html/css” are visual changes. No matter what the software is. If you take a look through the WordPress.org forums you will find thousands of posts with people discussing code, php, template tags, action hooks, custom queries, arrays. And WordPress plugins break after updates too. All the time.

Sorry… what was the original question again? Oh yah… different user types. I guess that has already been answered above… as best as it can be. Topic has been marked as “resolved” too.

Not so much your theme, but compare the 1.1 default BuddyPress theme http://dangerous-minds.org to the 1.2 theme http://testbp.org/. 1.2 also has the following big features:

Standard WordPress support (not just MU)

Activity stream threaded commenting.

Ability to mark an activity stream item as a favorite.

Activity stream item permalinks.

Advanced activity stream filters.

New default theme with improved usability and customization options

There have been some template tag changes (incl. the template tag loops), I would advise you get a copy of the 1.1 default and 1.2 default theme, look at the changes and apply them to your site. There’s no documentation written yet.

If you can wait about two weeks, you’ll be able to use BuddyPress on your regular WordPress site!

—

To create forums, you need to create a group with discussion forum enabled.

Why’s that worrisome? It just shows how fast you can get results with BP.

Only when you are a PHP programmer. If you are not, you waste weeks figuring out little things like storing firstname/lastname, fixing Ajax buttons that are intricately connected with CSS elements and fixing plugins that break between versions of WPMU.

The worrisome thing is when BP developers assume the end users are all PHP programmers. Or if they are not, that they should learn PHP.

WordPress was originally intended for content creators who know some html/css, but don’t have to know “programming”. I’d hate to see Buddypress abandon that goal.

That basically means you talk an aweful lot about things you really don’t know that much about…

I don’t and make that very clear, but I still need to figure out ways to get these little things to work or they would derail my project. And I can’t afford to hire anyone to do it for me.

I know general structural things; I don’t know programming from scratch. In particular working with arrays etc. is pure hocus pocus to me.

You need a test case!

Here’s a thought…

I am creating a social networking site for entrepreneurs.

http://networkingpeople.biz/

You can use my website as an example, and interview me as I go through the process of learning buddypress and setting up my site.

I’ve been working with WordPress for 5 years, but am not a PHP programmer. I’m guessing this probably defines most of the (non-developer, business oriented users) who will be using Buddypress.

I am open to ideas.

– Derek

You can contact me at:

dlittle800@gmail.com

Hi there,

I dont understand the fix you’re proposing Issidha, because when I go to the WordPress MU files you indicate need tweaking, I dont SEE those lines pertaining to taking out the www in front of URLs… ??

I tried entering the domain name where i’m trying to have Buddypress with a www. in front but I have the same issue:

— > The main page is showing up but all other pages ( Members/Blog…) are not accessible: ie, I get a wrong URL message.

As in:

Trying to go to : http://www.sitename/groups

*** The requested URL /groups was not found on this server. *****

I and other users CAN access wp-admin ( http://www.sitename/wp-admin/) , as if only the WordPress MU was working, and not all the Buddypress features.

I also installed a fresh copy of WP MU, and installed Buddy Press 1.1.3, as recommended, through the instal Plugin of the WP MU dashboard.

I had also installed a couple more plugins, the Buddypress SEO, Hashcash and a forum subscription plugin for BP, which I just deactivated to see if that helped. But it makes no difference.

Thanks for your advice…

@Peter: Yes… BuddyPress is quite new. Comparing it to WordPress isn’t really fair since WordPress has been around for 7 years. BuddyPress hasn’t even turned 1 yet. The first public release was last spring.

I am having the same problem and also any of the links /members, /groups, /register (which goes to the login form), and /login (“The page you were looking for was not found.”) and also al the links related to does not work.

Please tell me how can I get it to work, whithout having to reinstall all of the scripts in there.

I am using WordPress 2.9.1.

It is already there.

But you may not edit the Fields which are stored by wordpress(If your User had registered before activating buddypress). Only Buddypress xprofile fields can be edited from profile page.

Under profile link, you will see edit profile which will allow you to change the basic details(xprofile fields).

Under settings->general you can change email/password.

Hi alone,

did you try this ?

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-groupblog/

and this ?

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-multilingual/

I see your point jivany, but so far I’ve seen that about 90% of the active BP Communities use the default theme with some slight modifications. With some clever editing/focus on certain things which almost every BP site has, it could be very useful.

Think of something like http://www.wordpress.tv:

I would also rather see very specific and in-depth tutorial from BP Pro’s sooner then later, but if you look at the questions asked on these forums, you can not skip the basics here and simply presume that the “easier” stuff will be figured out as they go.

Imagine you stumbling upon BuddyPress.org and being able to get a few nice basic video instructions. You get a sense of professionalism and a clear view of what’s possible with the software, the advanced stuff we all like to see can be covered at a later point imo

And about Facebook and Twitter;

A screencast of twitter would have saved me quite some time, and don’t even start about Facebook lol.. I’ve tried 2 hours to find a feed of my status updates and after trying everything known to man I still haven’t found it. Facebook is awesome but it makes no sense whatsoever on certain aspects

@Peter Separation of logic, data and presentation doesn’t mean that you don’t have to know how to code if a program doesn’t have the logic you require. And I disagree that the layers are less separate in BuddyPress than WordPress.

If you want to learn PHP… I would highly recommend lynda.com. I use their training videos all the time and they are worth every cent.

OK, I know this might not be well-received, but learning a bit of PHP will allow you to do almost anything with WP … I’m not a programmer, but a guy who bought a book on PHP/MySQL awhile back and WP is so easy you could teach yourself the basic stuff.

I’m being dragged kicking and screaming into learning PHP. I don’t have the time and can’t afford to hire a PHP programmer, but keep running into things that I’d consider basic core functionality that isn’t up to standard.

I’m not asking for new features, I just need a solid core that will let me get things done, starting with member management, including things like multiple user types.

When WordPress first arrived the point was to separate layout (html/css), functions (php) and data (mysql) as much as possible, so anyone with basic web development skills (html/css/design/content) could build and maintain sites. In Buddypress it all starts to mix again.

The backpat plugin is only going to support the 1.1 branch of code, and not the dual theme massive integration headache that came before it.

To have the activity stream update when you post a topic or post a reply, bbPress would need a special plugin to be made, and/or bbPress would need to be “deeply” integrated with WordPress/BuddyPress to have those functions natively available.

The other thing you could do is look into previous versions of BuddyPress that included that kind of support. In BP 1.0 it was assumed that if you wanted forums, that you were using the voo-doo magic method of integrating things.

Check out this plugin – https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-remove-avatars/

This plugin will completely remove ALL avatars (including default, uploaded, or gravatar) from displaying on your site. This includes hiding the step for choosing avatars when creating groups or user accounts, and removing the menu items for editing avatars.

Just to clarify you have BuddyPress (latest trunk) running with a standalone WordPress 2.9.1 (NOT MU) and BBPress 1.0.2?

I am looking at doing this. Just need to know.

Any advice?

Thanks!

hi Arturo,

I don’t see a link to your example. Can you post it?

Just to clarify you have BuddyPress (latest trunk) running with a standalone WordPress 2.9.1 (NOT MU) and BBPress 1.0.2?

Thanks.

I think one of the crucial issues is that you are mixing content with meta data. Twitter does this for obvious reasons, such as making it work well with text messaging. I like what Andy said about BuddyPress not being Facebook or Twitter, but one thing BuddyPress is… is WordPress.

WordPress does a great job of separating content from meta data. Blog Posts have content and they have tags. Why not use something similar here? Why not let the meta data be separate?

Just add a tag box! Any tag that starts with @ means that the tag name is really a username. Now think about the WP tag box. You type any tags in, separated by commas and press ‘Add tag’. The tags automagically get separated into their own little icons. A similar thing could happen in BP, but when @user tags are added, they get displayed as the user’s full name. You could have an interface that allows for entering @username or just allows the user to type a full name and have it autocomplete. Using auto complete is easier in a tag box than in a content box.

WARNING: Whatever you do, be very careful! If you merge content and meta data now, it may be very difficult to separate them later. In 1.1, wall posts had their content separated from the meta data specifying whose wall it was on. Now with 1.2 it sounds like all of my wall content will be modified to say who I was talking to. Then, if you change your mind and want to separate them out again in 1.3, you will have to modify the content again to remove the meta data.