BuddyPress.org

As long as your theme calls the standard WordPress hooks – like BuddyPress’ does – any add plugin that works on WPMU should work.

I am a bit confused about 1 thing. Do I create a child theme with the theme buddypress installs with or create a parent theme to make child themes from in the future. I am looking to change colors, layout (collumns) bg image and things like that. Something I read made it sound like any wordpress theme can be the parent, is this correct? I am assuming that using a standard wordpress theme would require adding code from the default theme. Is this correct? I just want to make sure I am understanding this before I try to jump in and work because in the begining I don’t think I was. Thank you,

Greg

There are two sets of files you need to work with… One for the home page and main blog and another for the member/group/admin pages.

The home theme is found here: /wordpress-mu/wp-content/themes/bphome

The member theme is here: /wordpress-mu/wp-content/bp-themes/bpmember

If you don’t have a member theme in the above location, upload it there. The bpmember base.css is similar and you will have to make most of your CSS tweaks to both. v1.1 uses only one theme for both. More info:https://buddypress.org/blog/news/the-new-buddypress-theme-architecture/

First of all, since you are installing a premium, 3rd-party DB sharding tool, you need to contact the people at WPMU DEV Premium and ask them for support. It seems like all was fine with your standard WPMU + BP install until you switched to using their multi-db plugin.

Secondly, in case you are not aware, there is a free sharding tool–HyperDB. In fact, this site (BP.org) is using it. Also, there is a great two-part article on how to use HyperDB written by Trent Adams, one of the moderators on this and other WP product forums.

With the integrated version you won’t have access to the bbPress admin panel to turn them on or off, so external only.

bbPress being included with BuddyPress is like TinyMCE being included with WordPress. Yes they are applications all their own, but they also live together in a very symbiotic way (without being alive of course.)

He’s saying that it could be a PHP error causing the issue and to check your error logs. Usually at this point it could be anything.

I think your next task is do a search on here and mu.wordpress to find out how to enable error logs, logging in general for your particular setup.

@wordpressfan: You must first visit a sub forum on this site to post a topic. You cannot post a topic from the front. It is identical except for the fact there are no groups listed on the forums directory in BuddyPress.

Also –

You don’t need to first browse to a group, click a group name on a topic and you will go straight to that group forum where you can post a reply or new topic.

You don’t need to be a member of the group, you can post a reply or a new topic on a group forum and will auto join that group. It’s not a two step process.

Stickies cannot be show on the front. You may have hundreds of groups, each with stickies. This will clog up the directory and make it useless.

@allenweiss: If you don’t want a group to be a place for starting topics and discussions then simply disable the forum on that group.

Hi, I’m having a problem with the error:

‘Attention Site Admin: Group forums require the correct setup and configuration of a bbPress installation.’

I started with a new site on a subdomain, installed WordPress MU 2.8.1, then installed Buddypress 1.0.3. This worked no problem.

I then installed bbPress 1.0.1 and followed the steps above. Everything seemed to have gone fine, and the integrated logins worked across all areas of the site.

The only problem I’m having is the error above. It appears when I’m logged into Buddypress and try to create a new group. Despite this error, the group is created, but no forum is created for the group.

I have 1 user in the system, using the login details admin/password. Admin is set as the Key Master. I have tried using the suggested versions of the 3 pieces of software, as well as later versions, all with the same problem. I’ve completely run out of ideas. Any help you can give is hugely appreciated.

Thanks

Hi, I’m having a problem with the error:

‘Attention Site Admin: Group forums require the correct setup and configuration of a bbPress installation.’

I started with a new site on a subdomain, installed WordPress MU 2.8.1, then installed Buddypress 1.0.3. This worked no problem.

I then installed bbPress 1.0.1 and followed the steps above. Everything seemed to have gone fine, and the integrated logins worked across all areas of the site.

The only problem I’m having is the error above. It appears when I’m logged into Buddypress and try to create a new group. Despite this error, the group is created, but no forum is created for the group.

I have 1 user in the system, using the login details admin/password. Admin is set as the Key Master. I have tried using the suggested versions of the 3 pieces of software, as well as later versions, all with the same problem. I’ve completely run out of ideas. Any help you can give is hugely appreciated.

Thanks

I’ll be writing up a “how-to” on using WordPress themes with BuddyPress very soon. What you have described is one way of doing it if the “template: bp-sn-parent” does not work.

To get the user menus you can add these lines to the bottom of your header.php:

<?php if ( !bp_is_blog_page() && !bp_is_directory() && !bp_is_register_page() && !bp_is_activation_page() ) : ?>

<?php locate_template( array( 'userbar.php' ), true ) ?>

<?php locate_template( array( 'optionsbar.php' ), true ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

You would need to add a line to the style.css of your Atahualpa theme, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

In style.css for Atahualpa, somewhere in the comments section where the theme name, author, and uri are, put…

Template: bp-sn-parent

That will tell WordPress to fall back on bp-sn-parent when Atahualpa doesn’t have files of its own to use. It’s still not a 100% fluid process, because the parent theme has its own CSS that it needs and uses to function and look the part. You can @import the style.css for bp-sn-parent and see if that helps at all too.

Welcome Pack took me about a month (of weekends and occasional evenings).

Achievements took me about three months. That time includes learning WordPress/BuddyPress frameworks.

Exactly my point. I prefer the profile page designs chosen by buddypress.org and profiles.wordpress.org – they’ve removed the “Me” and “My Profile” columns in favor of a sub-menu in one case and base data under the former “Me” column in another.

Are there any examples of how BuddyPress sites are diverting from the default profile styling?

@Jeff. That’s cool. I can just use a simple plug-in to block out groups, etc. wholesale. Like that code Burt did… just using is_user_logged_in(). It’ll do for now.

The issue is, I want to use BP as a kind of simple, lightweight “Intranet”/communication tool for our local Search & Rescue group. We’ll mostly use groups and/or bbPress to discuss fundraising, training, recent searches… etc. As well as look up members in the directory. Etc. All that stuff should be just for members. Some of it can be sensitive info. But we still need a public face for news, events and static info (faq, about, photos, etc.)

Two sites (a WordPress site for the public and a BuddyPress site for members) might make sense… but there’s overlap. All that public stuff needs to be available to members as well (pages, posts, events). So having two sites would be kind of a nightmare.

But I digress!!! As I say… I’m sure I can hack something together. Since I’m just hiding entire classes wholesale… it should be simple enough with a bit of PHP. Not sure how events will work though.

Anyway… very much looking forward to the privacy component as designed. Even thought it’s not what I thought it would be… and won’t do what I had in mind… it sounds like it’s actually a lot more impressive than that.

Disable all of your plugins – move them from the /plugins/ directory. Upgrade WordPress MU to the latest.

Re-add your plugins to the /plugins/ directory, do not activate them. Upgrade BuddyPress and then re-active your plugins.

Please, please backup before you upgrade. I’m not saying this for my own health. If you have a site running that can’t afford to be down, this is critical.

Like wordpress fan… I also need a solution that shows different components to registered vs. non-registered users. I can’t launch without it. Unless we build to separate sites… but I really don’t want to do that. The “public” (non-members) should basically only see the main blog’s posts, pages and events. Everything else needs to be hidden until you log in. I guess a bit of PHP might fake it just by hiding navigation options. In fact, there is a thread on the forums about that. I was assuming that the new privacy module would make that information moot however.

@Anointed: It’s not that the core is “flawed”… it’s that BuddyPress is simply a plugin that sits “on top” of WordPress MU while Elgg is an integrated solution. Personally, I still prefer BuddyPress. The theming process in Elgg caused me great pain and I find the Elgg interface suffers from inconsistencies and poor usability.

@sschablow

The auto upgrade usually does its job. But you are using a version of WPMU (2.7.1) that is 5 months old. Also, you were attempting to upgrade from a version of BP that was at least that old as well.

Whenever that many months have elapsed between your updating software versions, it is wise to check the readme.txt files and make sure that the versions you are using are compatible with each other. Had you done so, you would see at the top of BuddyPress’ v1.0.3 readme.txt file that you need at least WPMU 2.8.1.

=== Plugin Name ===

Contributors: apeatling

Tags: wpmu, buddypress, social, networking, profiles, messaging, friends, groups, forums, activity

Requires at least: WordPress MU 2.8.1

Tested up to: 2.8.1

Stable tag: 1.0.3

During those five months, many updates have been made to both platforms. In fact, it is recommended that you upgrade WPMU to 2.8.4a for security reasons. Here’s some information that might help in upgrading WPMU.

As for your comment here:

Crash occured after fatal error during BP upgrade (If it’s not possible to upgrade automatically you REALLY SHOULD REMOVE THAT S***[edited for content] FROM THE OPTIONS. DAYUMN. )

That is an issue. I’m not sure that it has been reported, but as you are the first to report such a bug in the BuddyPress forums, you should check in WPMU Trac and see if it has been reported. If not, add a new ticket.

Thanks Reboot Now – and wordpressfan for suggesting it in the first place. Will definitely look into giving this code a try prior to future BP work as this is very important for privacy, especially for children, who will potentially be a significant part of a site I am working on. Membership will be verified to ensure protection of the children’s private information while allowing them to participate fully in the community.

Maybe someone could take this and turn it into a plugin…?

@Jeff Sayre – your plugin is also useful as it gives a universal (i.e. WP not just BP) and individual-focussed privacy option, which is also very important. good work!