BuddyPress.org

@daltontastic,

color buttons are TinyMCE tools and not html tags. The only way to get them would be to use the editor toolbar.

Here a scenario you could use:
– create a child-theme and add post-form.php to it (copy from bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddyPress/activity/post-form.php).
Result: your-child-theme/buddypress/activity/post-form.php

In that file, go to line:40 where textarea start.
Inser this action hook:

<?php if ( bp_is_groups_component() ) : ?>
	<?php do_action( 'blablabla' ); ?>
<?php endif ?>

Then add this <?php if ( ! bp_is_groups_component() ) : ?>
<textarea class="bp-suggestions"......bla...bla...</textarea>
and add <?php endif ?> after the textarea closing tag.

This contionnals will show a custom area for the desired group and prevent update area to appear on all other groups home pages.

So if a user is member of different groups, he will get a texteditor for group_id 13 and the normal update area on all others.

The custom template is ready. Now the fonctions we need.

Open bp-custom.php (or create it) and paste in those snippets.

Adding the texteditor:

function bpfr_whats_new_tiny_editor() {
	// deactivation of the visual tab, so user can't play with style tools
//add_filter ( 'user_can_richedit' , create_function ( '$a' , 'return false;' ) , 50 );

$content = "";

	// building the what's new textarea
	if ( isset( $_GET['r'] ) ) :
	$content = esc_textarea( $_GET['r'] ); 
	endif;

	// adding tinymce tools
	$editor_id = 'whats-new';

	$settings = array( 
			'textarea_name' => 'whats-new', 
			'teeny' => false, 
			'media_buttons' => true, 
			'drag_drop_upload' => true, 
			'quicktags' => array(
			'buttons' => 'strong,em,link,block,del,ins,img,ul,ol,li,code,close'
		));	 
	
	// get the editor	
	wp_editor( $content, $editor_id, $settings );
}
add_action( 'whats_new_textarea', 'bpfr_whats_new_tiny_editor' );

A simple function who add the original textarea for users who are group members, but not allowed to rich edit.

function my_textarea() { ?>
			<textarea class="bp-suggestions" name="whats-new" id="whats-new" cols="50" rows="10"
				<?php if ( bp_is_group() ) : ?>data-suggestions-group-id="<?php echo esc_attr( (int) bp_get_current_group_id() ); ?>" <?php endif; ?>
			><?php if ( isset( $_GET['r'] ) ) : ?>@<?php echo esc_textarea( $_GET['r'] ); ?> <?php endif; ?></textarea>
<?php
}

And the last one, where you set up the group allowed to publish updates using edit tools.

function trotro() {

if ( bp_is_groups_component() ) :

$check = groups_is_user_member( bp_loggedin_user_id(), bp_get_group_id() );
$check_group = bp_get_group_id(); 

	if ($check != 0 && $check_group == 21 && 'leon' == bp_current_item() ){
		echo 'Wow! You can rich edit in this group.';
			bpfr_whats_new_tiny_editor();
	} else {
		echo 'Sorry, you cannot rich edit in this group';
		my_textarea();
	}

endif;
}
add_action( 'blablabla', 'trotro' );

Now, any member which is part of the group leon, group id 23 can publish updates and use the color picker and all other things which are on the edit bar.

Only thing you have to do is to adjust leon and id to your rules.

Successfully tested on 2.6 and 2016.

May this help you to go further with your BuddyPress project. 🙂