I’ve been reading a lot about this issue and it looks like BP is missing some very basic functionality. This is the first time using it and right out of the gate I see that there are some things that have me baffled.
1) No way to create conditional fields. I’ve tried using the Gravity Forms User Registration Add-On plugin but there is no way to map fields properly. For example, in Gravity Forms I have Country, State and City fields. If someone selects United States as a Country for example, the next field that the user sees is the State field, but then I run into a problem when someone selects a City. In order to use conditional fields with Gravity Forms, I need to create many City fields (alabama-cities, alaska-cities etc). One City field for each State. These City fields are conditional fields that displayed to the user Cities based on what the user selects in the State field.
The problem is that Gravity Forms wants me to first create User Profile Fields in BuddyPress. Then map each Gravity Forms field to the appropriate User Profile Field. Since I have many Gravity Forms cities field, there is no way I can tell Gravity Forms to use the City that the user selects and map it to a City User Profile field in BuddyPress.
I’ve read a lot of posts on this forum dating back 5 years and no one has offered a working solution.
2) Also, Why is there no option for an admin to be able to deny users from changing their Screenname? How about an option that prevents user from modifying a specific field such as Gender? All I see is havoc and chaos if you allow users to change certain fields.
3) Why doesn’t BuddyPress offer a way to have different registration fields based on the user? Teacher / Student Registration, Doctor / Patient etc? It doesn’t make sense. Look at the core of BuddyPress. It’s a social network plugin. In almost every circumstance you have a need for one user have certain fields and another to have other fields. Trying to figure out how to show certain profile fields for one user and not another should be at the core of this plugin. Not to mention making it easy for the site owner to layout those fields so that they look nice. For example something as easy as defining the length of the fields. You can’t make those modifications without Firebug and CSS and PHP experience, or worse yet another plugin. If you use a plugin, then you have to pray to God the author of that plugin not to fall off a cliff or pray that he / she keeps that plugin conducive with the latest version of BP.
I don’t mean to gripe but BuddyPress it seems to me that at it’s core, very little thought was given to how people would actually use it. Almost like it’s piecemealed together.
Another big complaint is that it’s not compatible with the best WordPress themes on the planet – StudioPress. Shouldn’t the contributors of BP make sure that BP and StudioPress be compatible?
I’m sorry if this sounds like a rant, it’s not. It’s just frustration. BP looks awesome but underneath the hood, there are a lot of obvious problems. My suggestion is to do what WooCommerce, StudioPress and others do. Sit down and figure out how to handle the big issues first. If need be, charge for BuddyPress. If the problem is that you have a bunch of contributors who work on things “they” deem important and at their own leisure, then the plugin suffers. Charge for it. Sit down and listen to the complaints and address them based on customer priority. Pay someone to reply to this forum so we’re not waiting days for a response. You’ll have much happier users and a much better plugin. Just my 2 cents worth. Honestly, since BP is virtually the only Plugin of it’s kind, not taking my advice will lead to someone creating a better wheel and that point, it’s only a matter of time before BP becomes obsolete.
It’s been close to 24 hours and no response to my original question. If ANYONE has an answer as to how I can get a user to simply select a Country, then State, then City based on previous fields, I’d greatly appreciate it. Also if someone could please tell me how to prevent users from modifying certain fields that would be appreciated as well.
Thanks
