Skip to:
Content
Pages
Categories
Search
Top
Bottom

How can we integrate the buddy press theme with the user blogs?

Viewing 25 replies - 1 through 25 (of 48 total)

  • netspencer
    Participant

    @netspencer

    Origionally, BuddyPress was designed so the user profiles was one of the blogs…. user.domain.tld.

    and so that would go to todays equivalent of domain.tld/members/user. since that was the case, the theme for those blogs would be the member theme, and to access that users blog the url would be: user.domain.tld/blog. because of this, the users blog would be incorporated into their profile.

    Now, buddypress users profiles are completly unrelated to blogs and reside at a different URL. Therefore, for a user to create a blog, they would make one just like they would on a normal wpmu installation and choose from any installed (and enabled) theme.

    if you want the blogs to be incorperated into the theme, maybe you could modify the member theme into a standard blog theme, name the folder default and don’t enable any other blog templates for the site.

    this way, when a user creates a new blog, your theme (default) will be set for it. and it will load more seamlessly.

    BTW: i don’t think there is a way for u to get the exact theme from the picture and have it work but maybe you can ask someone about that.


    sebastianmacias
    Participant

    @sebastianmacias

    Thanks netspencer. I think the original way makes more sense. I wonder why it was changed to the way blogs work now.

    Having blogs completely unrelated to profiles makes the navigation of the site a awkward. It completely breaks the flow of a BP powered site.

    I will be doing more research and post my findings here.

    Perhaps I would end up creating a new blog theme that brings the profile to the blog or maybe the other way, bring the blog to the profile page.

    Thanks,

    Sebastian


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    I would like to do this too.

    What I did is make the buddypress home theme available to memberblogs. The only “catch” is that the member blog appears without any widgets set.

    I am curious, if there is a way to “preset” the widgets on a userblog theme to a standard layout.

    This image is perfect: https://apeatling.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/blog.jpg

    If member blogs could look like that, then I can launch my community.

    Best,

    Dainis


    sebastianmacias
    Participant

    @sebastianmacias

    The approach I will be taking is creating a new Blog BP plugin that will be pulling all the posts, categories and comments straight from the user’s blog. I will only be allowing one blog per user. Also I setup my BP installation not to use subdomains for blogs but folders. I will be looking to hook into BP’s url dispatcher to use subdomains for the public profiles and will be disallowing direct access to the actual users WP blogs (maybe using .htaccess rules) so that way blogs will look and feel like they belong to the profile just like the wire, friends and eventually galleries and not a separate/independent entity the way it currently works.

    It’s a lot of work but I think it’s the way to go at least for my project requirements.

    I hope to be able to release the code once I have made a good amount of progress.

    Sebastian


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    Hi Sebastian, that really sounds great!

    We have similar specs, here are my responses:

    [blockquote]I will be creating a new Blog BP plugin that will be pulling all the posts, categories and comments straight from the user’s blog. [/blockquote] Doesn’t “all activity” already do that? Also, you mean straight from the users blogs (plural), right? That means, users’ blogs will show in your “home blog” right?

    [blockquote]I will only be allowing one blog per user.[/blockquote] Me too, is that an existing setting?

    [blockquote]Also I setup my BP installation not to use subdomains for blogs but folders.[/blockquote]Me too, seems cleaner and more appropriate for a “user,” also I couldn’t get it to install with the other method! :-)

    [blockquote]I will be looking to hook into BP’s url dispatcher to use subdomains for the public profiles and will be disallowing direct access to the actual users WP blogs (maybe using .htaccess rules) so that way blogs will look and feel like they belong to the profile just like the wire, friends and eventually galleries and not a separate/independent entity the way it currently works.[/blockquote]

    I don’t know what you mean by disallowing access to the actual users WP blogs. Oh, now I get it…they don’t even “post” or “see” their actual blogs.

    …Hmm…

    Well, here’s something that may be a bit of a shortcut that you could try, it’s just that I don’t know how to do one step.

    Just make the user blogs have the theme “buddy press home.” It looks like it works just fine. The only thing is that the user is then asked to configure widgets. If you could figure out how to allow only the main admin to configure the user blog template (including widgets), and if you could figure out how to activate and deactivate and “move around” those widgets on all user blogs simultaneously (all user blogs use one theme, and the settings are all set in one place by the global admin), then, it seems to me like we would be all set.

    What do you think?

    Best,

    Dainis


    John James Jacoby
    Keymaster

    @johnjamesjacoby

    Best way to do this would be to copy the bits of the member-theme that make the userbar and optionbar, and then add them to a new theme that you create.

    This is possible to do with just some hybridizing of the two themes and mating the pieces of them that you want together.


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    Hi John,

    Thanks, I don\’t know how to do what you are suggesting. The theme seems to work, it\’s just that it asks blog owners to configure their widgets. Is there any way to pre-configure the widgets?

    Best,

    Dainis

    PS: Or to do it automatically?


    Wildrot
    Participant

    @wildrot

    Hey Guys,

    interesting discussion you’re having here. I’ve done something quite similar on http://schmink-tipps.net — It’s a pure hack solution based on a custom blog theme, though. So: Really looking forward to your plugin, Sebastianmacias!


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    You know, there’s got to be some file somewhere that gets written to (or multiple files), when you configure widgets. Basically, all I need to do is automatically put that file into each new member’s blog, and I should be done. The way things are right now, the home theme works fine for user blogs, but the widgets aren’t configured.

    So these are the steps I’m thinking would be easiest to follow:

    1) Figure out where the widget configuration gets stored

    2) Configure the widgets

    3) Figure out how to get a pre-configured theme for new members (by copying certain files or writing a script or I don’t know what)

    Answers? Helpful? Goofy?

    Best,

    Dainis


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    Great job on schmink-tipps!


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    @Wildrot

    and @apeatling of https://apeatling.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/blog.jpg

    is there a downloadable way to do what you guys have done and make it the default for user blogs (no user set up required, just automatic)?

    Can you guys make your user templates available to the BuddyPress community?

    Best,

    Dainis


    jodyw1
    Participant

    @jodyw1

    That’s the first time I’ve seen that jpg of an early version of a blog theme. It’s really elegant and beautiful. I’m thinking one of the future features for the site should be to configure blogs that way in addition to the stand alone themes people are working on now.


    Anointed
    Participant

    @anointed

    It’s that exact .jpg above as to why I even got interested in buddypress in the first place. It looked very similar to another program I use, only cleaner.

    Needless to say I was more than a little dismayed to find out it is not included in buddypress. I sure wish I knew what happened to that file as I would have loved to use it for my ‘basic’ members. I could then provide ‘real’ themes for premium members.

    Another nice aspect to that layout is it’s hard to mess up or not understand for a newbie wordpress user.

    Add me to the list of those that really wish it would be released, especially since that theme is now depreciated compared to the new theme on this site.


    jodyw1
    Participant

    @jodyw1

    I wonder how far Andy got with that version, if the files still exist, and it\’s an easy resurrect?

    Well, it\’s probably not THAT easy to do…. but it is fun to suggest more work to people.

    :-D


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    LOL!

    Wow, yes, I sure would be mega-thrilled if the theme from that JPG were released. Frankly, I don’t even want to launch my BuddyPress community without some kind of cohesive theme where blog owners don’t have to do any configuration.

    Is there anything similar or functional available now? Also, were my procedural posts just goofy, or could some of my suggestions work with minimal effort?

    –Dainis


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    I got a very kind response from Andy to search for some blog theme setting plugins. I have plugin commander and new blog defaults installed, but neither allow me to create a standard member theme with the widget settings all in place.

    I don’t feel right about launching my community until I can give users a standard blog template, and I don’t know how to continue.

    Best,

    Dainis


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel

    So, basically, I’d really like to launch my community. It is an alternative health site that basically tops the list for advanced raw-foodist supernutrition practices. Anyone interested in helping, please get in touch.

    I’m sure there are templates and structures out there that I could use and tweak, I just need to find the right person to work with me and supply the missing information I simply don’t know.


    belogical
    Participant

    @belogical

    very interesting thread. i just started something similar here. https://buddypress.org/forums/topic.php?id=2434

    i totally thought the blogs were integrated into the home theme. i had no idea they weren’t. i was going to launch my site this weekend, now it’s looking pretty bad. i would have to hack a theme together, which stinks. i was really excited about the all in one integrated themes, especially at upgrade time. get the new features and no hacks on my theme!

    i do like the look of that JPG, but wouldn’t care if it was identical. i would just love the integration of blogs into the home theme. any help or info I can provide to the community, I will post here. please do the same with regular updates.

    this is a show stopper for me.


    dainismichel
    Participant

    @dainismichel


    belogical
    Participant

    @belogical

    Dainismichel, I’ve been that route for the past year and a half. Nothing compares to buddypress that is out there. I’m hoping to find a skeleton theme that integrates the blogs nicely. I have one now from wildrot, but it will take a lot of work to get it production ready. I’ll keep you posted.

    Why not take a copy of the bp home theme and do the edits to make it a blog theme? Has anyone tried yet?


    Jeff Sayre
    Participant

    @jeffsayre

    Andrea is right.

    You can either take the current BP home and member themes and customize them to integrate blogs as you wish, or you can use the BuddyPress Skeleton Template Theme files to build your own blog-centric custom BP themes.

    @andrea_r: I’m surprised no one has done that yet. Should be quite easy.

    Actually, I just did this on a test bed. Took maybe ten minutes.

    make a copy of the home theme and move it somewhere.

    rename the folder to something obvious, like bp-blog-theme.

    Edit style.css and change the theme name to be Blogs instead of Home.

    Delete home.php.

    move the new theme back into wp-content/themes/. Activate it under Site Admin -> Themes. Go to a member blog (you have a test blog, right?), under Appearance and activate the new BLOG theme.

    Give it a whirl and let me know how you make out. There’s other regular WPMU plugins to enable the theme by default on a new blog. My fave: http://wpmudev.org/project/wpmu-blog-defaults. That way the blog creation part is seamless and looks well-integrated.


    belogical
    Participant

    @belogical

    Andrea_r, this works really well to start off with. Two things I have noticed off the bat. #1) my custom component doesn\’t show up under this theme for some reason. I am on skeleton component v1.1 and not v1.2. Could that be the cause? #2) The links at the top (Blog, Members, Groups, Blogs) don\’t work properly. They are all formatted as username.domain.com/members instead of domain.com/members etc…

    For #2, is my beta site messed up? Is it supposed to rewrite those to the proper URL or is that behaving normally? If that is the case, I will need to redo those links, correct?

Viewing 25 replies - 1 through 25 (of 48 total)
  • The topic ‘How can we integrate the buddy press theme with the user blogs?’ is closed to new replies.
Skip to toolbar