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[Resolved] In the Beginning…Some advice Please.


  • cicakchanson
    Member

    @cicakchanson

    11 years, 11 months ago

    Hi. I’m in the process of building a new wordpress powered web site and I’d like to incorporate a social media component. I have a multisite install running and I would really like some advice before going with Buddypress.

    As I understand Buddypress, it aggregates blogs from across your network and adds social media functions similar to Facebook. I also know that you can turn off the Buddypress features you don’t want to use which is an attractive element because I know I don’t need all its features.

    On my network, new users will not be blogging themselves on their own sites. Instead they will sign up to belong to my network and become members only. They won’t really be going anywhere other than the main site on the network. I know that statement might prompt you to wonder why I’m using multisite at all but I don’t want to bore you with the details of the project.

    Members on my network have the power to, among other things, read and comment on blog posts. I would like my members to have their own profile pages and the power to form their own discussions or interact in other facebook-esque ways (status updates/likes/etc…). However, much like a traditional blog I want the articles written by myself and guest contributors to aways be the center of attention on the main blog-page.

    I’ve looked at a pluggin called Mingle and it seems to accomplish what I’m looking for but I get the impression that Buddypress really is the premiere social media engine for WordPress. Also, Buddypress needs its own theme and Mingle doesn’t which does make me a bit hesitant to go with Buddypress.

    My questions are:

    1. Even though my users don’t have their own blogs is Buddypress going to give me the functionality I
    described above or should I go with something less powerful like Mingle?

    2. Can anyone recommend a buddy press theme that would present my articles, front and center but still allow for the other social media type features I’ve previously described?

    Thanks in advance so much for your help. This is a major facet of my new site and I’d really hate to get it wrong.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • Sniper Kitten
    Participant

    @sniperkitten

    11 years, 11 months ago

    1. Have you tried BuddyPress Group Forums & bbPress (or known as Sitewide forums). Both of them integrate well with BuddyPress and will show up in the activity stream when someone start a topic or post a reply.
    https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/installing-group-and-sitewide-forums/

    2. I think most of the BuddyPress compatible theme should fits your need. You just need to configure it so it looks like a normal blogs in the front while still maintain the social media functions.


    cicakchanson
    Member

    @cicakchanson

    11 years, 11 months ago

    Thanks for the reply sniper kitten (I like your avatar). I ended up installing a fresh copy of wordpress, getting multi-user going and then adding buddy press just to play around with everything. It seems have a lot of really great functionality. I am excited about the possibilities but I have run into one or two issues that give me pause. Perhaps you could offer a bit more sage advice?

    I noticed that the buddy press install seems to effect only my root site with the other sub domain sites being unaffected. Do you know of a way for buddy press to take effect on one of the sub domain sites instead of the root?

    The reason I ask is that I’d like for people to not land on the buddy press site upon trying to access my domain url. Instead I want visitors to my domain to land on a different wordpress site running a different theme.

    This might be possible in different ways. I considered just doing two totally different installs and using the first as my landing page and the second (with a different domain) as the buddy press site. This won’t work however, because I need to share users between the two sites and I think if they were in the same network that would be a lot easier.

    The second idea I had was if I could somehow fool the user’s browser into going to a subdomain site when the domain was entered into the browser URL field. That, of course, brings up the issue of how people would access the buddy press site at all.

    Any thoughts on how this might be done?


    @mercime
    Keymaster

    @mercime

    11 years, 11 months ago

    Set which blog ID BuddyPress will run on if not on main site – add following to your bp-custom.php file:
    `define ( ‘BP_ROOT_BLOG’, $blog_id );`
    where you replace $blog_id with the blog ID number of subdomain/subdirectory site of your multisite installation – https://codex.buddypress.org/extending-buddypress/changing-internal-configuration-settings/

    As for themes – you can use a WordPress theme then install the BP Template Pack plugin and go through the BP Compatiblity process. Check if your WP theme has been “template-packed” in the list near bottom of this page https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/wordpress-to-buddypress-theme/


    cicakchanson
    Member

    @cicakchanson

    11 years, 11 months ago

    Awesome. This works like a charm. Off and running. I’m hoping that I can help others in the community one day as well. Best!


    @mercime
    Keymaster

    @mercime

    11 years, 11 months ago

    @cicakchanson Marking this as resolved. Start a new topic if you have new questions.

    == I’m hoping that I can help others in the community one day as well. Best! ==
    Ole! :-)

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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