[energynet]

The current RSS Groups feed for BP is a mess.

The current RSS feed repeats the name of the poster, description and title (title last) twice before actually then posting the body of actual post. This makes using the RSS for other purposes (like a widget) almost unusable.

Looking at the BP source code uses the same information for both the xml title and author.

The standard WP rss widget allows for 3 options in all feeds. Author, date and content to be included or not. The date option is working fine, but its clear that the “author posted an update in the group xyzzy :” isn’t the actual xml title of the post.

Also, when posting a link in the group I get the following in the rss feed:

[bpfb_link url=’http://www…. with the rest of the URL.

I imagine this is because I’ve got the Buddypress Activity Plus plugin installed. because of the “bpfp_link” tag the link itself dies within the feed as its not a legitimate html command…

If my assumption is correct that this is a result of the Activity Plus plugin, it sure would be nice if this could get sorted out so that their plugin creates usable rss content!

[Paul Wong-Gibbs]

I don’t know if the bpfb short code is anything to do with BP Activity Plus or not, but it may be work contacting its authors directly for supporting and letting them know about the problems when viewing it in an RSS Feed. That’s not something we can fix in BuddyPress core (obviously).

Thanks for the feedback about the RSS feeds, I made a ticket: https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4082

[energynet]

Thanks Paul.

[energynet]

I took a look at the ticket… Wouldn’t it be better to move it to the author field rather than just pull it from the description field? That way the WordPress widget option can use the author info if the blog owner wants to or not.

For me, it would be valuable to figure out a way to actually figure out how to scrape a title out of the first line of input and then use the rest in the description field if that was possible.

[energynet]

There are a number of other moderate issues connected to the RSS feeds.

I’m finding that the RSS feeds are failing to identify posts. for weeks at a time.

Its not clear if this has to do with the WPMU’s Activity Plus plugin , but their posts in some cases only show up in the RSS feed only. This is definitely pretty serious. With these issues, it means that RSS feeds are at best unusable in terms of how they look.

[nomad-one]

doesn’t really seem like this is much of a support forum hey. Posts get ignored for years at a time and some issues seem to still be lingering after long periods of time like the RSS for groups issues

[Ben Hansen]

thats not very helpful is it? please understand everyone who posts here is a volunteer like any open source project. we are working on this bug currently (today in fact) you can see that here:

https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4564

[nomad-one]

sorry @ubernaut, I thought seeing the last reply without any solution was more than a year ago was a really bad sign. We’d only know someone’s working on it if we’re told and I do appreciate the work you guys do.

It is quite frustrating though as much as we know it’s open source software when it’s promoted so positively and then in real world use a person runs into crucial problems which derail projects and tarnish the image of the product.

Even more frustrating is the incorrect mimetype problem with group RSS feeds which i posted about here – https://buddypress.org/support/topic/buddypress-group-activity-rss-feeds-not-valid-mime-type/

[Ben Hansen]

well you’re always welcome to help make things better it is definitely frustrating when a problem you can’t figure out is posted here and you don’t get a response or a partial one i think its basically a thing where people have to decide how they can best help and devote what time they can to help buddypress thrive.

there is no question that time is universally rare commodity amongst most of the people around here as I’m sure it is for you as well. you should consider taking part in the devchats or helping out either here on on trac, if you have the time.

[Ben Hansen]

also, maybe i talking about something which is way over my head but perhaps the two things are somehow related?

[nomad-one]

@ubernaut I’m not sure how I could contribute to be honest as I don’t have the required level of development skills to really make any kind of meaningful contribution. Does Automattic not have some level of involvement in the development needs of Buddypress?

I could contribute financially to get a developer to assist with this specific problem if need be but don’t know any devs who are BP qualified

[Ben Hansen]

I’m not sure how I could contribute to be honest

well i don’t know jack about php i contribute by helping pick off some of the low hanging fruit here so that people who have more development related experience can address more challenging issues. i also contribute to the ux/ui discussions and will soon be helping help build the new template pack pieces as that kind of thing is more in my wheel house. i also help out with testing when i can.

Does Automattic not have some level of involvement in the development needs of Buddypress?

yes but it’s not like they make money off of it or anything so I’m sure the resources they are already donating are purely a cost i doubt it would make sense for them to hire dedicated support staff just for buddypress.

I could contribute financially to get a developer to assist with this specific problem if need be but don’t know any devs who are BP qualified

i don’t want to be taken as speaking for the buddypress development group as a whole but as much as the sentiment is probably appreciated as far i know there really isn’t any kind of ongoing cost for this project other then people’s time. perhaps if money is the best way you feel you can contribute you should consider being a sponsor for the next buddycamp? just a thought, again probably your time and whatever your expertise is would probably be appreciated as much if not more. devchat is today (and every wednesday) at 19:00 UTC on irc channel #buddypress-dev