A State of the Buddypress Attachments

About a year ago, i was introducing the BP Attachments plugin.

What happened since in this plugin’s repo?

Not much, unfortunately. And i guess i’m partly responsible about it. So first i’d like to thank Landwire who is the only one apart from me who reported issues or asked questions about the plugin.

1) do we want a BuddyPress Attachments feature to land in core in a future release?

My personal reply is of course!

During the BuddyCamp Brighton, many of you came to talk to me about their eagerness to finally be able to rely on a core feature about Attachments. So I think the majority of the members of the BuddyPress community are waiting for this to happen.

2) Am I right?

What happened since in BuddyPress core?

In 2.3.0 the core team introduced the BP Attachments API. We first took care of the Profile/Groups profile photos so that they are now using it. We now have a new extendable Avatar UI to deal with user submitted uploads.

These last two weeks, I’ve been working “fast & furious” on the BP Attachments plugin so that it now fully uses the BP Attachments API. Watch this demo about it :)

As you can see the plugin is extending the new Avatar UI to manage any user uploads.

If you replied “yes” to my two questions, then you should really consider contributing to the BP Attachments plugin to help us make it great!

#plugins

WP version compatibility guidelines

Growing out of some discussions between team members over the last year or two, along with some musing on https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6258, I’ve drafted a page explaining our WP version compatibility guidelines: https://codex.buddypress.org/wordpress-version-compatibility/ I’m sure that anyone reading this site always runs WP bleeding on their sites ;) but if you have any thoughts on these guidelines, please feel free to comment here.

On a related note, BuddyPress 2.4 will require WP 3.8. We will no longer actively build workarounds for WP < 3.8, and 3.7 will be removed from our Travis matrix (3.6 was already untested – 3.7 was when the /src transition took place). See https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/10031 and https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6258#comment:9.

#travis, #wordpress

General Summary as of August 2, 2015

Apologies for not posting updates here lately. This  is a compilation of all the informal and official chats during the month of July ( 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and in between) as well as relevant activities in Trac. It’s organized to give you a bird’s-eye view of the cool & amazing BuddyPress features and enhancements coming soon and those which have already landed.

BuddyPress 2.3.3

There will be a minor release coming up to address some necessary fixes and updates. Seven tickets are currently slated for this release, four of which have been completed namely:

  • Add BuddyPress Menus to Customizer (#6509)
  • bp_create_excerpt returning mall-formed markup (#6517)
  • Minor class change for bp-core-admin-tools.php (#6561)
  • WP 4.3 changes in WP_List_Table (#6465)
  • The list of tickets slated for BP 2.3.3 are available on this page.
  • Release date: TBA

BuddyPress 2.4.0

  • Target Release Date: October 6, 2015
  • BP 2.4.0 Beta 1: two weeks before release

TICKETS COMPLETED

Twenty-four trac tickets have been closed to date. The complete list of all tickets completed for BP 2.4.0 are available on this page. Some tickets noted were:

  • Separate functions for creating a new nav link and registering a screen function (#6534)
  • New Filter for Groups Widgets and Members Widgets (#6513)

ONGOING WORK

Eight-two more tickets are slated for 2.4.0. Keep updated with the complete list of these tickets on this page. The following have also been highlighted in compiled chats:

xProfile fields used for signup should be configurable (#6347) @johnjamesjacoby. This feature would allow admins to cherry pick which profile field from any profile field group will be included in the registration page.

Continue xProfile field improvements @johnjamesjacoby continues to tackle tickets relating to xProfile Fields and xProfile Field Groups.

User roles with different profile fields (#5192) @boonebgorges worked with @offereins,  @tanner and  @im4th on the “first killer feature for member types.” Screenshot on the left below shows the new metabox  on the profile field edit panel which allows the administrator to select the member types to which the field is applicable  if you’ve set up member types in your site and none were selected.  Screenshot on the right shows a profile field unavailable to all members. Patches have been committed to trunk. Testing welcome.
membertype-profilefields

A new API to manage single items navigation (#6534) @im4th and @boonebgorges discuss strategies to make the new navigation API much more flexible and configurable than what’s currently available — “register nav items in a maximal way with callbacks, i.e., always register them, and then allow them to be suppressed when rendered, according to whatever access conditions have been set up.”

Add UI for adding Profile Header Images for Users and Groups (#6570) aka Cover Photos.  Screenshot below is a teaser of the profile header image within the Twenty Thirteen theme.  This feature is still in the preliminary stage as the conversation continues between @im4th and @johnjamesjacoby to determine the best approach to set up cover photos using the BP Attachments API. @modemlooper and @buddyboss have also shared how they implement this feature in a plugin or theme respectively.
Profile Photo or Cover Photo

Inline Documentation (#6396 through #6407) second pass by @tw2113 to clean up and update inline documentation. He’s also planning to parse out all the @todo notations and start some tickets for those items.

Fix for bp_groups-template in order to support Ajax for group admin actions (#6387@rayisme has uploaded patch to allow developers to use group template functions across all group contexts.  Dev feedback needed.

Additional styling support for BuddyPress Widgets (#5817) @rayisme has uploaded a patch to ensure that BuddyPress classes are injected in before_widget for themes that do not add the ‘widget’ class.

Companion Stylesheet – Twenty Thirteen (#6533) @hnla continues with the beautification of BuddyPress elements within the WordPress default themes.

Use WP 4.3 site icon feature to set a blog’s “profile photo” (#6544) aka Blog Avatar. @im4th has uploaded a patch using the customizer site-icon feature.

New Invitations API (#6210) @dcavins will continue with his work on this new API in addition to the trac tickets related to invitations and groups.

Accessibility fixes for bp-legacy templates (#6531) and BP admin screens (#6532) @mercime has uploaded patches for the two tickets. @im4th has committed patches for the Avatar UI uploader in the frontend screen and has added patches for the uploader in the backend.

UPCOMING TICKETS

BP Emails: @djpaulgibbs kicked off the BP emails discussion last July 8th which lasted for ~ two hours. Topics included: current WP email solutions/plugins, email queueing, needing a real cron job, BP_Email Class or not, BP email templates, possible Customizer piggyback, including modern PHP library, making the emails customizable by administrators, class/interface that implements the integration with a delivery service, etc.

Devhub for BuddyPress and bbPress: @djpaulgibbs will share more about these projects soon.

Translating BuddyPress

BuddyCamp Brighton, UK

  • Reminder: The first BuddyCamp in Europe is this coming Saturday, August 8! The schedule has been posted and tickets are still available.
  • Speakers: Paul Gibbs, Tammie Lister, Rocío Valdivia, Mathieu Viet, Hugo Ashmore, Sven Lehnert, and Michael Eisenwasser
  • Sponsored by: Bluehost, PlanetHoster, GoDaddy, WPML, Human Made, BuddyBoss, BuddyForms, WooCommerce, WebDevStudios, DataFlexor, Make Do, and Connected. Thank you!
    buddycamp-brighton-speakers
  • Update: Read @djpaulgibbs new post about BuddyCamp Brighton at our BuddyPress blog.

Interview with Paul Gibbs and John James Jacoby

  • Jeff Chandler and Marcus Couch interviewed @djpaulgibbs and @johnjamesjacoby at WP Tavern’s special podcast last Wednesday. If you missed it, just go to this page and listen to the latest updates about BuddyPress and more.
    Interview with John James Jacoby and Paul Gibbs

Tomorrow (Wed 29 July, 2015),…

Tomorrow (Wed 29 July, 2015), let’s use dev chat to set roadmap and dates for BuddyPress 2.4, and figure out what we need to do to ship the fixes in the 2.3 branch.

If you can’t make dev chat yet have feedback you’d like the team to consider, please either leave a note in our Slack channel, or comment on this post. Thanks!

Dev Chat Summary for June 24, 2015

BuddyPress @ WordCamp Europe 2015 Contributor Day, Spain

  • WCEU Contributor Day is this coming Sunday, June 28th! If you want to join and contribute to BuddyPress, you’d need to register separately for that day at this webpage by clicking on the “Start Survey” button near the bottom of the page.
  • @DJPaulGibbs will be leading the BP contributors team and will be guiding you in the areas you’d like to get involved in: coding, designing, documentation, helping out in the forums, among others.
  • Attached below is the video he made inviting you to join the BP Group.

Eye on Accessibility

  • (#6531) and (#6532) – @mercime posted the tickets to address accessibility issues found in some BP templates and a few BP admin screens. @hnla mentioned that there are a few more areas which need some attention as well. The tickets above focused only on the items which were red-flagged during accessibility checks.

bp_create_excerpt returning malformed markup

  • (#6517) @boonebgorges has committed the patch to fix some tag-parsing issues introduced in a previous ticket based on @hnla’s report. Boone has added another patch which fixed the issue brought up by @danbp about the error which showed up when the string to be truncated contains markup.

Improvements on Extended Profile Fields

  • @johnjamesjacoby will be focusing on sign up fields and improvements to the profile fields for early 2.4.0.

Member-type-specific xProfile Fields

  • @boonebgorges mentioned that he’d like to work on member-type-specific xProfile fields “but this probably depends on JJJ’s work, so we’ll see how that goes.” JJJ mentioned that @tanner has done something similar and Boone noted that @offereins also did some significant work towards this (e.g. in #5192).
  • Both @offereins and @tanner have indicated their interest to help make this happen for 2.4.0. 👍 👍

Wrapper for Member Tabs Setup

  • @boonebgorges would also like to explore a BP_Group_Extension-like wrapper for member tab setup and mentioned that he and @dcavins should take a meeting to discuss this. @dcavins in turn said that @im4th was exploring the navigation tabs for his work in #6026 (Blogs with “profiles”).
  • Looks like this is moving towards setting up one super API to manage all BP navigation/subnav items that would be backwards compatible. 🎊

Tickets Ready for Review

  • @rayisme requested dev feedback for the two tickets he’s been working on lately: (#6387) Fix for bp_groups-template in order to support Ajax for group admin actions and (#5817) Additional styling support for BuddyPress Widgets.

Addendum: bbPress Survey 2015

  • Please take the 2015 bbPress Survey and tell your friends! https://bbpress.org/blog/2015/05/2015-bbpress-survey/ The survey will end a few days after the 4th of July.

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1435172534000027

Dev Chat Summary for June 17, 2015

BuddyPress 2.3.2

  • @boonebgorges packaged and released BuddyPress 2.3.2 yesterday. This is a security and maintenance release. https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/

BuddyPress Deploy Script

  • @boonebgorges has released the bash script for deploying BuddyPress 2.3.2 at https://github.com/buddypress/bpdeploy
  • Caveat: “Not intended for general use. Could be very dangerous. Do not even look at it, or your eyeballs might turn to dust.”

BuddyPress @ WordPress London Meetup

  • June 18 – @hnla and @DJPaulGibbs will be sharing information about the recent BuddyPress release and ideas for the future with the group.

BuddyPress @ WordCamp Europe Contributor Day

  • June 28 – @DJPaulGibbs will be on hand for the BuddyPress team which already has 14 signups to date.
    WordCamp Europe contributor day

Comment syncing between activity and post comments for Custom Post Types

  • #6482@im4th has posted a patch to fix comment syncing for activity stream and blog posts. Dev feedback welcome.

And if the Blogs component had Single items?

  • #6026@im4th has just upload a new patch two days ago plus a demo video for this feature for multisite installations. “Blog single items is a way to improve blogs ‘discovery’: you can subscribe to it to get the blogs activities in your profile, the admin can add a profile photo for his blog, manage subscriptions, he’s notified of new subscribers. It’s also a new place to manage some specific BuddyPress settings e.g. improving the post type activities by letting each blog admin to control which post type can generate activities.”

BuddyPress @ WordCamp Lyon

  • Parlez-vous français? @im4th’s presentation at WCLyon is now available at WordPress.tv.

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1434568426000169

BuddyPress 2.3.2

BuddyPress 2.3.2 is now available. Go get it! https://buddypress.org/2015/06/buddypress-2-3-2/