We’ve just updated the plugin to help you test BuddyPress beta & RC releases. From now on, when testing BuddyPress pre-releases, you’ll find a new section into the plugin’s administration screen called “What to expect from next release?” as shown below.
By clicking on the “our Development Blog” link you will be headed to the development notes of the BuddyPress next release. It’s a good way to know about the important changes the BuddyPress final release will bring.
It’s the right time to play with this plugin! BuddyPress 6.0.0-beta1 has been released a few days ago. Once again thanks in advance for testing it: it’s an important stage of the development process for us.
Finally props to @iamthewebb for contributing to this new version of BP Beta Tester.
We’ve scheduled the 6.0.0 stable release to the end of April, and we’d love you to give us a hand to get there!
Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. Here are some of the big changes and features to pay close attention to while testing (Check out this report on Trac for the full list).
User Profile Photo & User Cover Image are now belonging to the BP Members component.
Since the very first version of BuddyPress, the local avatar management feature (renamed as Profile Photo in version 2.1) was depending on the BP Extended Profile component. When we introduced the Cover Image feature in version 2.4, we’ve also made it dependent of the BP Extended Profile component. In 6.0.0, both features has been moved to the BP Members component. It means they will always be available even if the BP Extended Profile component is not active on your setup. We recommend you to read this development note to learn what this move changes for end users and for BuddyPress plugin/theme developers.
The BP REST API is now completed!
In 5.0.0, we’ve introduced the first endpoints and a reference documentation about them. In 6.0.0, we are adding the remaining ones so that you can build great BuddyPress full featured apps!
PS: we will update the reference documentation with these new endpoints during this beta stage.
The first BuddyPress Blocks are arriving 🙂
In 6.0.0, you will be able to feature a specific member or a specific group of your community site into your posts or pages: discover more information about the BP Member Block and the BP Group Block reading this development note.
New PHP and WordPress required versions.
BuddyPress 6.0.0 is requiring PHP >= 5.6 and WordPress >= 4.8
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on BuddyPress Trac.
BuddyPress 5.1.2 is now available. This is a security release. All BuddyPress installations are strongly encouraged to upgrade as soon as possible.
The 5.1.2 release addresses one security issue:
Certain REST API requests could result in the exposure of private data. Discovered and reported independently by Petter Walbø Johnsgård and Jacek Suski.
The vulnerability was reported privately to the BuddyPress team, in accordance with WordPress’s security policies. Our thanks to the reporters for practicing coordinated disclosure.
BuddyPress 5.1.1 is now available. This is a security release. All BuddyPress installations are strongly encouraged to upgrade as soon as possible.
The 5.1.1 release addresses one security issue:
A denied of service was fixed that could allow a logged in user to remove another user’s avatar and also any empty folder. Discovered by nomnom.
Thi vulnerability was reported privately to the BuddyPress team, in accordance with WordPress’s security policies. Our thanks to the reporter for practicing coordinated disclosure.
Immediately available is BuddyPress 5.1.0. This maintenance release fixes 8 bugs related to the 5.0.0 release, and is a recommended upgrade for all BuddyPress installations.
This plugin’s goal is to make it easier to beta test our pre-releases. You just need to install and activate the plugin to be ready to try our beta and release candidate versions once we’ve announced them on this blog. Beta testing BuddyPress is very important to make sure it behaves the right way for you and for the community. Although we, the BuddyPress Development Team, are regularly testing it, it’s very challenging to test every possible configuration of WordPress and BuddyPress. That’s why we absolutely need your help during these pre-release stages.
Making this plugin available was one of the means we thought about during our post 5.0.0 release development meeting to have more BuddyPress contributors. Beta testing is actually a good way to start contributing, to anticipate and fix potential issues before you have the bad surprise to meet them once you’re upgrading to a new stable version of the plugin.
NB: to beta test BuddyPress, we strongly advise you to have a local copy of your live site or a staging site : it’s always safer than doing it on a production site.
During our next pre-release stages, when you will find something is going wrong during your beta tests, please think of warning us about it submitting a ticket on our Development Tracker or posting a new topic in our support forums.
First, we’d like to thank all the people who contributed to the poll we shared on our development updates blog and into a topic of one of our forums a month ago. It was really important for us to have your expectations about the content the plugin should provide to the WordPress Block Editor.
It’s now time for us to share with you the results of this poll and tell you how we plan to work on BuddyPress blocks for the next release(s) of your favorite community engine!
We will soon publish a maintenance release (5.1.0) to fix some issues that arose since BuddyPress 5.0.0 “Le Gusto”. A detailed changelog will be part of our official release notes, but, until then, you can check out this report on Trac for the full list of fixes.
Today we’re publishing a very specific beta release for version 5.1.0 as it has two goals:
Let you make sure the fixes have no side effects on your community site’s configuration.
Test in real conditions the plugin we’ve been working on and which should greatly simplify the way you betatest BuddyPress.
Meet BP Beta Tester
Once installed it will help you to upgrade your website to the latest Beta or Release candidate. You will also be able to downgrade to the latest stable release once you finished your Beta tests.
Once activated, go to the home page of your Dashboard (Network Dashboard if your are using WordPress Multisite) to find the BP Beta Tester sub menu of the Dashboard menu. From this page, you’ll be able to install the 5.1.0-beta1 release clicking on the tab “Upgrade to 5.1.0-beta1”.
You can always downgrade to the latest stable version of BuddyPress using the corresponding tab of the page’s header.
The development version of this plugin is hosted on GitHub: you can contribute to it pulling requests or reporting issues. We plan to submit this plugin on the WordPress.org Plugins directory so that it’s easier to install.
We are very excited to announce the BuddyPress community the immediate availability of BuddyPress 5.0.0 code-named “Le Gusto“. You can get it clicking on the above button, downloading it from our WordPress.org plugin repository or checking it out from our subversion repository.
NB: if you’re upgrading from a previous version of BuddyPress, please make sure to back-up your WordPress database and files before proceeding.
You can view all the changes we made in 5.0.0 thanks to our full release note. Below are the key features we want to get your attention on.
The BP REST API opens a new era for BuddyPress!
You can now enjoy REST API endpoints for members, groups, activities, private messages, screen notifications and extended profiles.
BuddyPress endpoints provide machine-readable external access to your WordPress site with a clear, standards-driven interface, paving the way for new and innovative methods of interacting with your community through plugins, themes, apps, and beyond.
The BP REST API opens great new opportunities to improve the way you play with the BuddyPress component features: we couldn’t resist to start building on top of it introducing…
A new interface for managing group members.
Group administrators will love our new interface for managing group membership. Whether you’re working as a group admin on the front-end Manage tab, or as the site admin on the Dashboard, the new REST API-based tools are faster, easier to use, and more consistent.
The BP REST API is fully documented
The development team worked hard on the features but also took the time to write the documentation about how to use it and how to extend it. BuddyPress developers, let’s start building great stuff for our end users: take a look at the BP REST API developer reference.
Improved Group invites and membership requests
Thanks to the new BP Invitations API, Group invites and membership requests are now managed in a more consistent way. The BP Invitations API abstracts how these two actions are handled and allows developers to use them for any object on your site (e.g., Sites of a WordPress network).
Knowing your WordPress and BuddyPress configuration is very important when one of our beloved support volunteers tries to help you fix an issue. That’s why we added a BuddyPress section to the Site Health Info Administration screen.
The panel is displayed at the bottom of the screen. It includes the BuddyPress version, active components, active template pack, and a list of other component-specific settings information.
Improved integrations with WordPress
BP Nouveau Template Pack
In BuddyPress 5.0.0, the BP Nouveau template pack looks better than ever with the Twenty Nineteen theme.
Nouveau now uses the same password control as the one used in WordPress Core, for better consistency between BuddyPress and WordPress spaces.
BuddyPress Blocks now have their own category into the Block Editor.
Developers building tools for the Block Editor can now add their blocks to the BuddyPress category. This change provides a foundation for organizing custom BuddyPress blocks.
Screen capture of the comment Matt made about BuddyPress 4.0.0
PS: we know, just like Matt, you’re eager to enjoy high quality community blocks: now we have the BP REST API and this new Blocks category available in BuddyPress Core, get ready to be amazed for our next release. Fasten your seatbelts: BuddyPress blocks are arriving!
BuddyPress Le Gusto
5.0.0 is code-named “Le Gusto” after the well known Pizza restaurant in Fortaleza, Brazil. It’s the perfect place to meet with friends and start tasting new flavors like @espellcaste’s favorite one: the “Pizza de Camarão”.
Receiving your feedback and suggestions for future versions of BuddyPress genuinely motivates and encourages our contributors. Please share your feedback about this version of BuddyPress in the comments area of this post. And of course, if you’ve found a bug: please tell us about it into our Support forums.
Since the first release candidate, we’ve improved the way BP REST API Controllers are loaded inside BuddyPress component classes.
This is an important milestone as we progress toward the BuddyPress 5.0.0 final release date. “Release Candidate” means that we think the new version is ready for release, but with more than 200,000 active installs, hundreds of BuddyPress plugins and Thousands of WordPress themes, it’s possible something was missed. BuddPress 5.0.0 is scheduled to be released on Monday, September 30, but we need your help to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.0.0 yet, now is the time!
