BuddyPress 1.9 dev cycle plans

[Thanks to Trisha for helping to compile these notes!]

After the BuddyPress dev chat on July 31, we’ve got some tentative plans for the 1.9 scope and timeline.

For the 1.8 dev cycle, our experiment with a short timeline and strict deadlines was, by most measures, a big success. We’ve had very few bug reports related to changes in 1.8, and the speed of the cycle meant that nothing sat unused in trunk for too long. We’re hoping to replicate this success by taking a similar approach for BuddyPress 1.9.

Scope

We settled on roughly the following major feature set for the 1.9 release. I’ve listed appropriate ticket numbers, along with those who’ve committed to the tasks (though, as always, more participation is very welcome).

New template pack (@karmatosed and others; see #4952). This work was begun during the previous release cycle, and we think we’re in a good position for this to be the main user-facing improvement in 1.9.
Move user ‘last_activity’ out of wp_usermeta. (@boonebgorges; see #5128)
Better two-way sync of activity comments with sources like forum replies and blog comments (@r-a-y and @paulgibbs; see #1419)
Migrating to the WP Rewrite API (@johnjamesjacoby; see #4954)
Custom Post Type enhancements: better activity stream integration, and better dashboard support for that integration (@trishasalas and @boonebgorges; see #3460)
Codex cleanup and refresh (@mercime and @hnla)

Timetable

August 1, 2013 – 1.9 development cycle begins
September 26, 2013 – End of new development for 1.9. Beyond this date, nothing gets committed that is not either a bug in a new feature, or a regression from 1.8.x. Any major features from the list above that are not commit-ready by this date will be bumped. Note – The period between Aug 1 and Sep 26 is eight weeks, two weeks longer than the corresponding part of our 1.8 cycle. We’re hopeful that this extra two weeks will give us more time to wrap up big features, and perhaps to focus more specifically on scrubbing old bugs.
October 1ish, 2013 – 1.9-beta1. We’ll release the first beta as soon as the cleanup from the dev period has taken place.
November 7, 2013 – BuddyPress 1.9 release

ubernaut 7:26 pm on August 1, 2013

what about the yet to be determined anti-spam tactic? is that a future release item at this point?
- Paul Gibbs 9:37 pm on August 1, 2013
  
  Better dealing with spam content is always an ongoing issue, just like as it is in WordPress itself.
  - ubernaut 4:28 pm on August 5, 2013
    
    i think it’s actually a much bigger deal for buddypress sites as group then it is for basic wordpress sites. Anyway i was just trying to make sure if we were trying to make any specific anti-spam features part of the 1.9 scope or not.
  - Boone Gorges 5:00 pm on August 5, 2013
    
    @ubernaut – Nothing specific is currently planned, because to my knowledge no one has suggested any specific solutions. If in your research you come up with particular strategies that you think would be worth employing in BP, please open a Trac ticket or bring them up in dev chat.
  - ubernaut 5:37 pm on August 5, 2013
    
    ok will do!
Pingback: What To Expect In BuddyPress 1.9 - WPMU.org
Pingback: What To Expect In BuddyPress 1.9 | My BlogMy Blog
Pingback: What To Expect In BuddyPress 1.9 | iwebspider design and hosting
Pingback: What To Expect In BuddyPress 1.9 - WordPress Community | powered by Mpress Studios
iggOne 11:55 am on August 15, 2013

I look foward this release !
Pingback: BuddyPress.org
Pingback: BuddyPress: The BuddyPress Codex Survey | A2Z Web Design Tutorial
Carl Moebis 8:37 pm on August 25, 2013

Any chance we’re going to get sub-groups? There appears to be the framework for this buried deep in BP for at least a year, but no progress. If the bbpress side can have sub-forums, why can’t they reside under the buddypress side too, creating sub-groups, or at least showing the subforums under the BP groups? Developers are stuck with the choice of the organizational and structural flexibility of bbpress, but having to exclude the buddypress features (because it becomes redundant). So a user joins a group, but then they have to wade through the forums for the forum/sub-forum tree. Making an admin wonder, why even implement buddypress at this time?
- RugWarrior 4:31 pm on August 27, 2013
  
  Good question! Sub-Groups would be great 🙂
isabel marant shop online 8:40 am on August 27, 2013

For instance, your friend comes and tells you that while babysitting at her neighbor’s one night, she received a threatening phone call that was actually meant for the mistress of the house.
Pingback: The BuddyPress Codex Survey | iwebspider design and hosting
Pingback: What To Expect In BuddyPress 1.9 | WPMUHosting.net