Proposed metadata function changes for BuddyPress 2.0

A few weeks ago, BP’s internal metadata functions, like bp_get_activity_meta() and groups_update_groupmeta(), were refactored to use WP’s core _metadata() functions. See #4551

During the refactoring, special care was taken to preserve the exact behavior of each function, including the oddities and quirks (and bugs) that they’ve accumulated over the years. Now that a functionally identical refactoring is complete, I’d like to address these oddities. 

If you’ve ever used one of the metadata functions from the activity, blogs, groups, or xprofile components, please read #5399 and review the proposed changes. A few of them are straightforward bugfixes that shouldn’t ruffle any feathers. Others are improvements that will break backward compatibility in some hypothetical edge cases, but in each instance I’m not aware of any actual edge case. If you have feedback – including pointers to existing plugins, themes, etc that would be broken by any of the proposed changes – please leave it here or on that ticket.

Thanks for participating.

#2-0, #metadata

#4551, #5399