Dev Chat Summaries for April 5 & 12, 2017

bp-nouveau template pack

@hnla reported on the bug and a11y fixes made on bp-nouveau to date. He has added a temporary Gruntfile.js, primarily for compiling and linting Sass files, as well as other project-specific configuration files. @mercime will be posting solutions in codepen for removing placeholders from form controls.

Many thanks to @boonebgorges for delving deeply into bp-nouveau and his post introducing the new template pack.

BP REST API

@rayisme has started work on the /members endpoint for the BP REST API locally. He raised a question at the Github repo re Members – GET – List Users Schema. @modemlooper has responded in ticket.

@rayisme noted, “We’ll definitely have the /members endpoint ready by the time BP 2.9 is done, but probably will not be merged into core. The BP REST API will stay as a plugin for at least the next few release cycles until things have been fleshed out, similar to how the WP REST API was a plugin for awhile.”

Trac Tickets

Allow bp_get_group_permalink() to produce HTML links (#7485) @dcavins has committed fix to trunk.

Update bp_group_description_excerpt() to accept a $length param (#7493) @hnla has patch. @dcavins has responded to keep the group as the first parameter.

Required xprofile fields are not validated (#7483) @hnla has confirmed issue reported in ticket. Needs patch.

groups_send_invites() should allow us to omit sending to users that have already received an invite (#7397) @rayisme will be refreshing the patch for BP 2.9.

Include BP Edit Group Slug into the core (#6014) @dcavins refreshed the patch including unit tests. New patch adds support for changing group slug via wp-admin. Dev feedback requested.

Take advantage of BP_Groups_Group magic methods in groups component setup (#7494) @dcavins has patch. Dev feedback requested.

Use JOIN rather than Subquery on user search (#7442) @brandonliles has patch. Dev feedback requested.

Harmful bp_activity indexes (#7500) @johnjamesjacoby in discussion with @brandonliles.

Deprecate the BuddyPress functions for bbPress 1.x forums (#6851) @johnjamesjacoby introduced a motion to “remove bp-forums pretty much completely, or relegate it to its own compatibility plugin like we did Wire and Status.”
@boonebgorges concurred with the compat plugin route and noted, “I’d like to stage it over maybe two releases, with large warnings in the interim release if you are running legacy forums. Maybe even block upgrade to the removing-version if we detect you are running it (like we did with the 5.3 requirement). How many of them will upgrade to BP 3.0 or 3.1, that’s another question. But it’s easy enough for us to create barriers to white screens, so we should do so.” @johnjamesjacoby: “Making this release ideal for the warning. I think the 3.0.0 release is a nice round number to cut the old legacy forum cord, too.” @boonebgorges: “So admin notices + upgrade-blocks for 2.9, and maybe some logic in 3.0 that prevents loading the full plugin if the compat plugin is not found. Someone will need to wrangle all of the necessary steps, including preparing and releasing the compat plugin.”
@johnjamesjacoby has volunteered for the tasks, “the pleasure of the pain will all be mine.”

Create administration sections for every component that’s currently lacking an interface

@johnjamesjacoby: Friends, Messages, and Notifications basically. “Preferably, I’d like to also stagger the work on those, so the expectation isn’t to have a 100% fully covered and integrated interface that covers all users and use-cases. Similar to Groups Admin (how you can’t create a new group from within wp-admin). I really also want a live-chat style Messages UI while you’re in wp-admin”
@boonebgorges: “Big +1 to more admin coverage, though we should think carefully about whether each of these BP components needs its own top-level item. (Friends may be properly a property of Users, rather than its own thing, or whatever).”
@johnjamesjacoby: “Right now, all of BuddyPress makes theme-side websites better, and that’s awesome, and it should, and always will. But once you enter wp-admin, BuddyPress doesn’t actually help WordPress itself be a better piece of software for managing users, community content, etc. We don’t need to talk about all of the detail-work right now, but I wanted to drop that vision in here now, so everyone has an idea of what I’m thinking, and we can maybe try to hit that vision hard in 3.0 and beyond. Hopefully 2.9 and Nouveau and everything else will keep the traditional BuddyPress installation type satisfied for a few years, enough time to work on REST API, wp-admin integration, maybe some GraphQL if we like that, etc.”

BP Theme Compatibility

A basic visualization of the BuddyPress Theme Compat is now available for bp-templates/bp-legacy. Use Ctl/Cmd +/- to zoom in/out, scroll up/down or click + drag right/left to navigate. Visualizations for bbPress Theme Compat and the upcoming bp-nouveau template pack are also in the works.

Slack logs:
https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBYUG/p1491418861341587
https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBYUG/p1492023677928317
(Slack account is required)

#dev-chat

BP 2.9 Kick-Off Meeting – March 22, 2017

BP 2.9 Scoping/Wishlist

bp-nouveau Template Pack

@hnla, 2.9 Release Lead, will focus on getting bp-nouveau ready for integration into core this dev cycle. He noted, “bp-nouveau represents a clean break from those older templates, clean markup, new styles new file structure with include files and function files managing components and affords us the opportunity to build a better BP than ever before.”

@hnla encouraged all core devs to have a local install running the plugin version and to reconvene at next meeting for a renewed focus & to air any concerns. He has added the following guides to the project for all who want to contribute:

• Milestones: https://github.com/buddypress/next-template-packs/milestones
• Project cards: https://github.com/buddypress/next-template-packs/projects

The major steps to get this project for inclusion are pretty much covered by the milestones but broadly fall into:
1. Core integration: adding the switching mechanism to core admin settings, working out the logic for default selection & some means of registering packs in use.
2. Testing the process for stylesheet building and testing the core files merged to trunk along with possible gruntfile adjustments required.
3. Testing of components by device( mobile/ desktop & browser versions) and testing.
4. Testing Accessibility.

@boonebgorges: “I share Hugo’s belief that the time has come to move beyond bp-legacy, and I think that a new set of templates is critical for the future of the project. I’m going to be working with Hugo over the next few weeks to develop some materials that’ll introduce the rest of the team to the workings of bp-nouveau, as well as more details on a plan for moving toward merge, with the idea of soliciting as much energy and contribution from the broader team as possible.” He will help to get bp-nouveau in for 2.9.

@mercime noted that per her initial a11y audit of bp-nouveau (last year), there were items which needed to be fixed in core first. Edit – Most items have been fixed, there are only a few remaining a11y issues which will affect template pack left in core.

@modemlooper likes the Template Pack UI in admin which he thinks will open up lots of customization … spawning child themes of bp-nouveau.

@dcavins volunteered to help with bp-nouveau. @hnla mentioned his concerns with group creation wanted it more a one step process that we could then paginate if we wanted to but accessing certain meta is hard such as group ID at some points where you need it. @dcavins: “I also have some feelings about group creation. (Like change it to one step then redirect to the new group to setup.)”

@boonebgorges will be working on a summary document about bp-nouveau’s status plus user-facing and developer-oriented features over the next week or so.

BP REST API

@rayisme would like to see where we’re currently at and what we can accomplish in this dev cycle. @boonebgorges responded, “it needs someone to take the lead – there was some initial work done on the Members endpoint but it needs to be seen through.”

BuddyPress.org Redesign

@hnla brought up the redesign site/mockups by @modemlooper and @karmatosed and wanted to know the best way to get the redesign implemented.

@rayisme: “There are elements I like about both. modemlooper’s orange header + iconfont section and karmatosed’s “Are you a user / developer” section. At first, I didn’t like the orange header, but I like that it’s a little in-your-face.”

@modemlooper‘s design was à la https://jetpack.com/ and said, “the design reboot started because I thought the homepage lacked alot of marketing points.” @karmatosed thought that doing original design is good. She’s happy to noodle some more.

@johnjamesjacoby: “Naturally, I have opinions, but mostly I really want all of y’all to feel like these themes are yours to create/enjoy also. It seems like everyone is still in the “I wonder what this or that might look or feel like” which is totally fine. No rush, no agenda, and if something naturally suddenly clicks into the place, we should head that direction.”

Dev Chat Schedule

This is a friendly reminder that starting Wednesday, March 29, dev chat at the #buddypress channel on Slack.com will be at 19:00 UTC through the end of Daylight Savings Time for both U.S. and Europe.

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBYUG/p1490212929620791
(Slack account is required)

#bp-nouveau, #dev-chat

Dev Chats as of March 15, 2017

BuddyPress 2.9 Schedule

• March 22 – Kick off
• June 7 – Beta 1
• June 14 – Beta 2
• June 28 – Release Candidate 1 – String freeze
• July 5 – BP 2.9.0 Target Release Date

@hnla, BP 2.9 Release Lead, looks forward to discussing project scope/focus/tasks with the team on March 22.

Dev Chat Schedule

Daylight Savings Time for the United States started Sunday, March 12, while DST in Europe will begin on March 26. In keeping with schedule adjustments from previous years, following is the schedule of our dev chat till further notice:

• March 22 – BP Dev chat will remain at 20:00 UTC (4:00 P.M. EST / 1:00 P.M. PST for U.S. residents).
• March 29 through end of DST – Dev Chat will be moved to 19:00 UTC.

BuddyPress.org Redesign

• The redesign of BuddyPress.org has been discussed many times over a number of years.
• Feb. 22: @modemlooper initiated discussion this year about BuddyPress.org colors, adding a showcase page, work on the product side, among other things. He also posted some screenshots on that day and following days to ask for feedback.
• March 6: @modemlooper set up a responsive demo site.
  
• March 15: @karmatosed uploaded her design  during dev chat. She mentioned @djpaul asked her to look at a BuddyPress.org redesign last year.
  
• Other notes:
  • Redesign is also needed for codex.buddypress.org plus a new design for developer.buddypress.org to hold the BP developer reference which @tw2113 has on his site https://trexthepirate.com/buddypress/
  • BuddyPress.org themes are located at https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sites/trunk/buddypress.org/public_html/wp-content/themes

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBYUG/p1489608197865211

#dev-chat

General Summary as of March 2, 2016

This post is a compilation of updates and events over the last few weeks.

The Road to BuddyPress 2.5.0

Beta 1 – Packaged and released by @boonebgorges last February 8, 2016 on schedule.
Beta 1 blog post – @im4th with @dcavins.

Release Candidate 1 (string freeze) – Packaged and released by @djpaulgibbs last February 23, 2016.
RC 1 blog post – @im4th

2.5.0 Stable Release earlier today – packaged and released by @boonebgorges
Announcement post – @im4th with @dcavins and @boonebgorges
Official Changelog – @mercime with @rayisme and @djpaulgibbs.
95 tickets were cleared for this milestone

Many thanks again to the 2.5.0 Contributors!
Boone B Gorges (boonebgorges), Brajesh Singh (sbrajesh), Brandon Allen (thebrandonallen), Christian Wach (needle), Damian (timersys), danbrellis, David Cavins (dcavins), Dennis (wpdennis), Fee (wdfee), Garrett Hyder (garrett-eclipse), George Mamadashvili (Mamaduka), Henry Wright (henry.wright), Hugo (hnla), Jeff Sayre (jeffsayre), John James Jacoby (johnjamesjacoby), Jonnyauk, Joost Abrahams (joost-abrahams), kennibc, OC2PS (sooskriszta), Laurens Offereins (Offereins), LenLay, Mathieu Viet (imath), mercime, Michael Beckwith (tw2113), modemlooper, Paul Gibbs (DJPaul), Rami Yushuvaev (ramiy), r-a-y, shanebp, Slava UA (slaffik), Srdjan (jozik), Stephen Edgar (netweb), timeuser, vnd.

BuddyPress Emails Documentation

Many thanks to all who contributed the following Codex articles about this new innovative email notification feature:
Emails by @modemlooper, @rayisme, and @djpaulgibbs.
Email Tokens by @dcavins, @modemlooper, and @djpaulgibbs.
Custom Emails by @modemlooper

BuddyPress “Office Hours”

@boonebgorges proposed a once-a-month concerted bug scrub. @dcavins proposed calling it “BP Breaks Travis Monday.” @djpaulgibbs seconded the idea today and suggested conducting the scrub sometime next week or the week after next.

BuddyPress at WordCamp Paris, Feb. 5, 2016

@oelita

@imath

4 community sites with BuddyPress by @oelita (Sylvie Clément). @oelita shared how she customized BuddyPress according to each client’s requirements in the following projects : a content sharing website, a community site, a matchmaking platform for language exchange, and a social network of gardeners. Slides in French are available at http://www.slideshare.net/Oelita/4-sites-communautaires-faits-avec-buddypress-wordcamp-paris-2016

An alternative media management by @im4th, who is also one of the organizers of WordCamp Paris. He covered the WP media types/management and shared a new plugin, Front-End Attachments, to illustrate how to benefit from the BP Attachment API. Slides are available in French at https://cldup.com/wW276vVmxF.pdf and the plugin is available at https://github.com/imath/front-end-attachments. @im4th reported that because of this presentation, he got invited to speak about BuddyPress at the Bordeaux WP Meetup last Feb. 25 🙂

BuddyCamp Miami, Feb. 19, 2016

Thank You to @dimensionmedia, @ptahdunbar, and fellow WordCamp Miami organizers for hosting the 4th BuddyCamp Miami plus providing the livestreams for this event! If you missed watching the live presentations, the archived videos are still available at the time of this post.

BuddyCamp Miami A.M.: State of the Buddy by @johnjamesjacoby, How to Contribute to BuddyPress @_dorsvenabili, and BuddyPress 101 by @dimensionmedia

BuddyCamp Miami P.M.: Developers: Teach Everything You know by @carlalexander, Navigating BuddyPress’ Identity Crisis by @johnjamesjacoby, BuddyPress: New And Upcoming Features by @_dorsvenabili, and a Q & A Panel hosted by @johnjamesjacoby with @boonebgorges, @im4th, and @dcavins via Google Hangout.

Speakers:

@dimensionmedia

@johnjamesjacoby

@_dorsvenabili

@carlalexander

 

Google Hangouts Panel:

boonebgorges

@imath

dcavins

@johnjamesjacoby

#dev-chat

As you might know, we…

As you might know, we recently started work on a REST API implementation for BuddyPress.

To support this, we’re going to arrange a once-per-fortnight dev chat. @bronsonquick and @modemlooper will be leading the discussion. This will be run alongside the regular dev chat for the main project, so on some days, there’ll be two chats!

There will be a BP REST API dev chat this week. Here’s the times/dates for your calendar:

• Wednesday at 22:00 UTC.
• Dates: Every other Wednesday, e.g. 27th January, 10th February, 24th February, and so on.

BP REST API Dev Chat Summary for January 14, 2016

Firstly, I’ve been told I’d better do a bit of an intro. My name’s Bronson Quick and I work for the wonderful company that is Human Made. I’ve been using WordPress since 2008 and I’ve been a core contributor. My most known open source project is Chassis, a project that Ryan McCue and I built, which is a very lightweight WP Vagrant install that uses Puppet for provisioning. In terms of BuddyPress contributions I’ve submitted PR’s back to @djpaulgibbs Achievements plugin and @boonebgorges Import From Ning plugin.

Introduction aside, after a few years of chatter and various siloed implementations of BP REST API’s we had our first offical BP REST API meeting this morning. The discussion’s purpose was to start talking about how we tackle making BP REST API and who wants to contribute.

I think the key takeaways are as follows:

• The core BP REST API team: I will be leading the project with @modemlooper‘s help. If you’d like to contribute as well then please either reply here or drop into the #buddypress change and say Hi! @johnjamesjacoby has created a Github repo for the project.
• Planning/Architecture: Planning how we tackle this is very important rather than diving straight into the code. As we’re “standing on the shoulders of giants” we can use the lessoned learnt from the WP REST API project and put in time at the start to plan this properly. It makes sense to plan out the data we would like returned from endpoints and how they relate to each other with _links. For example, if we’re displaying the data for the activities endpoint rather than showing a user_id we should link this to a user endpoint.
• A “schema first” approach: The WP REST API infrastructure in core provides a schema which is used for both human readability of the endpoint data as well as data validation. This approach was recommended to be by one of the WP-API lead developers, Joe Hoyle at WCEU.
• Implementation: The various iterations of the BP API that we’ve seen in the wild before were usually built pre-WP 4.4 this meant most of them wrapped/extended existing classes and they also used internal BuddyPress functions to get data. We think it’s going to make more sense going more low level and using the existing objects to get the data we need.
• Test Driven Development: Ideally we’d plan an endpoint, write tests that fail then write the code for the endpoint until the tests pass. This is something that’s often talked about as being an ideal development methodology but it’s rarely practiced in the WordPress space. Tackling a project this way should mean less bugs although I do realise this could be a blocker for new contributors.
• Privacy: This was raised as an issue. We think if we only expose the data that’s public in BP core and the XProfile components then we should be okay. Roles, capabilities and authentication will all come into play when we get to that point. I suggested perhaps having a constant once this gets into BP core to endable the BP REST API so that it’s up to the site owner or developer to enable this thus putting onus back on the site owner regarding privacy.
• Initial Endpoints: We think it makes sense to tackle read only endpoints first (i.e. WP_REST_Server::READABLE) for the activity stream and Xprofile endpoint so that we can tackle the linking I mentioned earlier.
• Folder Structure/Loader: We will need to work out a good structure for this designed with the intention that this “Feature Plugin” will one day land in BP Core. @modemlooper has opened an issue for that.
• Start Small: A REST API for BuddyPress is a huge undertaking so we want to start small and add to it as we go.
• Purpose: The question of “What’s the purpose of the BP-API REST API?” was raised.  The main purpose is all about exposing data in a RESTful way so that developers and site owners can use the data in any way albeit a plugin, mobile app or whatever else springs to mind. The other main purpose for the BP REST API is that we can use the endpoints going forward to alter some things internally in BuddyPress as in the past ” the functions throughout BuddyPress are very purpose built to solve one specific theme-side problem”.
• WP-API: We need to keep on top of the changes to the infrastructure of WP-API going forward as we’ll need to port changes into the BP REST API. Luckily I should be able to be notified of critical changes through Joe Hoyle and Ryan McCue! 🙂
• Readme: We need a readme.

We’d love your feedback and help!

If you weren’t able to attend the meeting and have some thoughts around this discussion and potential approach then please post a reply below or drop into #buddypress in Slack.

BuddyPress 2.4.0 will introduce Cover Images for members & groups!

Most social media include a feature to allow their users to customize their profile’s header. While this feature may seem trivial, it is actually quite complex to implement in our case.

Unlike these social media which only need to manage one single graphical interface, BuddyPress can be integrated into nearly all WordPress themes and needs to account for all scenarios.

Of course, this complexity is also one of our major strengths: BuddyPress lets you build highly customized community websites.

To add to this complexity, some BuddyPress themes or plugins have already built this feature.

That’s why during the development of this feature and in all the decisions we took we always kept in mind these two concerns:

1. Maximize the feature’s compatibility with most themes
2. Include simple ways to deactivate it (if needed)

Before telling you more about these 2 points, here are the BuddyPress Cover Images!

User’s profile

 

Members can manage their cover pictures by visiting their profile page and activating the “Change Cover Image” nav.

 

“Change Cover Image” screen

 

If the Groups component is active, Groups will also be able to enjoy cover images!

 

Group’s Cover Image

 

We’ve added a new step to the Group’s creation process to let Administrators set the cover image for their Groups

 

Group’s Cover Image creation step

 

At any time, Group Administrators can manage the cover image by displaying the “Cover Image” sub nav of the Group’s management area.

 

Group’s Cover Image manage screen

 

Responsive?

 

User and Group cover images viewed on a smartphone.

 

Of course!

 

1. Maximize the feature’s compatibility with most themes

To make this happen, we rely on our great BP Theme Compat API. In short, we are checking the active theme is using the API and the BP Legacy template pack before registering the feature. If it’s the case, BP Theme Compat will take care of everything!

If you’re wondering how the size of the cover image is calculated, i’d say it’s an “equation” involving two parameters: the $content_width global of the theme and the Avatar’s full height.

We have already optimized the feature for the latest “Twenties”. By the way all the screencaps of this article were made using the “TwentyFifteen” theme.

Please note that the BP Legacy template pack has evolved :

Single items	Edited Templates	New Templates
User	bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/members/single/home.php bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/members/single/profile.php	bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/members/single/cover-image-header.php bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/members/single/profile/change-cover-image.php
Group	bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/groups/create.php bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/groups/single/admin.php bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/groups/single/home.php	bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/groups/single/cover-image-header.php

If your theme is using the BP Theme Compat API (which is the case of most WordPress themes) and if you haven’t overridden the templates listed inside the “Edited Templates” column, then as our test drive is attesting: BuddyPress Cover Images should look awesome into your community.

If you’ve overridden one of the edited templates and you want to enjoy this new feature, please make sure to update your templates by the time BuddyPress 2.4.0 is released.

If your theme requires some “fine-tuning” or if you’re feeling the need to customize the default appearance of the members profiles and groups headers, be assured that you’ll be able to do it easily. I’ll be publishing more information in the BuddyPress Codex about it.

For Standalone BuddyPress themes like BP Default.

These themes are using their very own templates and are generally adding BuddyPress support (add_theme_support( 'buddypress' ) ) into their functions.php file. In this case, the BP Theme Compat API won’t register dynamically the BuddyPress cover images feature. But, it will be very easy for these themes to enjoy it! If you’re eager to see how this will be possible, you can have a look at a diff i’ve made when testing the BP Default theme 🙂

Include simple ways to deactivate it (if needed)

Your theme is using the BP Theme Compat API and you want to deactivate Cover Images for members, groups or both?

First, at any time, you can do it by deactivating the corresponding setting for cover images in Settings > BuddyPress > Settings as shown in the screencap below.

BuddyPress Settings

 

Another way to completely deactivate it is to use these filters :

// For members :
add_filter( 'bp_is_profile_cover_image_active', '__return_false' );

// For groups :
add_filter( 'bp_is_groups_cover_image_active', '__return_false' );

Or you can stop the BP Theme Compat API from dynamically registering the BuddyPress Cover Images support for you site using this kind of code :

function cover_images_no_support() {
    remove_action( 'bp_after_setup_theme', 'bp_register_theme_compat_default_features', 10 );
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'cover_images_no_support' );

 

If you are a theme designer or the author of a plugin managing Cover images, we recommend that you don’t forget to test that everything works fine for you during the 2.4.0 beta period.
Of course everyone is welcome to help us by testing BuddyPress during this period 🙂

Finally, we’d like to thank all the contributors who gave their professional feedback while building this new “Attachment” feature with special mention to @modemlooper and @BuddyBoss.

To read the full story of this feature: #6570

#6570

General Summary as of September 9, 2015

This is a compilation of dev chats held in August 26, September 1, and September 9.

BuddyPress 2.3.4

There will be a minor release coming up to address some necessary fixes and updates. Five tickets are currently slated for this release, four of which are still open.

• The list of tickets slated for BP 2.3.4 are available on this page.
• Release date: TBA

BuddyPress 2.4.0

• BP 2.4.0 Beta: October 7, 2015
• BP 2.4.0 Release: October 28, 2015
• Features slated for this release are available in our Trac Milestone

TICKETS COMPLETED

Forty-one trac tickets have been fixed to date. The list for all tickets completed so far is available on this page. Notable:

User roles with differents profile fields (#5192) Many thanks to @boonebgorges, @Offereins, @tanner-m, and @im4th, work on this ticket has been completed and the “first killer feature for member types” is available for testing and feedback.

ONGOING WORK

Ninety-one more tickets are slated for 2.4.0 to date. You can keep updated with the complete list of these tickets on this page. The following have been highlighted in compiled chats:

xProfile Fields and Field Groups – @johnjamesjacoby continues work on enhancements and fixes for the xProfile component, specifically querying & sign-up fields. Patches coming up.

@since standard not parseable with phpDocumentor 2 – (#6576) In preparation for setting up developer.buddypress.org, @djpaulgibbs posted that our current @since tags are not being parsed/extracted correctly per his tests. @tw2113 has accepted the task to convert the @since tags throughout the project and has already completed the conversion in four component folders to date.

Email API and customisation features – (#6592) @djpaulgibbs has posted the scope and vision for the first version of BuddyPress Emails. He has started work on this already in his github repo but would need to “add a bit more code” before he reaches out to all who said they wanted to help with this new feature.

Create New Invitations API – (#6210) @dcavins continues work on the Group Invitations API which needs some other trac tickets to be completed first. To start off, he has introduced a new function `groups_send_invite_by_invitee()` to handle sending a single invitation keyed by the invitee ID and group ID. In conjunction with that, he is working on adding a “manage invitations” pane to the group admin screen.

Let’s give post-form.php the love – (#6569) In ticket, @im4th, @rayisme, and @modemlooper have been in discussion about improving the UI of the Activity post form. @im4th has uploaded patches which include new hooks and reorganization of the post form. @im4th added, “We want to make it possible for any plugin to add custom ‘attachment’ types.”

• @johnjamesjacoby noted that “with cover photos and avatar upload improvements, @im4th and @rayisme have both done a good job of assessing the typical user and use cases” when @modemlooper voiced his concern about adding new functionalities directly to core instead of introducing such as feature plugins first.
• @boonebgorges mentioned that he “maintained a lot of BuddyPress sites and knew the pain of having an update introduce UX that he hadn’t prepared for. But I know how to deal with this, and it seems better than the alternative, which is disabling new stuff by default, and never having anyone use it.”
• @rayisme said that an admin option to turn off attachments is doable and makes sense.
• @im4th averred that new features will be extensible as usual and will include documentation.

Add UI for adding Profile Header Images for Users and Groups (#6570) and BuddyPress Modal Iframe (#6604) – @im4th has been rocking it with the new cover photos feature along with @rayisme. In the latest patches, in addition to the new UI for cover photo uploads for members and groups in the frontend, @im4th has added uploading via new BP Modals in the frontend and backend for both profile images and cover photos. Very cool, check it out 🙂

Commit Access

• Commit access has been granted to @mercime ~ a month ago. She made her first commit last August 26. Props @boonebgorges, @djpaulgibbs, @johnjamesjacoby.

BuddyCamp Brighton Videos

The following videos are now available at WordPress.tv:

• Rocío Valdivia: BuddyPress, Much More Than a Plugin!
• Paul Gibbs: On The Origin of BuddyPress
• Panel: BuddyPress Themes Interviews with Hugo Ashmore, Sven Lehnert, Tammie Lister, Michael Eisenwasser
• Hugo Ashmore: Exploring The Hidden Depths of the Template Hierarchy
• Mathieu Viet: Intranets, BuddyPress and Me
• Paul Gibbs and Tammie Lister: Fireside Chat with Paul Gibbs (part 1 of 2)
• Paul Gibbs and Tammie Lister: Fireside Chat with Paul Gibbs (part 2 of 2)
• Taped Messages from BP Contributors shown at BuddyCamp Brighton
  • John James Jacoby: Building Communities
  • David Cavins: BuddyPress Group Extension API
  • David Bisset: Howdy From BuddyCamp Miami!
  • Ryan Fugate: BuddyPress Mobile Site Solutions

Enjoy 🙂

#5192, #6210, #6569, #6570, #6576, #6592, #6604, #dev-chat

Dev Chat Summary for August 12, 2015

BuddyPress 2.3.3

Release Date: After WP 4.3.0 rolls out next week.

There are three open tickets:

• Wrong shape of the CROP size of the group thumbnail (#6551)
• Mentions.js fails on wp-admin post editor (#6487)
• WP 4.3 changes in WP_List_Table (#6465)

@djpaulgibbs has volunteered to help move these tickets forward.

BuddyPress 2.4.0

Add UI for adding Profile Header Images for Users and Groups

• (#6570) @im4th opened the conversation which lasted ~ one hour on the best way forward for this new feature. This resulted with great feedback from @johnjamesjacoby, @rayisme, @djpaulgibbs, and @hnla.
• Points made:
  1. Feature is available for all themes. bp-legacy‘s member-header.php gets the new hotness, and nothing gets broken if the feature is not activated.
  2. Create new template part with new markup, styles, and JS as needed
  3. Integrate a flexible header image for admin-area profiles, user dashboard
  4. If a custom template part is used in theme, then nothing happens because theme compatibility would never include anything in bp-legacy. If they are relying on theme compatibility and bp-legacy then they get the new markup and CSS that we give them.
  5. Users/theme authors will be able to edit their home.php template to support this new feature
• More to follow. Odds are, there will be some fast and furious work coming soon.

Conversation replies don’t immediately inherit the HTML of custom templates

• (#6572) @rayisme introduced a new template part to replace the hardcoded markup used to render a single message item in ticket. Discussion in dev chat then ensued to solve one of the two hard things to do in computer science, naming things . Consensus was reached on the name of the new template part, simply message.php.
• Update: Patch has been committed to core.

@since standard not parseable with phpDocumentor 2

• (#6576) @since tags throughout the BuddyPress project needs to be revised/updated to parse docs correctly in preparation for developer.buddypress.org.
• @tw2113 will be working on this.

Attachment API conflicts with wp_enqueue_media()

• (#6574) This is a carry-over from the mini devchat last August 5th re fixing JS error with the media uploader. @im4th is working on this with feedback from @johnjamesjacoby and @djpaulgibbs.
• Current patch is a quick fix for 2.3.x.

BuddyCamp Brighton, U.K.

This event was a success based on the feedback from the attendees. Congratulations to @djpaulgibbs and @karmatosed, organizers of the first BuddyCamp in Europe, as well as to all the speakers and presenters!

• @im4th has posted about his BuddyCamp experience in français along with his slides at his site.
• @modemlooper has uploaded his BuddyCamp video about mobilizing your BuddyPress site @ Dropbox.

If you want to include links to your BuddyCamp Brighton slides/videos or photos, post a comment below and we’ll add it to the list above.

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1439406192001125

#6465, #6487, #6551, #6570, #6572, #6574, #6576, #dev-chat

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.

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.

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

• BuddyPress and bbPress are now part of the plugins tab at translate.wordpress.org. Read about it at the Polyglots blog.
• If you have any questions about this change, leave a message here or ping @djpaulgibbs in the #buddypress slack channel.

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!
  
• 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.
  

#5192, #5817, #6210, #6347, #6387, #6396, #6407, #6465, #6509, #6513, #6517, #6531, #6532, #6533, #6534, #6544, #6561, #6570, #dev-chat