BP 2.3.0 Dev Cycle – Contributor Priorities

This is a compilation of the planning and discussions held during the past three weeks (02/11/15, 02/18/15, and 02/25/15). Contributors have indicated the areas they are going to work on for the next three months or so of the 2.3.0 dev cycle:

@dcavins

• New Invitations API where he’ll be building the API/lib first and add the component later as the need arises (#6210) with @johnjamesjacoby
• Add tests for group invitations and membership request functions (#6209)

@tw2113

• Complete documentation on BP Core files (#5940)
• Complete documentation on BP Templates (#5948)
• Reference: Docs initiative (#5022)
• Afterwards, he will go over to all existing phpdocs and touch up ones that PHPStorm is reporting as inaccurate params and whatnot.

@im4th

• New Attachments API (#5429) with @johnjamesjacoby
• Local avatar management with new attachments API (#6004)
• Possible new Relationships API with @djpaulgibbs based on https://github.com/paulgibbs/buddypress/tree/posts2posts for the Favorites/Likes features. Meeting at WCLondon to discuss this.

@boonebgorges

• Member types API level such as member-type-specific xprofile fields (#5192)
• “Only Me” profile fields are searchable by other users (#6211)
• Member Types API: remove a user’s member type (#6188). Update: This issue was fixed today.
• Check in other ongoing work in Trac

@hnla

• Add companion stylesheets for all WordPress Default themes (#6248)
• Twenty Fifteen theme BP Companion Stylesheet (#6124)

@rayisme

• Message cache (#6221) with @johnjamesjacoby
• Possibly add some new Messaging features

@mercime

• 2015 BuddyPress Survey: launched 02/18/2015 through results post in April (#5980)
• 2015 bbPress Survey: from ~ April 2015 through results in June/July 2015 (bbPress#2767)
• WP Theme Repo: submit themes which support BuddyPress and bbPress
• BuddyPress Codex: Add/update articles

@djpaulgibbs

• Work with @im4th on the new Relationships API
• Deleted activity items remain favourited (#3794) with @johnjamesjacoby
• Activity Favorites: alternative management & new features (#5644) with @johnjamesjacoby
• Improve representation of blog posts in the Activity Stream (#6177) which is virtually ready
• BP Trac Maintenance and work on ideas for future releases

@johnjamesjacoby

• New Notifications Meta (#6257)
• Work with @rayisme on Message cache
• Work with @im4th on new Attachments API
• Work with @dcavins on new Invitations API
• Work with @djpaulgibbs on Favourites/Likes
• Work on new Administration UI’s for each component. @djpaulgibbs mentioned that he has UI for xProfile in wp-admin.

@slaffik

• Will continue with his 5% for WordPress via BuddyPress and find ways to contribute in Trac.

You can keep track of the tasks for the 2.3.0 milestone on this page.

Commit Access

• Commit access has been granted to @hnla for his work on the tickets mentioned above and other tasks to be assigned by the Lead Developers.

BuddyPress.org Issues

• @slaffik raised an issue about the i18n sites of BuddyPress.org. @henrywright brought up an issue re BuddYPress.org forums. @ubernaut reported on an issue which was previously reported in trac which will be fixed when the WP trac ticket referenced in said ticket is fixed.
• @johnjamesjacoby mentioned that these issues can be posted in https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/. The themes and plugins are open-sourced and can be patched. He added, “I don’t expect anyone to want to figure that all out (as it’s a bit non-standard at the moment.) It’s a bit unorthodox because BuddyPress.org & bbPress.org share resources amongst several sites & trac which does not run WordPress or PHP.”

New BuddyPress Welcome Screen Designs

• Per initiative led by @djpaulgibbs in his post last Dec. 19th, @modemlooper presented two screenshots prepared by designers from WebDevStudios two weeks ago (#6224). Most of those present at the dev chat preferred the screenshot of the BP Welcome screen header (light version).
• @djpaulgibbs encouraged interested parties “to think bigger than what we do on the Welcome screen already, not just make current screen look/work better”.

2015 BuddyPress Survey

• Please help guide the direction of BuddyPress development in 2015 by taking the Survey at https://buddypress.org/2015/02/2015-buddypress-survey/ Thank you!

#6211

#3794, #5022, #5192, #5429, #5644, #5940, #5948, #5980, #6004, #6124, #6177, #6188, #6209, #6210, #6221, #6224, #6248, #6257, #dev-chat

Inline documentation initiative

During the 1.9 development cycle, BuddyPress’s inline documentation coverage increased dramatically. (See #5022.) Check out the stats:

• Version 1.8: 19294 lines of comments/docs for 42093 lines of PHP code (~45% ratio)
• Version 1.9: 27544 lines of comments/docs for 45115 lines of PHP code (~61% ratio)

The main push during 1.9 was docblocks for functions, classes, and methods – adding those that were missing, and correcting those that were incomplete/incorrect/inconsistent. Roughly half of the codebase now has complete docblock coverage: bp-activity, bp-blogs, bp-core, bp-forums, and some of bp-groups.

But there’s much more to do. Docblocks still have to be written/updated for roughly half of BuddyPress. And we have precisely zero inline documentation for our many action and filter hooks.

Let’s finish this job during the first part of 2014. In the spirit of WordPress’s recent hook documentation project, I’d like to call for volunteers to contribute to BP’s inline documentation.

How to contribute

1. Leave a comment on this post with the file(s) you’re claiming. You are encouraged to claim just a few files at a time (keeping in mind that some are much larger than others, and will take much more time to document).
2. Get an svn or git checkout of BuddyPress.
3. Edit the file with your new and improved documentation. Here is BuddyPress’s documentation standards page. As noted, we defer to WordPress’s PHP documentation standards in most cases.
4. Open a new Trac ticket. Title it: “Inline documentation: bp-xprofile/bp-xprofile-functions.php” (with the correct name of the file/s you’ve chosen).
5. Generate a diff file and attach it to the ticket and add the keyword “has-patch”.
6. Add your wordpress.org username or email address to the CC: field so you’ll receive activity notifications for your ticket.

A member of the core team will verify your patch and commit it as soon as possible.

A note to potential contributors: This is a great way to learn more about how BuddyPress works. Don’t be daunted by the prospect of documenting files you’ve never seen before; in most cases, it should be fairly straightforward to read what’s happening just by looking at the code or existing docs. Also, don’t feel as if you have to document everything in one go: doing part of a file, or just the docblocks, or just the hooks, is welcome.

#5022