Dev Chat Summary for January 6, 2016

The first dev chat of the year focused on the 2.5.0 release scope. There are currently 104 tickets slated for  this dev cycle: 22 closed and 82 active. The following were mentioned during dev chat (major features have asterisks).

API

*BuddyPress Embeds for activity, user profiles, groups (#6772) @rayisme and @im4th work on ensuring that nested embeds show up as well as preventing embeds from breaking layout, among others.

*Create New Invitations API (#6210) @dcavins has written a bunch of tests for this feature in the last two releases. He’s currently working on the actual code changes and it’s going pretty well. Ultimately, he mentioned he’d like nearly all of the  features of Boone’s Invite Anyone plugin to be rolled in.

*A new API to manage single items navigation (#6534) @boonebgorges

*Email API and customisation features (#6592) @djpaulgibbs will be ready for review in a week or so. He has done lots of work on it and has recently posted an extensive technical update in ticket.

*Group Types API (#6784) @boonebgorges

BLOGS

*Comment syncing between activity and post comments for Custom Post Types (#6482) @im4th has patch which ready for  review/testing.

CORE

Use WP page names for BP directory pages headings (#6765) @hnla

Hooks Documentation Continued @tw2113

GROUPS

Add function to send single invitation (#6025) @dcavins is working on this in relation to the main ticket (#6210) Invitations API above.

NOTIFICATIONS

Comment notification NOT notified (#6057) @im4th will refresh the patch next week.

Screen notifications settings page (#6712) @rayisme

TEMPLATE PARTS

*Companion Stylesheet – Twenty Twelve (#6766) @hnla has committed the first pass of the SASS and compiled CSS files.

BP Users front.php (#6769) @hnla

XPROFILES

*xProfile fielddata visibility should be stored in xprofilemeta (#6413) @boonebgorges has the patch written, “just some work to do on making the migration routine less insane.”

*xProfile fields used for signup should be configurable (#6347) @johnjamesjacoby

xProfile field database schema (#6350) @johnjamesjacoby

BUDDYPRESS.ORG

*developer.buddypress.org (#5129) @tw2113 is working on the parser

GENERAL – ADMIN/UI

Accessibility Upgrades Continued @mercime

FOR NEXT WEEK:

1. REST API
2. “Social Network” vs. “Community Software” marketing direction

#5129, #6025, #6057, #6347, #6350, #6413, #6482, #6534, #6592, #6712, #6765, #6766, #6769, #6772, #6784, #dev-chat

General Summary as of December 23, 2015

This is a compilation of dev chats held in December 2nd, 9th, and 16th. There was no official dev chat last Dec. 23, we just had some BP Holiday fun.

Minor Releases

• 2.4.3 – packaged and released by @im4th
• 2.4.2 – packaged and released by @johnjamesjacoby

BuddyPress 2.4.4

• There are currently two tickets in queue.
• Release date: January 2016

BuddyPress 2.5.0

• BP Beta 1: February 8, 2016
• BP RC 1 (string freeze): February 22, 2016
• BP 2.5.0 Target Release Date: March 2, 2016

Feature scope continued from last November 25:

Email API and customisation features (#6592) @djpaulgibbs reported Things are going well with the new feature.

Comment syncing between activity and post comments for Custom Post Types (#6482) @im4th will try to update patch and write unit tests.

Screen notifications settings page (#6712) @rayisme

Accessibility Improvements Part 2 (has tickets) @mercime

developer.buddypress.org @tw2113 has started work on the parser and fixing errors.

Navigation API tweaks for single items (#6534) @boonebgorges will be working on this for the next 2 weeks.

Create New Invitations API (#6210) @dcavins will update patches. @boonebgorges will be working on this for the next 2 weeks.

BuddyPress Embeds for activity, user profiles, groups (#6772) @rayisme has started working on this. @im4th has given feedback on the ticket.

Companion Stylesheet – Twentytwelve (#6766) @hnla has uploaded the stylesheets to trunk. Feedback welcome.

BP Users front.php (#6769) @hnla

xprofile fielddata visibility should be stored in xprofilemeta (#6413) @boonebgorges

BP JSON REST API @modemloooper. @marmaduka has volunteered to help. @djpaulgibbs and @boonebgorges were in agreement that the project would go through some documentation/vision phases before starting to write code. The BP JSON REST API would be introduced into core when the feature is “complete”, i.e.,  all read-only endpoints or an entire component, etc. This will be built as a plugin first. @djpaulgibbs also suggested that the eventual BP REST API plugin/module/eventual core integration require modern PHP.

#6210, #6482, #6534, #6592, #6712, #6766, #6769, #6772, #dev-chat

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

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

Dev Chat Summary for March 25, 2015

Avatars, an extensible UI

• (#6290) @im4th reported that he gave a demo of the new Avatars UI at WordCamp London last weekend.
• Discussions touched on where special templates would be included in backend administration, from where to include the UI templates so that this feature would be theme-independent and could still be overridden by theme or plugin authors like they do with template parts.
• @im4th also said that if the BP Attachments API (#6278) is aimed to help us then help them deal with attachment, maybe we should try to help them with the UI Part.
• @johnjamesjacoby: While it may not make sense for v1, I would like for this to be something all components could lean on in some way: sending attachments in a Private Message, attaching one to a friend request, etc.
• @im4th thinking about : 1/ Put attachments UI in bp-legacy: BuddyPress is making sure everything is fine for the introduction of the feature and 2/if everything is ok, then open UI to the plugins world.

Update XProfile UI to better match current WordPress design

• (#6318) @johnjamesjacoby updated the Profile Fields UI in the backend using the recent improvements done to the WordPress administration area. Design feedback is welcome.

BuddyPress Companion stylesheet for Twenty Fifteen

• (#6291) @hnla has posted the initial patch and screenshots for the companion stylesheet taking on the challenging member navigation links, among others. Feedback included avoiding vertical navigation within content area. Additional feedback and participation, welcome.

Create New Invitations API

• (#6210) @dcavins reported that he’s just about has the group invite tests written. He continued, “Have the API pretty much written. Once all the tests are in place, I’ll update the group functions to use the API and see what I got wrong.”

2015 BuddyPress Survey

• (#5980) The survey deadline has been extended to April 8, 2015. Participation in the survey and promotion are welcome.
  https://twitter.com/buddypress/status/580822590266044416

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1427313681000039
(You need a Slack account to view the logs.)

#5980, #6210, #6278, #6290, #6291, #6318, #dev-chat

Dev Chat Summary for March 11, 2015

BuddyPress 2.3.0 Schedule

• Target release date: May 26, 2015
• Beta1 to be released ~four weeks before release date and RC1 ~ two weeks before
• There are 73 tickets currently open for this milestone. Patches welcome.

BP 2.3.0 Progress Report

New Notifications Meta (#6275)
@johnjamesjacoby reported that within the last two weeks, he worked on the new notifications meta table with accompanying database and caching routines, new template functions and filters, among others. These have been committed to trunk. Needs unit tests.

Attachments API (#6278)
@im4th has been working with @boonebgorges and @johnjamesjacoby on this new feature and it’s moving along quite rapidly. Feedback is needed on the lastest patch.

Avatar Upload UI (#6290)
@im4th has posted screenshots of the the UI for this enhancement in ticket. The Attachment API needs to be completed first as this feature requires AJAX and other methods to be introduced in the new API. Possible blavatar addition if there’s time.
@johnjamesjacoby noted that get_avatar has a bevy of new filters and functions in WP core now and added, “Eventually we might be able to ditch a bunch of our avatar code as a result. get_avatar_url() & get_avatar_data().”

Invitations API (#6210)
@dcavins commented that he’s making good progress on this new API,” but slowing down to see how the real world works (group invitations) and finding some strange things.” He needs to finish writing test coverage before attempting to use the new API functions for group invitations. @boonebgorges has been giving him advice on unit tests and looking over his proposed changes.

Improve representation of blog posts in the Activity Stream (#6177)
@djpaulgibbs has added screenshots and patches for this enhancement. Feedback is needed on the lastest patch re architecture.

Relationships API (exploration stage)
@djpaulgibbs is also “trying to make more progress on some kind of many-to-many object relation API. It’s proving pretty challenging. My original approach was to try to port as much of post2posts as possible, but it’s increasingly looking like it’s not a great fit without modifications, so I’m still trying to see where to go with it.”

Inline Documentation (#5940)
@tw2113 is currently documenting BP Core Hooks as scheduled.

Correct the values returned by bp_format_time (#2693)
@johnjamesjacoby has committed patches to resolve the issue. He also noted, “We should probably use smarter time elements and let the front-end handle timestamps in a more sane way.”

Fixes for title-tag /wp_title (#6107)
Full steam ahead and plenty of beer to resolve page/site title issues.

Companion Stylesheets for WP Default themes (#6248)
@hnla reported that he was in the process of building and iterating on the stylesheet for the companion theme tasks.

2015 BuddyPress Survey (#5980)
A friendly reminder to take the survey at https://buddypress.org/2015/02/2015-buddypress-survey/

Daylight Savings Time

Our dev chat is scheduled at 20:00 UTC until after March 29th when DST starts in Europe. For those in North America, this means that dev chats will be held one hour later than usual for the next two weeks at 1:00 P.M. Pacific / 4:00 P.M. Eastern until further notice.

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1426104240000980
(You need a Slack account to view the logs.)

#2693, #5940, #5980, #6107, #6177, #6210, #6248, #6275, #6278, #6290, #dev-chat

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