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
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