Dev Chat Summary for June 8, 2016

BuddyPress 2.6.0

• Release Candidate 1 (string freeze): June 15, 2016
• 2.6.0 release: June 22, 2016
• There are currently 106 tickets in queue (Closed: 103. Open: 3.)

Trac Tickets

A new API to manage single items navigation (#6534) Issue on backward compatibility with groups navigation. Update: @boonebgorges has committed fix to trunk.

Activity link moderation doesn’t output useful error message to end users (#6719) @rayisme will be making a string change. Update: @rayisme has committed the fix to trunk.

Welcome Screen for 2.6.0 (#7108)
* Activity embeds will be the main feature of the About page. A short video will be embedded for WP 4.5+ installations and an image for installations less than WP 4.5. @im4th was volunteered to make the video. Update: @im4th has uploaded a patch.
* Other items to be featured included the new Group Types API and Custom Users Front Page
* In the midst of testing the Activity embeds feature for the About page, @tw2113 found a bug. Update: @im4th created a new ticket and he and @rayisme have uploaded patches to fix the issue.
* In addition, the WP icon was seen in BuddyPress.org’s activity embeds. @im4th pointed out that a ready-to-use BuddyPress icon exists on the “official fonts and logos” page. Update: @djpaulgibbs has uploaded the icon.
* “Under the Hood” section: New API to manage single items (Member or Group) navigation, various caching improvements, among other items.

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1465412393000100

#6534, #6719, #7108, #dev-chat

General Summaries for May 11, 2016

This post covers the BP Template Pack meeting @ 18:00 UTC and Dev Chat @ 19:00 UTC along with the upcoming BP 2.5.3 and BP 2.6.0 releases.

BP Template Pack

Participants: @dcavins, @im4th, @hnla, and @mercime.

• @im4th: created a new ticket for the Activity post form for the new Template Pack currently hosted on Github
• @hnla: added some preliminary notes in the Template Pack Wiki
• @im4th:  already using Ajax actions returning JSON replies.
• @hnla: requested that for this new pack or new templates, “please, please, no mention of backpat as it concerns us not, it’s a dirty word and we don’t suffer it for this project.”
• @dcavins: we should focus on the Messages screen and the Activity Post form for next week.
• @im4th: with this new template pack, an important thing will be to check we’re accessibility-ready and include this in the roadmap.
• @mercime: a new Template Pack Trac Ticket for good fortune when ready.
• @dcavins proposed a weekly meeting to step up discussions. This was seconded by the other participants.

Next meeting: Wednesday, May 18, same time (18:00 UTC), same #buddypress Slack channel (Slack account is required).

Dev Chat

developer.buddypress.org (#6812) @tw2113 has set up a sample site at https://trexthepirate.com/buddypress/reference/ to get things rolling. @djpaulgibbs: “Once the theme is done and any custom plugins, Boone, John, or I will code review it, and push it out. We’ll then need to talk to meta and figure out how to run the initial import or parsing.” @djpaulgibbs created a new repository in Github at https://github.com/buddypress/developer.buddypress.org and @tw2113 has already uploaded a local copy for review.

A new API to manage single items navigation (#6534) Update: @boonebgorges has committed the awesome new nav API which replaces the old `bp_nav` and `bp_options_nav` system to trunk the day after the chat. Check out his illuminating commit message for particulars. This commit also fixes another trac ticket (#5103 Group slug and user’s subnav parent_slug trouble).

Group Types API (#6784) @boonebgorges got the consensus to ship the new Group Types API without a UI in the front end for the first release.  Update: @dcavins has uploaded the patch to add a metabox in the wp-admin Group edit screen for changing group type per discussion in chat.

BP Users front.php (#6769) @im4th followed up on feedback for his patch. @hnla said that he will be looking at this. Update: @hnla has posted feedback and @im4th has uploaded a new patch.

Emails: Passing an email address to `bp_send_mail()` does not render `{recipient.name}` token (#7044) @rayisme has patch and unit tests. @djpaulgibbs has posted feedback and mentioned during chat that this would probably go into BP 2.5.3.

Emails: Allow a custom `unsubscribe` token to be set directly in `bp_send_email()` (#7045) @rayisme noted that this ticket can be closed in favor of #6932 (Emails: real unsubscribe functionality).

BuddyPress Embeds for activity, user profiles, groups (#6772) @im4th mentioned that there are problems with iframe within iframe, i.e., when one embeds a video in the activity stream then embed this activity in a post.

Upcoming Releases

BuddyPress 2.5.3

• There are currently 5 tickets slated. (Closed: 2. Active: 3.)
• Release Date: TBA

BuddyPress 2.6.0

• There are currently 95 tickets slated for this dev cycle. (Closed: 56. Active: 39.)
• Beta 1: May 25, 2016
• Release Candidate 1 (string freeze): June 8, 2016
• Release Date: June 15, 2016

#dev-chat

#5103, #6534, #6769, #6772, #6784, #6812, #6932, #7044, #7045, #buddypress

General Summaries for April 27 – May 4, 2016

This post covers the following meetings:
1. BP Template Pack on April 27 @ 18:00 UTC,
2. Dev Chat Summary on April 27 @ 19:00 UTC, and
3. Dev Chat Summary on May 4 @ 19:00 UTC.

BP Template Pack Meeting

Participants: @dcavins, @hnla, @im4th, and @mercime

• @im4th: will open a new task about the activity post form to summarize what he has in mind so that we can discuss it.
• @mercime: Google spreadsheets with screenshots of pages with current UI and how we would address each one of the component pages … then attach images of screens addressed in the next-template-pack for comparison
• @hnla: has a draft of basic outline on bpdevel (not for publication at this time).
• Use the Github repo Wiki pages for documentation
• Review some wireframes made by @karmatosed in 2012 which already have feedback from the community as shown in BP Trac, bpdevel, and Github. We have to decide whether any of those can still be used or whether it would be better to make new wireframes.
• Process: Discovery -> Design -> Development -> Launch.

Next meeting: Wednesday, May 11, same time (18:00 UTC), same #buddypress channel in Slack.

Dev Chat, April 27

A new API to manage single items navigation (#6534) @im4th has patch. Dev feedback requested. “The patch is replacing nav arrays with a new class. and make sure the nav is attached to an item ID. The user id for the displayed user nav or the group ID for the current group. Group nav and displayed user nav are separated – meaning there are no more slug collisions.” @boonebgorges and @im4th had a long discussion on the implementation in this Slack log. @im4th and @rayisme have uploaded patches after the meeting.

BP Users front.php (#6769) Kudos to @im4th from @rayisme and @boonebgorges for the mystery group avatar. @dcavins and @hnla said that they will test the patch and post feedback.

Dev Chat, May 4

A new API to manage single items navigation (#6534) @boonebgorges will be checking out the progress and at “how much we need to support old ways of reaching into the `bp_nav` and `bp_options_nav` globals and spending some time formalizing the various compatibility breaks with unit tests” Update: @boonebgorges has uploaded a new patch with unit tests.

BP Users front.php (#6769) @im4th has patch. Positive feedback during dev chat, testing welcome.

Audit all DB fetch methods to return integers where appropriate (#6977) @rayisme has patch. Work on this is about 90% done.

bp_send_email function not working with numeric string for $to argument (#7042) Will leave decision of ticket status to @djpaulgibbs.

BuddyPress Embeds for activity, user profiles, groups (#6772) @rayisme requested feedback on the display of the embeds in the template as well as the embeds template. Update: @mercime has posted feedback and @im4th has uploaded revised patch.

Screen notifications settings page (#6712) @rayisme: “I need to refresh #6712. @djpaulgibbs‘ feedback in the ticket was quite helpful for future iterations. I’m not sure if this can make 2.6 or not.”

Use WP page names for BP directory pages headings (#6765) Discussion between @hnla, @johnjamesjacoby, @im4th, and @boonebgorges resulted in the decision that this enhancement would require an migration for existing installations when they upgrade while new installations will get the shorter page names.

BuddyPress Style Modules: @hnla has provided the example one so it’s clear how they work and are formatted etc. at https://github.com/hnla/style-modules/tree/master/members-list-module. Update: A new Style Modules repo has been added to the BuddyPress account at https://github.com/buddypress/style-modules

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1461780248000496

#6534, #6765, #6769, #6772, #6977, #7042, #buddypress, #dev-chat

Dev Chat Summary for March 30, 2016

BuddyPress 2.5.2

@dcavins,  release lead for BP 2.6.0, packaged and released BuddyPress 2.5.2 on Thursday, March 31. This fixes some email issues reported in trac and forums.

BuddyPress 2.6.0 Schedule

• Beta 1: May 25, 2016
• Release Candidate 1 (string freeze): June 8, 2016
• Target Release Date: June 15, 2016
• There are 95 tickets slated for 2.6.0 to date. Forty-seven of 79 tickets still open have patches.

Weekly Meeting Time

Join us every Wednesday at 19:00 UTC at the #buddypress channel on Slack. @djpaulgibbs encouraged anyone who wants “to participate in these meetings but can’t always make it can leave comments in Slack beforehand” or in posts here at bpdevel.

For newcomers, here’s how to get a WordPress/Slack account.

BuddyPress Work Parties née Bug Fixin’

A friendly reminder from @dcavins re invitation to a party on Slack or Trac  to fix ’em bugs this coming Tuesday, April 5 and Thursday, April 14. 🙂

2.6.0 Scoping/Wishlist

BP REST-API. @dcavins followed up on the status of this project, i.e., whether we can work on this or should this hold until WP API gets sorted. @djpaulgibbs noted that “WP API ​is​ sorted. You/we can work on it now.”

BP Style Modules – A Proposal. @dcavins asked for more information about the proposal. @hnla: “Style modules is an additional enhancement for templates, more for engaging the community and providing a means to add small code blocks, similar in the way frameworks offer them sometimes.” @boonebgorges and @hnla later exchanged a series of enlightening comments about some of the details of @hnla‘s proposal.

A new API to manage single items navigation (#6534) @boonebgorges passes baton to @im4th to save this ticket from oblivion. @im4th brought up the issue of an upgrade routine to implement this feature which requires Framework for bulk data handling after updates (#6841).

Incrementor-based caching for ID queries (#6643) @boonebgorges is looking to implement this for at least one component during 2.6.

Accessibility tickets. @mercime will be working on the ones already in trac and will be adding some more later.

Explore Behat to add a functional testing capability to the project. @djpaulgibbs‘ dream is look into adding a functional testing capability to the project. “I don’t know if this is something that we’ll want, but I need to build it before I can convince everyone.”

New bp-template pack @djpaulgibbs is trying to come up with a plan to answer the never-ending questions around if/when BuddyPress will ever get a new one. “I’ve started with asking about eight of you some questions around that. It’s going to be a lot of work to come up with some kind of plan. I got essay-length replies from everyone and each reply is vastly different. Everyone has a very different opinion. I think some goal-setting needs to occur before we are able to write new templates with 100% buy-in from everyone, but it’s still early days and I reserve the right to change that opinion.”

Group Types API (#6784) @boonebgorges mentioned that it would be good to make headway on this ticket. Ping @mamaduka

2016 BuddyPress Survey (#6792) @mercime will conduct this year’s survey after the April 15 tax day.

Activity link moderation doesn’t output useful error message to end users (#6719) @rayisme has made some headway on better error messages in the activity stream. “Question is should we be holding off on this for an activity_status DB column.” @boonebgorges noted that  the “main issue would be documenting that select * from $bp->activity->table_name queries will have to be adjusted accordingly.”

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1459364425000688

#6534, #6643, #6719, #6784, #6792, #6841, #buddypress, #dev-chat

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 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