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

Dev Chat Summary for April 6, 2016

BuddyPress Work Party Recap

@dcavins reported that several tickets were fixed and closed during the party.

• Fixed. Make sure inviter_id !== 0 before inviting a user to a group (#6941)
• Fixed. Avoid using HTML tags in translation strings (bp-settings/bp-settings-template.php) (#6900)
• Fixed. Request: Allow Gravatar’s “d” param to be filtered (#6989)

@djpaulgibbs and @boonebgorges also identified other tickets that are close or ready to be committed, if anyone wants to get in on the fun:

• Profile Cover not working when we define a custom BP_XPROFILE_SLUG (#6962). Has patch.
• Cover Image location is incorrect for blogs other than the primary blog (#6931). Has patch.
• bp_core_print_generation_time() should echo only in WP_DEBUG mode (#6976). Has patch.

Trac Tickets

filter for $after_member_slug in bp-core-catchuri.php (#6694). Has patches from @dcavins, @boonebgorges, and @rayisme.

Group Types API (#6784). Has patch from @mamaduka. @boonebgorges would like to see the patch for the proposed Group Type UI before proceeding with the review.

Activity post form template improvements (#6680). Has patch. “The main template changes in the activity form ticket is markup changes for the placeholder and some new hooks. The rest are CSS/JS related,” @rayisme mentioned. @djpaulgibbs noted that the enhancement would break backward compatibility with themes. On another note, even if this new enhancement was used in a new bp-template-pack, this would (potentially–we’re not certain, yet–see “homework” below) break backpat with some BP plugins.

Discussion then ensued about what constitutes “breaking backpat issues” – HTML/style enhancements or JS/break functionality of BP plugins or both – which prevent or halts adding new enhancements to BuddyPress. @dcavins then said, “The activity stream/post box was mentioned in the BP survey results last year, and some of the alternatives were pretty impressive. I don’t want BP to fall far behind on key UI/UX bits.”

Homework (for whoever’s interested): Try the patch in #6680 [with BP plugins and themes -Ed.] so we can revisit next week with surety in our hearts about the way forward.

Route /me/*/ to /members//*/ (#6325). Has patch by @dcavins. @djpaulgibbs noted that a decision should be made on where the redirection should be done. @boonebgorges has since commented in ticket to handle redirect in a callback function via new action/filter hook.

Framework for bulk data handling after updates (#6841) @boonebgorges: “I’m most concerned about upgrade flow, and how it affects the technical infrastructure. From my experience, people are afraid to click upgrade DB buttons. You can blame WC for that :)” From @imath: “A lot of users are not backing up their DB before a plugin upgrade, i think we should inform them to do it and then let them click on a button to launch the routine.”

“Since it sounds like we want to require user action here, I think we should just start with an existing UI – doesn’t matter which one (bbPress, imath’s, whatever) and use it as a framework for talking about database locking, batch processing, etc. Migrations probably need to have a UI if only to report any errors. If we ever want to migrate activity favorites (or anything else) to generic relationships, that’s another use case. Anyway, I think we should start with an existing AJAX-based UI because they already exist, and we should solve some of the other problems first,” per @boonebgorges.

Behat for BuddyPress. @djpaulgibbs reported, “There is no documentation. This is annoying. That is all.” @boonebgorges linked to an article about Codeception, a possible alternative.

Style Modules @hnla requests more feedback on the proposal here at bpdevel to get a consensus.

Special BP Template Pack Meeting

What: Template pack by @im4th
When: Wednesday, April 13 @ 18:00 UTC
Where: #buddypress channel in Slack
Who: All interested parties are welcome to join @dcavins, @im4th, @hnla, and @mercime

Slack log: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/buddypress/p1459969462001401

#dev-chat

#6325, #6694, #6784, #6841, #6900, #6931, #6941, #6962, #6976, #6989, #buddypress

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