• See previously BP Dev Chat summary (June 23, 2021)
• In attendance: @espellcaste @vapvarun @dcavins @johnjamesjacoby @sbrajesh @shanebp @im4th
• June 30 Slack archive, July 7 Slack archive.

June 30 improvised dev-chat

Following the discussion we had during June 23 meeting about the frequently requested Follow feature, and a very interesting discussion between @sbrajesh, @espellcastewe and @johnjamesjacoby, we decided to improvise a new Dev Chat about a possible larger scope about it. We shared our views about building a wider vision for “relationship types” in BuddyPress. A new API that would firstly be used for the Follow feature, but could also be used for potential other needs: user likes, improved user favorites, blocking users, what may come to our mind in the future!

@sbrajesh will lead this new project using the “feature as a plugin” model like WordPress does from a BuddyPress GitHub repository. If you’re interested in contributing to this project, please “raise your hand” commenting this summary.

July 7 regular dev-chat

@im4th starts with an apology: unlike what was scheduled (July 8), we were not able to release the 9.0.0 first beta so far. Sorry about it.

9.0.0 🎯

We’ve migrated 90% of Widgets as Block Widgets from the GitHub repository we use to build BuddyPress blocks. We also improved some BP REST API endpoints and we’re on our way to include a new endpoint to deal with Sitewide Notices. BP Block Widgets have been built on 2 principles: use the BP REST API every time it’s possible and use Modern JavaScript on front-end and the Widget/Post Block Editor’s APIs (mainly built on top of React.JS) on back-end.

@dcavins has made great progress about the Sitewide Notices Block Widget (👉 the last one to reach 100%) and about the corresponding REST API Endpoints. @espellcaste gave great advices about the BP REST API to speed up the process.

We also talked about directly packaging a Release Candidate without doing a Beta release. As the 9.0.0 development cycle is focused on migrating Widgets as Blocks, we have a very limited risk of messing with other parts of BuddyPress. @im4th said he’ll work on merging the BP Blocks code into BuddyPress core and will try to find the time to quickly build a Beta Release and some time after the Release Candidate (he hates when he doesn’t do what he has written he would do).

We finally talked about the great work @vapvarun has done building a test drive to host the BuddyPress code reference. The goal is to make it available asap and before the end of the year here. The main difficulty is to generate the documentation using the WP CLI parser command directly from the server (10 minutes). @im4th wondered if this could be achieved using the WP import/export tool (the documentation plugin is using custom post types). This is an approach we’ll try to test to avoid possible downtimes of the BuddyPress.org network.

9.0.0 schedule

• Beta: July ? 🤔
• RC: July 12 to 14.
• Final: July 16 to 19.

Next Dev-Chat

It will happen on July 21 at 19:30 UTC and of course in #BuddyPress. If you have ideas or questions, feel free (and we are strongly encouraging you) to comment this summary to share them!

Additional note about meetings during 9.0.0 development cycle

As we are running a short development cycle, @im4th will be available every Wednesday at 19:30 UTC in #BuddyPress for an hour or more time if needed. Don’t hesitate to ping him (@imath) for help or inputs about contributing to this version of BuddyPress.

#9-0-0, #dev-chat, #relationship-api, #summary