Recent Updates

imath 9:49 pm on November 18, 2021
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BP Dev-Chat Summary : November 17, 2021.

10.0.0 Progress

The first thing we’ve discussed about was the scheduled date for the first beta release of BuddyPress 10.0.0. @im4th shared his concern about the fact he would not be able to test/review the latest improvements brought to the site request membership feature #8582 by @dcavins as well as the “no-content” activities patch @vapvarun was about to add to the ticket (#8451) before November 20 (beta1 initial scheduled date). He requested to use 2 more weeks before releasing beta1. Although @vapvarun was in favor of only adding 1 week, @im4th argued he was prefering to delay by 2 weeks once instead of by 1 week twice. @dcavins also thinks a 2 weeks delay is good and should help us to fix some other tickets.

New 10.0.0 schedule

  • 10.0.0-beta 1: ~ december 3, 2021 👈
  • 10.0.0 stable: ~ december 24, 2021 🎄
  • #8451 Extending no content activities with images and call to actions: @vapvarun announced he was about to submit a first patch about the feature.
  • #8582 Add site membership requests: we think we should use a new action link instead of links into a new WP List Table column to open the modal. @im4th will try to build an inline-edit feature using the BP REST API and we’ll be able to replace the modal link with the inline-edit one if it’s ready before first beta. @dcavins will also try to avoid adding an upgrade routine to edit the existing $wpdb->base_prefix . 'signups' table rows and use instead a new meta to differentiate site membership requests from signups. The last touch about the feature will be to update the list of BP Emails so that it includes the ones needed by the feature.
  • #8594 Legacy Widgets: next step before deprecation: @vapvarun shared his concern about it considering the number of downloads of the Classic Widget editor plugin. After checking the ticket’s patch and the plugin’s code, @im4th reassured @vapvarun telling him the legacy widgets would still be available for people using this plugin. He’ll do some more tests to be 100% sure about it.

Open floor

@im4th thinks we shouldn’t include more BP Blocks into BP Core and that we should start using standalone blocks and publish them into the WordPress.org Blocks directory (which is actually using the plugins directory). @dcavins thinks it’s an interesting idea. @vapvarun is not convinced (yet 😁) about it especially when considering these blocks are increasing the number of active plugins on sites. He thinks a Blocks collection plugin would be better. If you have an opinion about it, we’d be happy to read it as a comment of this post 😉.

Next Dev-Chat

It will happen on December 1st at 19:30 UTC in #BuddyPress. In the meantime we’d be happy to get your help about these tickets: please contribute to BuddyPress 🙏

#10-0-0, #dev-chat, #summary

imath 7:52 pm on November 17, 2021
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BuddyPress Admin Tabs will look different in 10.0.0

Observing the WordPress Administration screens, we’ve noticed the ones using tabs (such as the Privacy Settings screen) had a page layout that started looking like the Site Heath Screen’s one. We thought applying this specific layout to our Settings and Tools Administration screens would improve their integration into your WordPress Administration.

The only variation we included is our beloved bright red logo before the title of the page 👇

BP Admin tabs screenshot
BP Admin Tabs’ next appearance

What happens to the custom tab my plugin is adding 😱?

If you are a BuddyPress plugin developer and added a custom tab to ours to let the site’s admin set your plugin’s options from the BuddyPress Settings screen, you might wonder what this change means for your plugin.

To make sure your custom tab/screen is still looking nice, we included some backward compatibility code to dynamically adjust your screen layout according to the new one 💪. You’ll simply find a notice into your screen when defining WP_DEBUG to true into your wp-config.php file.

Screenshot of the result of the backcompat script
Result of the backward compatibility code.

Please, update the way you add your custom tab 🙏

Below is the same screen as the above one using the new way to add custom tabs to the BuddyPress Settings/Tools screens. To be precise, it’s the BP Rewrites Admin screen 😉

Screenshot of tje BP Rewrites Admin Screen
BP Rewrites Admin Screen

We encourage you to progressively update your plugin’s code, thanks in advance 😍. All the needed steps are described into the BP Rewrites pull request we used to prepare it to BuddyPress 10.0.0.

  1. Reference your screen into the global variable BuddyPress uses to store the settings (or the tools) screens hooking to bp_admin_submenu_pages new action (see this code).
  2. Use the bp_core_get_admin_settings_tabs (or bp_core_get_admin_tools_tabs if you’re targetting the BuddyPress Tools screen) to let BuddyPress know about the link and text to use into the tab (see this code).
  3. Use the new bp_core_admin_tabbed_screen_header() function into the function you use to display your screen and replace the "wrap" class of your main container by "buddypress-body" (see this code)

That’s it 🏁

#10-0-0, #admin

imath 2:24 pm on November 17, 2021
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BP Dev-Chat Agenda November 17, 2021

Hi!

Our development meeting will happen today (November 17 at 19:30 UTC) and of course in #BuddyPress.

Here’s our agenda:

  • 10.0.0 updates about our progress and in particular about:
    • #8582 Add site membership requests
    • #8581 Extending no content activities with images and call of actions
    • #8594 Legacy Widgets: next step before depreciation
  • Tickets to keep in the milestone or to punt to a next release.

If you have specific/additional points you need to discuss about, please share them into the comments area of this post.

👋

#10-0-0, #agenda, #dev-chat

imath 11:56 am on November 12, 2021
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BP Dev-Chat Summary : November 3, 2021.

10.0.0 Progress

#8451 Extending no content activities with images and call to actions

Preview of a no content activity
Preview of a richer “no content” activity about a group who has just changed its Group profile photo.

@vapvarun will soon share a patch about it on the ticket’s page. He decided to take the base64 encoded road to store previous profile photo/cover image inside an Activity meta.

@im4th & @dcavins suggested to include a way to avoid such activity types to be generated too often when a user changes these images multiple times in a short amount of time.

Writing the above lines, I believe the last activity should overwrite the previous ones. A 1 hour delay was suggested during the dev-chat.

#8582 Add site membership requests

@dcavins updated the patch attached to the ticket to remove all references to data stored inside the Users table. He also added a way to preview all signup/membership request information using a modal window.

A modal window to preview signup/membership request information

The modal window choice was debated with @im4th & @johnjamesjacoby. First concern is a11y: we need to check keyboard navigation to make sure everything’s fine with it. Second concern is the clumsiness of it into the WP Administration (old JS libraries, Ajax, etc..). @dcavins thought about an alternative way to reach the same result (be able to preview information) using a dynamic row like what’s included into the « inline edit » feature of the WP List Table class. @im4th believes it’s a nice idea and could be even more interesting if information could be edited from there. We might need to customize the feature for our need which can be too long for the remaining time we have until first 10.0.0 beta. @dcavins will give the modal window another thoughts before deciding whether to keep it or not.

Please help us progress about the site membership requests feature testing the last patch attached to this ticket: #8582.

#8588 use the “site-health” look & feel for BP Admin tabs

Preview of the 10.0.0 BP Settings Admin screens
Next BP Admin Settings/Tools screens look & feel!

@im4th asked for some feedbacks about it. @dcavins thinks it should be committed. @espellcaste thinks this is the kind of change regular BP users will enjoy. @im4th also shared a preview of the new BP Rewrites admin screen using these revamped Admin tabs. This improvement has since been committed, a developer note will soon be published to explain the changes introduced about adding custom tabs in 10.0.0.

Other interesting updates

10.0.0 schedule

  • 10.0.0-beta 1: ~ november 20, 2021,
  • 10.0.0 stable: ~ december 24, 2021 🎄

Next Dev-Chat

It will happen on November 17 at 19:30 UTC in #BuddyPress. We’ll be 3 days away from first beta release 😅. If you have specific points you want to discuss about during this next meeting, please share them into the comments area of this post.

#10-0-0, #dev-chat, #summary

imath 4:22 am on November 8, 2021
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WordPress required version update

Hi !

Please note that BuddyPress 10.0.0 will require WordPress >= 5.4.

To learn more about this change: https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/13140

To learn more about how we decide to bump our WordPress required version: https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/wordpress-version-compatibility/

👋

#10-0-0, #wp-requirements

imath 5:28 pm on November 3, 2021
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BP Dev-Chat Agenda November 3, 2021

Hi!

Our development meeting will happen today (November 3) at 19:30 UTC and of course in #BuddyPress.

Here’s our agenda:

  • 10.0.0 updates about our progress and in particular about:
    • #8582 Add site membership requests
    • #8588 Suggestion: use the “site-health” look & feel for BP Admin tabs
    • #8594 Legacy Widgets: next step before deprecation
  • BP Rewrites updates.

If you have specific/additional points you need to discuss about, please share them into the comments area of this post.

👋

#10-0-0, #agenda, #dev-chat

imath 8:37 pm on November 2, 2021
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BP Dev-Chat Summary : October 20, 2021.

10.0.0 Progress

During this development meeting we talked about two specific tickets:

#8451 Extending no content activities with images and call to actions

First @vapvarun opened a discussion about the best way to store member/group profile photos &/or profile cover images when making the generated activities about it richer (eg: Admin changed their profile picture). As BuddyPress only keeps the « latest version » of these images, we identified these options:

  • Use base64 encoded images into the content of the activity: it seems more engaging for the community as we keep a real story about these changes. But it may be problematic for large images + what happens if a user edits many times in a row his profile/cover image?
  • Do nothing, the older activities would show the latest profile/cover image. It’s less engaging, we rewrite the past in a way… But it’s a lot more easier 😅
  • Delete the older activities to only keep the latest one to be consistent with the profile/cover image.

If you have an opinion/ideas about it, feel free to share it as a comment to this post or the ticket: #8451.

#8582 Add site membership requests

@im4th shared his concern about how the feature should behave on Multisite configs. We discussed about how WordPress deals with the registration option in this case and their meaning: accounts can be created (1), accounts & sites can be created (2), existing users can create sites (3) and registration is disabled (4). @dcavins and actually us 3 agreed on the fact the site membership requests feature should only be available for cases (3) & (4).

We also talked about the non-Multisite configs registration process which can be misleading in WordPress as accounts are actually created into the Users table. For this feature we need to forget about the fact these data are available as they are not in Multisite and advanced users can use a specific constant to skip the WordPress account creation.

Please help us progress about the site membership requests feature sharing your thoughts or testing the patch attached to this ticket: #8582.

10.0.0 schedule

  • 10.0.0-beta 1: ~ november 20, 2021,
  • 10.0.0 stable: ~ december 24, 2021 🎄

Next Dev-Chat

It will happen tomorrow, November 3rd at 19:30 UTC in #BuddyPress. We’ll publish its agenda shortly!

#10-0-0, #dev-chat, #summary

imath 4:45 pm on October 20, 2021
Tags: , , , sim mary   

BP Dev-Chat Summary : October 6, 2021 & BP Dev-Chat Agenda : October 20, 2021.

10.0.0 Progress

  • Many thanks to the contributors who commented our last dev chat summary about whether or not we should raise the BuddyPress required WordPress version to 5.4. During this dev-chat, we’ve taken in account your feedbacks, kept on discussing a bit about the subject, and we’ve decided 10.0.0 will require WordPress 5.4. Yesterday @im4th suggested a first patch about it and we’ll keep you informed when it will be converted into trunk. Don’t hesitate to contribute to it from this ticket #8571. We’ve also decided to include WP 5.4 to the GH action that runs PHPUnit tests after each commit to our development version. So far, we were only testing the latest WordPress stable version and the development one, fearing about exceeding our GH Actions quotas 😱.
  • @vapvarun is progressing on Legacy Widgets for community stats (before doing the Widget Block jump!) and impressed us with rich content activities for « poor » activities like « a member changed their profile photo ». He opened a ticket about it: see #8451. We believe these could be a nice enhancement to the activity streams.
  • @espellcaste is working on patches to improve our inline documentation 💪 : see #8553.
  • @im4th has been working on the BP Attachments feature as a plugin lately and hopes he’ll be able to have a first beta ready before the end of BuddyPress 10.0.0 development cycle.
  • @dcavins made progress about the Site Membership request feature and a first patch is available on this ticket: #8582. Feedbacks are very welcome.
  • We’ve also discussed about refreshing our BP Admin tabbed screens to use the look & feel of the Site-Health & Privacy settings screens. A first patch is waiting for your feedbacks there: #8588.

10.0.0 schedule

  • 10.0.0-beta 1: ~ november 20, 2021,
  • 10.0.0 stable: ~ december 24, 2021 🎄

Open floor

@im4th asked the team to keep an eye on TwentyTwentyTwo new WordPress default theme and to the progress of the full site editing feature in WordPress 5.9-alpha/Gutenberg plugin. He reminded us about potential difficulties to have BuddyPress behaving the best way with Themes using this Full Site Editing feature. See #8474.

October 20 Dev-Chat Agenda

It will happen today, in a few hours in #BuddyPress. We’ll share our progress about the 10.0.0 release.

We hope to chat with you soon!

#10-0-0, #agenda, #dev-chat, #sim-mary

imath 1:37 pm on October 6, 2021
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BP Dev-Chat Agenda October 6, 2021

Hi!

Our development meeting will happen today (October 6) at 19:30 UTC and of course in #BuddyPress.

Here’s our agenda:

  • 10.0.0 updates about our progress
  • Decision about 10.0.0 required WP Version

If you have specific/additional points you need to discuss about, please share them into the comments area of this post.

👋

#10-0-0, #agenda, #dev-chat

imath 8:55 pm on September 28, 2021
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BP Dev Chat Summary : september 22, 2021

10.0.0 Progress

  • We started by congratulating @oztaser for the great contribution he brought about SQL performance improvements to the BP Notifications API (See #8426).
  • @dcavins will actively (👈 adding some pressure here 😁) progress about the site membership requests feature. He will also take in charge the issue about the inconsistent behavior of Groups Invites when the friends component is not active inside the Legacy template pack (see #8550)
  • @vapvarun is exploring BuddyPress statistic widgets from a plugin, @im4th challenged him to build Widget Blocks about it in 10.0.0 as well as exploring the mutual friends/mutual groups which are other Widget Block nice candidates (see #8559).
  • Then we had a long discussion about raising the BuddyPress required WordPress version to 5.4 (see #8571). It’s true it’s quite a jump from 4.9 but “Tipton” was released almost 4 years ago, it’s the last WP version before the Block Editor which is probably making it a bit special. WP 5.0 to 5.3 are under 5% of total WordPress installs which makes 5.4 a good candidate for our next required version.

If a WordPress version became obsolete over a year ago, it’s a candidate for removal.
If a WordPress version’s use slips below 5% of all WP installations, it’s a strong candidate for removal.

The BP Codex

Please, share your opinion about the BP 10.0.0 required WordPress version using the comments area 🙏

10.0.0 schedule

  • 10.0.0-beta 1: ~ november 20, 2021,
  • 10.0.0 stable: ~ december 24, 2021 🎄

BP Rewrites feature as a plugin

It’s now possible to enjoy BP Directories as the site’s homepage using the BP Rewrites URL parser.

@sbrajesh shared his first thoughts after testing the plugin. He was a bit surprised not to find the BP Directories into the WordPress pages. In BP Rewrites, BP Directories are using a Custom Post Type without using the corresponding WordPress generated UI. Instead there’s a new URL settings page to customize almost every possible slugs. The last improvement to add about slugs is to support customizable slugs for the Member’s secondary navigation. It’s true the UI used for this settings page should be improved (a lot!).

@im4th informed about the plan for this plugin : it’s not to merge it into BP Core during 10.0.0 (or even 11.0.0) but to release it as a plugin so that a lot more people can easily test it. There’s a ticket about easing hosted on WP.org features as a plugin installation from one of the BuddyPress Admin screens to also simplify this part for users (see #8148). Switching from our Legacy URL Parser to the WP Rewrite API will need a lot more testing to make sure BP plugins and themes are behaving almost like there was no switch!

@im4th strongly encourages all BP Plugin/theme developers to give a test to this feature as a plugin to contribute to the next way BuddyPress will parse URLs.

Open floor

@im4th @dcavins & @vapvarun are going to participate to a Q&A hosted by Birgit Pauli-Haack from the Gutenberg Times on October 28 at 16:00 UTC. If you want to know more about our experience migrating the BP Legacy widgets to Block Widgets during the BuddyPress 9.0.0 “express” release, please join us! More info available there inside the Upcoming Live Q&As section.

Next Dev-Chat

It will happen on October 6 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!

#10-0-0, #dev-chat, #summary