buddypress and the future of wordpress plugins
DESCRIPTION
An overview of BuddyPress, some technical notes, info about the 1.1 update, and fitting BuddyPress into the broader landscape of WordPress plugins.TRANSCRIPT
and the Future of WordPress Plugins
by Mark Jaquith
markjaquith.comcoveredwebservices.com
@markjaquith
Saturday, September 26, 2009
BP 1.1 FTW
Saturday, September 26, 2009
What is BuddyPress?
•a WordPress MU plugin
•a “social layer”
•extensible
•fond of eating its own dog food
•under your control
Saturday, September 26, 2009
What it can do• Extended
Profiles
• Private Messaging
• Friends
• Blogs
• Groups
• Wire
• Activity Streams
• Forums
• Status updates
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Cafeteria Style
• Use only what you want
• Could just use it for extended profiles
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Installation•Install WPMU (2.8.4a currently)
•Use plugin installer to install BuddyPress
•Set up themes
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Theme SetupFor WPMU 2.8.x:
Add the themes to your themes dir:
$ cd wp-content/themes/$ ln -s ../plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/bp-sn-parent bp-sn-parent$ ln -s ../plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/bp-default bp-default
Future versions of WPMU (2.9+) will skip this step by allowing BP to tell WPMU about its default themes.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Theme SetupEnable your BP theme in WPMU Site Admin, for the main blog
Activate the BP Members theme for the site's main blog
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Core Files Theme Files
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Pretty URLs http://bp.site/members/mark/skills/edit/buddypress/seattle
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Pretty URLs http://bp.site/members/mark/skills/edit/buddypress/seattle
$bp['current_component']
$bp['current_action']
$bp['action_variables'][0]
$bp['action_variables'][1]
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Adding Menusbp_core_new_nav_item( array( 'name' => __('Item Name', 'i18n-domain'), 'slug' => 'item-slug', 'position' => 50, 'show_for_displayed_user' => true, 'screen_function' => 'item_handler', 'default_subnav_slug' => 'index', 'item_css_id' => 'your-css-id' ));
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Adding Submenus
bp_core_new_subnav_item( array( 'name' => __( 'Child', 'i18n-domain' ), 'slug' => 'child-slug', 'parent_url' => $bp->loggedin_user->domain . '/item-slug', 'parent_slug' => 'item-slug', 'screen_function' => 'child_handler_function' ));
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Handlers
function handler_function() { // Logic here bp_core_load_template( 'item-name/index' ); // Loads item-name/index.php}
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Custom components
• Download the BP Skeleton Component
• Learn by doing
Saturday, September 26, 2009
BuddyPress 1.1
•Consolidated WP/BP themes
•Crazy-simple bbPress install
•Groups API
•more...
Saturday, September 26, 2009
bbPress
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Theme Architecture
•No more dual themes
•BP themes are WP child themes
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WP/WPMU Merge
•2010
•Will make BuddyPress available on any WordPress install
•Consolidation of developer resources
Saturday, September 26, 2009
BP Consulting•Nascent market
•Rapidly expanding demand
•Premium prices
•???
•Profit
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Plugins Today•Often single author
•High rate of abandonment
•Highly variable quality
•Unendorsed
•Multiple competing solutions
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Canonical Plugins
•Multi-author
•High quality
•Supported
•Implicit endorsement
Saturday, September 26, 2009