BP 1.7 theme compatibility implications for plugin?

BP 1.7 isn’t even in beta yet.

The first beta was released this morning. Since I expect I’m going to be asked about this quite a bit over the next few weeks I’m going to post an explanation here and direct all the inquiries to this thread.

I will not be looking at GC & BP 1.7 until after the first RC is released. If the theme compatibility functionality in BP does interfere with GC there are multiple ways where that can be mitigated. I won’t look at those alternatives until BP 1.7 has reached the point where the implementation of those alternatives is unlikely to change.

As a general guide to anyone interested; the system is mostly the same as bbPress, so if there’s any workarounds specific to the bbPress plugin, those might be needed for the new BuddyPress.

For anyone following this thread: GenesisConnect 1.2 already does https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/bp-theme-authors-make-sure-your-theme-registers-buddypress-support/ which means that the theme compatibility in BP 1.7 will be disabled when GenesisConnect is active.

I’ve got a few clients/projects that are running on BP 1.6.4, WP 3.5.1 (multisite), BBP 2.2.4 + GC 1.2 (on Genesis Agency Theme) that I’ve slowly started to test w/ BP 1.7 (beta-1). The only potential issue I’ve noticed on GC 1.2 (activated) + BP 1.7 (beta-1) is that a number of things appear in duplicate – for example:

1. Join Group / Leave Group buttons are in duplicate
2. Public Message & Private Message buttons are in duplicate
3. Any updates to a Groups activity stream are in duplicate

Outside of those ‘duplicate’ observations, everything I’ve tested w/ BP 1.7 (beta-1) & GC 1.2 seems to works a’ok – in fact everything seems noticeably ‘faster’. Turning GC 1.2 ‘off’ makes all of the duplication issue(s) go away – but I also loose many of the GC (css & php) deep customizations that I’ve made. As BP 1.7 moves to a RC, I’ll take a deeper look to see what could be happening with the duplication, but I’m sure Ron will likely resolve that much faster than I could! I did read through the link above that Ron has suggested & noticed that Boone had mentioned

Theme compat errs on the side of caution and loads these static assets. But if your theme has also loaded its own version of these files, it may create conflicts in styling, and more importantly, it may cause certain AJAX events to be fired twice.

So that may explain the duplication(s) I’m seeing. Regardless, BP 1.7 (beta-1) looks like a major step forwards √ Great work! Ron – thx for creating GC to begin with – that plugin became a corner-stone for a number of BP projects over the past year √

@jeffcubed – thanks for the detailed info. We’ve had some of those duplicate items in many of the BP releases since 1.2 due to things being rearranged in the default theme (or in this case the theme compat) between versions.

If an item was originally a line of code in the theme and it was moved to BP core and output via an existing hook then it’s currently in the GC template and being output via the hook. All custom themes have to adjust those things on BP updates as necessary.

Well thx Ron – that makes sense √

After a full Buddypress 1.7 RC comes out, I’ll dig a bit deeper to see if that duplication issue still remains when I’m using GC 1.2 w/ Agency. In the longer-run, I can see how GC might not 100% be required to integrate BP w/ Genesis (or any theme for that matter) – but there are still some GREAT parts of GC that I’m very attached to – particularly the ‘widget area before Buddypress’. Again, one can always define new widget areas, but GC just did that particular one so well!

-Jeff

Yep, BuddyPress 1.6.4 does not seem to have the “duplicate posting” issue that BuddyPress 1.7 beta-1 has.

I’ve update the development version with items 1 & 3 from @jeffacubed above. I couldn’t reproduce the second item so either it is fixed or someone will have to provide me with instructions on how to reproduce.

https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/plugin/genesis-connect-for-buddypress.zip

Right on Ron + thx √

I’m planning to rollout some multisite-testing w/ BP 1.7 RC 1 this week using your dev-version of Genesis Connect (linked above). In doing so, I’ll take a closer look to verify that item #2 (Public Message & Private Message buttons are in duplicate) is still reproduce-able.

-Jeff

I’ve got GC 1.2.1 running on BP 1.8.1 on Genesis 2.0.1 with Minimum Pro and I’m seeing the duplicates (cancel, public private).

Despite this and the fact GC is no longer required, there appear to be some advantages to having it active. For one, it gives you the ability to manage Genesis page layouts for member pages and by extension profiles pages (turning to full width for example).

Generally speaking it also seems to remove other issues around styling (avatar size, etc.) in the profile pages. I think I’ll keep it active and work around the style issues but I’d like to see a solution to the duplicates if anyone else has a solution.

@scotm – if you had templates from an earlier version of GC in your child theme you need to update them to use the ones included in GC 1.2.1.

I’m testing BuddyPress 1.8.1 with WordPress 1.6.1 using version 1.2.1 of the plugin. It is my experience that the plugin breaks the BuddyPress function that allows users to edit their own profile field visibilities. The edit link that normally appears immediately below each field on the user’s profile edit page does not appear when the plugin is activated.

Are you near to a solution for this? Alternatively, can you point to the area in the code for the plugin where I might try to hack my own solution?

Thank you.

What version of BP did you originally install?

If you installed GenesisConnect prior to version 1.2.1, did you customize some of your BP templates by copying them to your child theme?

can you point to the area in the code for the plugin where I might try to hack my own solution?

You can completely customize the GenesisConnect templates by copying them to your child theme. The templates are located in genesis-connect/templates. When you copy them keep the folder structure below the templates folder.

There is a folder for each module (activity, groups, etc.). For a single item (ex. single member) there is a single folder under the module folder.

Thanks for the reply!

This is a brand new installation so my original BP was 1.8.1. Forgot to mention that I am also using the StudioPress Minimum Pro theme.

While I was waiting, and per your reply to “What does this plugin do specifically?”, I went ahead and customized the CSS for BuddyPress without the GenesisConnect plugin. Everything seems to be working now. So I guess if it’s not broken I won’t fix it ;-).

Thanks again!