Creating an online social network using WordPress and BuddyPress

CREATING AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK USING WORDPRESS & BUDDYPRESS
Bronson Quick
sennza | (07) 3040-1545 | bronson@sennza.com.au | http://www.sennza.com.au/ | Twitter: @sennza

OVERVIEW
Before the redesign
Goals
Why BuddyPress?
Initial scope meeting
Proposal and considerations
Plugins
Prototyping
Project Management
Version Control
Testing
Problems 
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BEFORE THE REDESIGN
Existing WordPress site based on a premium WordPress theme
Modifications and design updates by Brett Sirianni (Digital Design Coordinator)
Doesn’t have to comply with CUE standards as it’s a .org.au
Limited user engagement and interaction
The site didn’t reflect what happens inside the space!
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OUR PROCESS
Let’s have a look at how we achieved this!
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GOALS
Online space to reflect physical space
Increase commenting
Encourage collaboration
Create long time learning
Digital footprint for Queensland
Embrace and contribute back to open source software
Work with the Queensland Government to implement a social network!
What an exciting and challenging project!
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WHY BUDDYPRESS?
BuddyPress: “Social networking in a box”
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INITIAL SCOPE MEETING
Demographic
Privacy
Reach
Moderation
Open source contribution
Let’s flesh that out a bit more!
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PROPOSAL & CONSIDERATIONS
Functional overview
Wireframes
Server requirements
Plugins
Plugin extensibility, security & performance
Testing – UAT & Unit testing
Moderation
Privacy
Open source community impact
Queensland Digital Footprint...
18 pages, 72 hours and 9 coffees later!
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PLUGINS
BuddyPress
BuddyPress Like
BuddyPress Mobile
BuddyPress Tweet Button
Sidebar Login
BC oAuth
BP Xtra Signup
BuddyPress Live Notification
BuddyPress Moderation
BuddyPress reCAPTCHA
Featured Member Widget
Welcome Pack
W3 Total Cache
Plus one more....
No plugin is created equally! 
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BUDDYPRESS ACTIVITY PLUS!
Upload a photo (or multiple) directly from your computer to the activity stream
Embed a video from popular sites such as YouTube and Vimeo by copying the link
Embed a link to any site - the site title and description will automatically be pulled in
Embedding a link also allows you to choose a thumbnail image from a list of images on the site's homepage
Works perfectly with any theme based on the BuddyPress Default theme
To be developed externally
To be fully open source for EVERYONE to use! http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-activity-plus/
Bet you haven’t seen that happen in the Government before!
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PROTOTYPING
How many plugins clash?
What’s the server load like?
What WordPress version are they currently running?
Does the theme work on the latest version of WordPress?
Can I develop and child theme on it?
OMG what have I got us into?!?! 
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Basecamp for the win!
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VERSION CONTROL
This went from hard to easy with 1 developer!
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TESTING
Internal testing
Round 1 of bug squashing!
Internal testing
Internal testing
Soft launch – “beta”
Oh noes! I can have server problems 
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PROBLEMS
URL’s not encoding properly in existing usernames
No phpmyadmin access!
Didn’t get activate caching on their fast enough 
Object Caching 4903/5054 objects using disk
I was wearing a pink sombrero a.k.a cowboy coding http://www.bnj.com/cowboy-coding-pink-sombrero/
We have a dedicated staging site being provisioned!
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THE PLUG
WordCamp Gold Coast 2001 http://2011.goldcoast.wordcamp.org/
Held at Bond Uni
2 content streams – High Tech and Low Tech
Morning Tea and Lunch on both days!
A funky lanyard for the event so you cherish your wonderful memories of the weekend!
A chance to network with hundreds of Australian WordPress users, designers and developers…and even some attendees from overseas!
Normally $75 but for BWD it’s $60! - bit.ly/wpbwd Code: BWD
2 days worth of training for $60? Hook me up!
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THANKS
Matthew Fallon – Acting Executive Manager
Brett Sirianni – Digital Design Coordinator
The Edge Team for UAT testing!
Andy Peatling (@apeatling)
Paul Gibbs (@pgibbs)
Boone B Gorges (@boonebgorges)
All the people on BuddyPress.org & the WordPress community!
And thanks to you for your time!
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Creating an online social network using WordPress and BuddyPress

by Bronson Quick

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Creating an online social network using WordPress and BuddyPress Presentation Transcript