and the Future of WordPress Plugins
by Mark Jaquith
markjaquith.com
coveredwebservices.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 • Groups
Profiles
• Wire
• Private
Messaging • Activity Streams
• Friends • Forums
• Blogs • 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 Setup
For 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 Setup
Enable 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
Saturday, September 26, 2009

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 Menus
bp_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'
));
Saturday, September 26, 2009

Handlers
function handler_function() {
// Logic here
bp_core_load_template( 'item-name/index' );
// Loads item-name/index.php
}
Saturday, September 26, 2009

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
Saturday, September 26, 2009

Theme Architecture
• No more dual themes
• BP themes are WP child
themes
Saturday, September 26, 2009

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