Archive for June 15th, 2008

BuddyPress Adds Social Networking to WPMU


In WordPress-related development news, mock-ups were release Thursday of BuddyPress, which is an impressive theme for WordPress Multi-User (WPMU) installations that adds a social networking layer to the existing functionality. This includes groups, direct messaging, friends, photo albums and of course a blogging component.

As the BuddyPress website explains:

“The idea of BuddyPress is to take a standard vanilla installation of WordPress MU and turn it into something that represents more of a community building tool, or niche social network.“

According to BuddyPress developer, Andy Peatling (”New BuddyPress Theme“):

“The theme has been designed so that colors and the logo can easily be changed. It has also been created to make use of every BuddyPress feature, theme designers can then cut and paste functionality they’d like in their own themes.

The theme will pass most of the admin area functionality through to the front end. However, all components can still be controlled within the admin area itself. This means simple BuddyPress compatible themes can be created, without having to create designs for each component.

There will be an option to set either the profile or the blog as the default screen for a user.”

I’ve been following these developments very closely and even installed a very early Alpha of the theme a few months ago. Unfortunately my time constraints have prevented close involvement with and evaluation of this project since then, so I haven’t managed to devote any hands-on testing of the development. Rest assured I will be taking the plunge as soon as I possible can.

Based on some of the comments on the post, I’m not the only one chomping at the bit for a play

Chris Pirillo indicated in the comments area of the post that “I’m still planning on deploying it on Lockergnome.com.”

Based on the mock-up screenshots, the functionality slated for inclusion in BuddyPress will make it a strong competitor for other open source projects like Drupal and ELGG, both of which are frequently used to establish the frameworks for online communities.

Furthermore given the fact it’s built upon the existing WordPress framework, use of the BuddyPress theme will offer users phenomenal depth and flexibility in functionality - not the least of which come from the myriad of available plugins.

There are 12 screenshots available on Peatling’s post, so be sure to take a look for a proper look.

References:

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

blogs, open source, social networks 2 Comments