- Level: EnlightenedPosts: 134
Hi Brajesh,
I’m looking for a way to create «Group Blogs». Something more straightforward than “Blog Categories for Groups”. Group admins or mods should be able to maintain a communication channel inside a group but separated from group activity (separate tab called “Blog” or “News”) to do announcements, to let group members know what’s going on etc.
The UI for group admins could be based on “what’s new” to have no need for something like the “front end post plugin”. Other words: group admins would see a “what’s new” form under that News tab, members not. Members would only be able to read, to see posts the admin did.
Another UI idea could be to show something like #whats-new-post-in (the popup in global activity) for group admin where they choose to post in group activity (normal behavior) or in “News”.
Best wishes,
Hans - (BuddyDev Team)Posts: 24190
Hi Hans,
Thank you for the topic.
What you are saying makes great sense to me if we try to build a microblog/news section type of thing for the groups.Let us decide the specification and we can get this quickly.
1. There is no categories/no tags nothing. Just a simple post box that posts to the section
2. Only admin should be able to post or someone else should be too?
3. Do we have a concept of draft/pending and approval for the posts or not?
4. Do we create activity when a post is published?
5. These posts does not appear in normal blog section of the site?
6. Please suggest a name for the plugin 🙂Please do let me know these and anything else which I might have overlooked and we will get it ready quickly 🙂
- Level: EnlightenedPosts: 134
Hi Brajesh,
Thanks for your fast reply.1. Correct. No categories/no tags. Re the post box: perfect would be to clone “what’s new”, if possible incl the upload button I’m using to include an image or pdf (you know that I’m using rtmedia, but any upload add-on like MediaPress should show up). That way it would be possible to introduce e.g. a new teacher, to show a new class room, to attach a pdf with information etc. – and apart from that the simple textarea provided by BuddyPress.
2. Yes, the group admin. I’m not sure if the group moderator should also be able… If he’s/she’s able what could be the way for the group admin to do a configuration like “group mod is able to post into microblog”? But group members are definitely not able to post.
3. No draft/pending or something like that. Just the way to post BP users know while using “what’s new”…
4. Yes, it’s important to create activity – for public groups in global activity, for private and hidden groups only in group activity. Email subscription should be possilbe. And if there is also a activity filter for these posts, then it’s perfect…
5. No, the posts don’t appear in the WP blog section, they belong to the group and honor group privacy. They look like what’s-new-posts. There is no way to format.
6. Plugin name could be “BuddyPress MicroBlog”. Name of the tab could also be “MicroBlog”. If there is any config UI e.g. to give rights to mods then there could also be a field to customize the tab name (“News” instead of MicroBlog…).Thanks,
Hans - (BuddyDev Team)Posts: 24190
Hi Hans,
I thought a little more about it. There can be two strategies to implement it1. Use activity internally to create the section. Define a new type of activity for this. It will give us all the functionalities of the activity and we can differentiate it from the normal activity.
That will also help us to use any media uploader as most support activity.2. Use custom post type, use the post type for this section and create activities when the post is created. invest some time in allowing uploads etc.
Do you see any issue with the first approach in using activity?
- Level: EnlightenedPosts: 134
Hi Brajesh,
The first approach is what I was thinking about when I wrote «another UI idea could be to show something like #whats-new-post-in (the popup in global activity) for group admin where they choose to post in group activity (normal behavior) or in “News”» in the beginning. I agree with you, while using the activity logic/structure it should be easier to handle…Only group admins (eventually mods) would see the popup (select) to switch between Group Activity and MicroBlog. Posting incl upload would happen as usual in group activity. If “MicroBlog” is chosen as “channel” the post would appear in that separate section. What would show up in normal group activity? Kind of excerpt?…
With that popup (similar to the one containing “My profile” as default in global activity) the UI should also integrate with any theme…
Re configuration: perfect would be to have settings in Group Admin subnav with three things: 1. turn MicroBlog on/off for the group, 2. if MicroBlog is turned on, allow group mods to post or not, 3. text field to give the tab a name
- (BuddyDev Team)Posts: 24190
Hi Hans,
yes, your post was the reason I thought about using activity 🙂Let get this done next week 🙂
- Level: EnlightenedPosts: 134
Hi Brajesh,
I think, this MicroBlog plugin will be an important add-on for a lot of BP communities. Some were asking for something like a group home page, but I would say a dynamic section is definitely more attractive! - (BuddyDev Team)Posts: 24190
Hi Hans,
Just bumping this topic to make sure that we keep an eye over it and get the plugin completed this week 🙂 - Level: EnlightenedPosts: 134
Hi Brajesh,
Seems we have to bump again… 😉
Thanks, Hans - Level: EnlightenedPosts: 134
Hi Brajesh,
Is there any progress on this project?
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