BuddyDev

BuddyPress 1.5 is Out

The new major release of BuddyPress, which is codenamed "Lombardi" is out today.  It has been over an year since there were any major release and the new release is worth the wait.

The new release contains a lot of improvements and fixes. The main features at a glance will be:-

Main features:-

  • BuddyPress components are associated to pages, giving you the flexibility to choose your own url.
  • Basic Oembed support inbuilt
  • Streamlined API for developers(cool!)
  • Updated and Improved Bp default theme(with responsive layout, means It will support the various mobile devices)
  • Awesome Installation/upgrade wizard
  • and many more.

Let us look at the list of major changes.

Customizable URL:-

The earlier version of BuddyPress supported customizing slugs. You could use one of those BP_COMPONENT_SLUG to customize it. In BuddyPress 1.5, It is no more required(and mostly deprecated). You can change the urls to anything and any level deep from the WordPress Dashboard->Edit Page as shown below. So, Creating the social network as a sub section of wordpress has been made too easy.

Here is the Pages screen of my Fresh Install.

And you can change slug from the page edit screen

Or even Organize the Components in Hierarchical url like yoursite.com/social/members or so using the page attirbute.

So, what does it means to you ? It is one of the many changes which gives you a lot of flexibility. The only issue you will find is you will need to create a page and associate when using a custom component utilizing root page.

Oembed Support:

The credit goes to @r-a-y for getting this functionality in BP 1.5. yes, now you can post the media from any of the Oembed supported sites. Here is an example

Registration Page:-

No avatar Upload on The registration page. It is a welcome change as it has been causing a lot of troubles earlier.

Bp Default Theme:-

  • Responsive layout for mobile devices
  • Multiple widgetized sidebar( 1 sidebar and 4 in footer)
  • WordPress custom menu support
  • cooler activity stream
  • custom background

Installation/Upgrade Wizard:-

I best most of you have already seen it. Still here is a screenshot. Now you will have a nicelooking wizard to guide you step by step when you activate BuddyPress.

For Developers:-

If you are a developer, Bp 1.5 brings a lot of things for you. Specially look at the BP_Core_Component class which does all the  needed for your plugins. It has never been so easy to write new plugins.

You can look at the complete list of changes here

http://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-1-5/

What It means for Us at BuddyDev.

Since BuddyPress 1.5 is stable now, we feel it the right time to put new plugins. We will have many releases in the coming days. As of the older plugins, all of our plugins (except global forum and BP Chat) has been tested and is  compatible with BuddyPress 1.5. I will be updating the individual plugin pages with the new versions today. In the mean time you can download  the plugins which required update for Bp 1.5 from here.

We will be relasing an update of our themes(BP Nicey today, BP Mag/CB pro and Cosmic Buddy by the weekend).

Happy social networking and do not forget to thank the core team of BuddyPress here 🙂

12 Responses to BuddyPress 1.5 is Out

  • Thanks Brajesh. I am happy this update has finally arrived. I will be holding off my update until the bp-mag and cbprp themes are updated to be compatible. I appreciated all of your hard work with getting all of your plugins/code up to date too. Thanks again.

    • Thank you Joseph. Just updated the BP Mag a couple of days ago. That makes Cosmic Buddy pro work with BP 1.5

  • I second what @pisanojm said 🙂 Thank you Brajesh.

  • Hey, Brajesh… Just checking on the progress of your theme updates. Thanks.

    • Hi Joseph,
      Please download BP mag version 1.0.9.1 and replace the older bp-mag with this.
      You do not need to upgrade cosmic buddy, upgrading Bp mag will make it work with the new BuddyPress 1.5.

      Please do let me know how the update goes 🙂

  • What about the BP-Nicey update?

    • I have already updated it. It needs 2 more things(one is css hover issue and another is profile link on top). Will be pushing on github in a couple of hours and will post back here 🙂

      • When you say you have already updated it, do you mean on the website? The theme pages shows it was last updated in March and the github page shows the same version as the website (1.2.2).

        • I mean I had updated it. I had not pushed the local repo to github. Just pushed it and tagged version 1.2.3.
          Please check version 1.2.3, It should work with Bp 1.5. Let me if that works for you or not.

  • I've just updated to BP 1.5 and have re-installed GlobalForums 1.0.3 but my forums no longer show up at http://www.xxx.com/siteforums, how do I get my forums back?!