[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress Trac] #6026: Single items for the Blogs component. (was: And if the Blogs component had Single items?)

[buddypress-trac]

#6026: Single items for the Blogs component.
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 Reporter:  imath                   |       Owner:  imath
     Type:  enhancement             |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal                  |   Milestone:  2.7
Component:  Blogs                   |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  dev-feedback has-patch  |
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Description changed by imath:

Old description:

> That's the question that came to my mind reading DJPaul's notes about
> your discussions at [http://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/at-wcsf-
> some-attendees-of/ WCSF14]. Here’s the points about the Blogs component :
>
> 1. We like the existing integration into user profile (blogs you’re part
> of).
> 2. We should add integration into groups (aka the groupblog plugin).
> 3. Discoverability of blogs is hard to do because of limited info from
> WP, and of likelihood of integration of external tools for sites that try
> to do this (e.g. elasticsearch).
> 4. Rename component away from “site tracking”.
> 5. Directory:
>  a. add blavatar. (avatars for blogs)
>  b. there are some minor improvements/tweaks we can make to the template.
>  c. add a “subscribe to blog” button and show it perhaps in a user’s
> activity stream, or on a new profile tab.
>
> So unlike a previous ticket about "Avatar attachments" where i
> misunderstood the notes, this time i haven't built a patch but an
> experimental plugin :)
>
> My goal was to explore if it could be interesting to add single items to
> the Blogs component. How would it look like? Behave? What could be the
> features ?
>
> The "fear" that led me into the plugin direction was the second point of
> the list where DJPaul is talking of the Groupblog plugin integration. Is
> it a way to have Groups to manage the different other blogs features
> listed ? If so, then simply set this ticket as invalid :)
>
> The [https://github.com/imath/bp-blogs-extended BP Blogs Extended] plugin
> i wrote this last few days is suggesting an (or improving the) answer on
> points : 1., 3., 5.a., 5.c. and building it, it gave birth to questions
> or potential improvements about some BuddyPress areas such as the use of
> {{{bp_nav}}} and {{{bp_options_nav}}}
>
> ==== Home of the Blogs single item ====
>
> For this kind of single item, in order to improve the “Discoverability of
> blogs”, i think it’s really interesting to rely on the subsite widgets.
> So the plugin includes by default a front.php template, but it’s not
> loading like it’s the case for the Groups component. It’s loading only if
> at least one widget is added into a specific sidebar widgets (created by
> the plugin) from the subsite widgets Administration.
>
> [[Image(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5602/15819415871_c07377ef91_z.jpg)]]
> https://flic.kr/p/q6UDcv
>
> The widgets approach can be interesting to give the member visiting this
> “Site profile” page a “taste” of what he will find in the Site. Here’s a
> screen shot as an example, where i’ve added 1 text widget and 3 other
> widgets (''latest forum topics*'', latest posts, recent comments)
>
> [[Image(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8534/15201865713_77bf67d3c0_z.jpg)]]
> https://flic.kr/p/pakx3Z
>
> ''*for plugin’s generated widgets it requires the plugin to be network
> activated or activated on the subsite and on the root site''
>
> ==== Type of Sites ? ====
>
> BuddyPress is hiding from the sites directory the blogs having a
> “blog_public” option not set to 1 (discourage search engines). So i’ve
> defined a first type “Hidden”. Hidden are only accessible to their
> members and it’s not possible to subscribe to these types of sites.
>
> Then, i’ve defined a second type “Lock”, where subscriptions are not
> possible, but members of the community can discover the content of the
> blogs single item.
>
> Then the last type is “Open”, subscriptions are possible.
>
> ==== What to do in these single items ? ====
>
> Apart from discovering the home page, eventually have the curiosity to
> see who are members of the site using the Members tab, People can view
> the Site’s activity (Posts, Comments... tracked by the Blogs component)
> and if the Administrator of the blog defined from the Manage tab of his
> single item a specific setting, members can publish “Site Updates” and
> react to them using the activity features. Else, the administrator can be
> the only one to publish Site’s updates. @mention suggestions will only
> look into the Blogs single item members.
>
> [[Image(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7496/15201865703_e622c48310_z.jpg)]]
> https://flic.kr/p/pakx3P
>
> BTW, the plugin is modifying the way BuddyPress is tracking “hidden”
> site’s posts. If a site is “hidden” (discourage search engines)
> activities will be generated using the “hide_sitewide” mode. Members will
> be able to see them from the Site’s single item or from the Sites tab of
> the Activity Directory.
>
> ==== My favorite part : settings (Manage tab of the single item) ====
> A site administrator can define some WordPress properties
> (name/description) as they are in the single item’s header.
> He can :
> - set his preferences about subscriptions and Site Updates.
> - edit the (discourage search engines) setting.
> - And if you are using the WP Debug mode, you’ll see that i’ve explored a
> way to allow these administrators to define what post types to track for
> their blog. This list of post types could be stored as
> bp_blogmetas…(#5669 and #3460)
>
> [[Image(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7493/15636125477_c980b28004_b.jpg)]]
> https://flic.kr/p/pPHemi
>
> ==== Blavatar (#192) ====
> The second manage tab is to set the Site’s avatar, the same way it’s
> possible for a user or a group.
>
> [[Image(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8408/15797638686_0b0c7a8716_z.jpg)]]
> https://flic.kr/p/q4Z2AN
>
> PS: I was a bit annoyed by #5999 so i’ve changed the posted var to
> ‘w_crop’... to avoid the notices.
>
> Again, maybe like in the “avatar attachments” ticket, i’m completely
> wrong about this and you will decide to not rely on a single item for the
> new Blogs features you’ve discussed of at WCSF14, but it was fun to build
> this plugin and i have some thoughts to share with you.
>
> 1. {{{bp_nav}}} / {{{bp_options_nav}}} should be restricted to Members
> component navigation. In the plugin, to avoid slugs collisions (#5103),
> i’ve copy pasted these two navs and tried to init some “container”
> component nav (groups,blogs?).. See the navbar.php file of the plugin.
> 2. Groups custom front feature should be improved (not by using widgets),
> but by avoiding disabling the activity tabs if a group has a custom
> front.
> 3. Point 1 of WCSF14  notes : “Blogs you’re a part of”. Actually, so far
> it’s “Blogs you’re an ~~admin~~ {{{bp_blogs_get_allowed_roles()}}} of”
> The plugin is suggesting a way to really have “you’re a part of”. But i
> guess it's easier to filter {{{bp_blogs_get_allowed_roles()}}} to also
> include subscribers.
> 4. The {{{bp_get_blog_avatar}}} filter is happening once the admin’s
> avatar was fetched, it could be interesting to have a
> {{{bp_pre_get_blog_avatar}}} before this avatar is fetched to allow
> plugins such as the one i’ve described in this ticket to fetch the
> blavatar and directly returns it.
> 5. Custom updates, the filter could be improved : #6021
> 6. BP_Blogs_Blog class could also be improved, for the plugin’s need i
> was forced to filter {{{bp_current_user_can}}} to achieve my goal. That’s
> the reason why i’m only doing my filters if WP_DEBUG is true. Without
> this filter a member of an hidden blog cannot access to his single item
> :(
>
> This is it, i’d be happy to work on a patch to bring this “Blogs single
> item” into core if you think it’s interesting, else i really like the
> plugin !
>
> If you want to test it : https://github.com/imath/bp-blogs-extended
> (define WP_DEBUG to true to see all features)
>
> PS: BP Theme compat only.

New description:

 New areas to improve sites discoverability/Blogs component features.

 - Each sites of the network will get a new single area just like Members
 and Groups.
 - Members of the community will be able to subscribe to sites and follow
 their activities from their profile page.
 - Site Admins will be able to access to some BuddyPress specific settings
 for their sites (Visibility, subscriptions, custom post types tracked,
 avatars, cover images) and manage their subscribers.
 - in a future release, we could provide an API to add modules to this area
 to publish content for the sites for instance etc..

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6026#comment:36>
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