Links seems to have stopped working with Buddypress 2.2

Update – I have finally able to create a link. But ….
From the top nav or admin bar if you click Links > Create
You reach this page “https://www.yourwordpresssite/members/admin/links/create/” Here you do not get the form but get “Create” “Start over”

Now again you click on this “Create” to reach “https://www.yourwordpresssite/wpp/user-links/create/”
Here you get the form but if not all fields are filled up (too many fields) by overlooking or neglecting the user has to start all over again. It makes things complex imho. Please compare this with Buddypress Activity Plus or Facebook link posting. Many users will just not know they can post links if the option is not presented with or within the top text box in the activity page.

The other problem is that the page thumbnail becomes round in some or ??all themes – testing with Mercury (child theme of p2)

Another problem is thumbnails are not getting posted to the Buddypress activity stream.

So 3 issues
– Simpler input method merged with activity text box
– web page thumbnails should remain rectangular irrespective of theme
– buddypress river should show webpage thumbnails

I am testing with WP 4.1 and BP 2.2.1 – Network install with non-subdomains.

Thanks a lot for this nice plugin and you prompt helps.

Testing more ……….. :

Comments made on the entry containing the link in the Activiy stream do not show up in the Links page
This means we cannot comment to an item both from the stream and the actual page – same about favouriting. Please see Buddypics – you cannot comment and favorite both ways – when BP favorit is there voting becomes redundant imho

Thanks again.

Yeah this test update isnt exactly working, I can visit already submitted links and create new ones but the widgets no longer work.

Thanks for all of the feedback guys.

This plugin was originally developed when the only theme that worked was the default BP theme, and before custom post types were even on the roadmap. Since then quite a bit has changed, and it has admittedly been difficult to keep up since this is arguably one of the most deeply integrated BP plugins.

It needs a significant overhaul to become *mostly* compatible with *any* theme that supports BP. I have only been testing it against the bundled WordPress themes for this hotfix because I know they work well with BP. So the baseline I am trying to reach short term is bundled WP theme support, and then go from there. It’s not feasible for me to test it against a lot of community contributed themes right now, but long term I want to support as many as reasonably possible.

Great, anxiously waiting for this release, too!

@mrmaz

What are the theme issues? It seems okay with all themes.
The problem is : no simpler input, for example like buddypress activity plus

The other problems are commenting and favoriting are not 2-way. Imho, these are not theme issues ? Or are they??

Thanks for your time and help.

I wasn’t identifying anything specific, it was more of a public service announcement. If something is different from one theme to the next, it’s likely a theme compatibility issue.

You can make feature requests here:
https://presscrew.freshdesk.com/support/home

Please create a separate issue for each feature. I just got the new support site rolling, so the knowledge base is empty.

mrmaz – I ran into this issue back in BP 1.7 for BP Follow.

I dunno if this will help you, but check out this codex article I wrote to see what I did then:
https://codex.buddypress.org/plugindev/upgrading-older-plugins-that-bundle-custom-templates-for-bp-1-7/

You might be interested in this pull request I sent the BP-Album team awhile ago that uses this approach:
https://github.com/BP-Media/bp-album/pull/4

I believe it is similar to what you’re doing with BP Links.

It keeps backward compatibility with the old bp-default way of loading full page templates, while using the new theme compatibility template parts for those not using bp-default.

Your plugin is probably more complicated due to having a directory page, but hope that helps somewhat.

Feel free to ping me on GitHub for questions.

Does the pro version solve compatibility issues, or are you working through that as well? Any idea what type of time frame for production level launch?

Thanks!

Any update on this or an eta? Really looking forward to using the pro version, but I’m hesitant to purchase because it’s unclear when the issues ate going to be resolved. Thanks.

I hope that there will be an update on this, because I would love to use this on my community. It really has the features that I am looking for.

Unfortunately, no news coming :((
It’s a pity because the plugin what simple and useful, but I’ll now have to consider switching since I do need a solution.

I apologize this is taking so long. To be honest it’s not a top priority because the pro version always had very low sales. I have never really profited from this plugin. I do plan to release updates asap, though.

The best way you can help is to buy a copy of the pro version when the next version comes out. I am also considering switching to a membership model were you get access to all plugin updates for a reasonably quarterly fee to see if that improves investment into the code.

OK, we can certainly understand that!

However, whatever route you choose regarding your (great) Buddy Links plugin, I think you have to make the choice now. Either you retire it or you make it working, otherwise you would certainly run the risk to discourage everybody to come to any of your solutions.

My two cents, since I am more of a professional business developer than of a code developer: if each of your plugins do not have enough traction, it may be possible that the unitary value is not high enough but that the two combined, at an appropriate price point, would hit a market. Then packaging the two as you consider it would make sense, you would just have to understand what the good price point is.

For example, if each of your 2 plugins is individually priced $49 and get a total of N cumulative customers, it may be very possible that pricing the two packaged for the very same $49 would give you much more than N, possibly 2*N or 5*N. Or, that the two packaged at $29 would lead to 10*N or 20*N customers, thus ending up to a much more profitable business. It is called price elasticity, and the value/price ratio is something quite magic sometimes. You may want to run interviews and surveys to consolidate this before officially switching your model.

Another advice: I wasn’t even aware they was a pro version of Buddy Links. It is probably not clearly enough advertised on the WP plugin pages.

Anyway, in either case, I think your very first move should probably be to fix your plugin (it seems there was a valuable tip from @r-a-y to this end) or to choose to retire it. Then only you could try to start improving your business model on working solutions. (My personal advice would be to fix BP Links which I think does have value and fulfills a need.)

Hope this may help, as least as much as your plugin helps me! I personally do not use BP Groups right now so I would not need the Pro version, but anyway I could consider buying a _working_ pro version to help further.

Cheers,
Yves.

@yves

Thanks for the feedback. The main problem is that other projects of mine did gain more traction (for instance my involvement with CBOX) so they got more attention merely by natural selection.

I agree that it needs to be fixed. Personally I love the plugin and the free usage of it is very widespread, and I want to keep it going.

One more thing to consider is that I have tried many times to get other developers on board to share the workload, but they are all busy with their own stuff, lol.