BuddyPress integration

Hi,

Any updates on how to install buddypress to work with Amember?

I already have a website with subscribers and would like to extend this website with buddypress social integration. Is this recommended with Amember?

thank you

Good question.

This is something that I have looked into. I too would like to launch a BuddyPress-powered site and use aMember. As I see it there are 2 "challenges".

BuddyPress (BP) Registration
By default BP handles all registrations on a special Registration Page. This is mainly due to extended profiles which help make the site more social. They try to collect more information during the registration process.

If you turn off site registration all references to the BP registration page goes away (so far so good). You can then use aMember to register new users and collect real name, user name, password, and email. All this information gets pushed back into the WordPress (WP) installation (so far so good). This means the user would have to go to their BP profile page after logging into WP to complete their profile. All this extra profile info in WP isn't pushed back to aMember (but not a problem).

The problem is that BP provides several ways for the user to change their password and email on the WP side. This does not push back to aMember and things break.

The solutions I see are:

1. Best: The aMember integration is developed to the point that it will allow changes in WP to sync back to aMember. (Note: all the extended profile fields do not need to sync, mainly just password and email). Then if users change this info on the WP side all is still OK.
2. Hack: Or, You would have to hack some of the BP files to keep users from changing their password/email from within BP and tell them how to change this info on an aMember page. (This isn't a route I want to take - plus the UI gets pretty janky when they have to go to two places to edit similar information.)

Controlling Access to Groups
BP adds the groups feature (and a few more bells & whistles) to a standard WP installation. At present aMember does not provide a way to control access to a group. The only software I have tested that does is S2Member. They do it by controlling access to a URI (fancy name for a character string from within a URL). This works since each group has a unique URL. Note that a couple of other plugins say they do, but I have not tested them.

The solutions I see are:

1. Best: The aMember intregration is developed to the point that it will protect access to a group. I would like to see it reference a group # instead of a URI, but as long as it works, it works.
2. Manual: You could sell access to a group and manually add them to a private or hidden group. Version 1.7 (due out in a couple of months) will allow user to group assignments from the admin page (but it would still be manual)

You need to evaluate how you plan on using groups. At first I really wanted to use groups to deliver premium content but the more I worked with BP I started looking at groups differently. Groups, by default, only support a group forum and inter group messaging. Many sites look at groups as a "sticky" feature (help keep people on the site) and offer it as a freebie. They you sell content on pages/posts on the standard WP part (which aMember handles nicely).

Skippy,
I don't think of it as an inconsistency or bug. Offering a user a way to change their password/email from the WP front end is normally a good thing. With all the WP membership plugins, this is usually not an issue.

The issue is we are wanting to control certain profile fields from outside WP. This was always an issue with the WP/aMember integration but in most WP installs they had to go to the backend to change this info so we could just lock em out of the backend. With BP, it is embedded into at least 2 front end menus (see attached).

I could see if the BP gang is interested in writing some code to kill off front-end access to the things we want to preserve in aMember, but in the end it is not the slickest user experience. The user would be looking in the BP profile setting page and not see these settings that are changed on an aMember page.

I am not a coder, so I don't have a clue how big of a deal it is, but if aMember could push changes made in WP back to aMember, it would be a wonderful thing.

Example:

1. Initially register with aMember
2. Login and complete extended profile fields in BP
3. If any information stored in aMember is changed in WP it gets changed in aMember.

Later...

I have a post on BuddyPress.org about blocking access to the BuddyPress settings page. I am also going to contact "Modemlooper" who wrote BuddyPress Extend Settings and seems to have an expertise in this area.

Thanks to the power of Twitter and Paul Gibbs, one of the four core BuddyPress (BP) developers, we have a simple solution. Simply turn off the "Account Settings" competent in the BP settings.

So, to summarize how to use aMember with a WordPress (WP) site using the BP plugin:

1. Do not turn on the Account Settings competent during the BP installation (this can actually be turned off at any time). Doing this turns off any access to a user's password and email settings from the WP frontend.
2. Uncheck "Any one can register" on the WP Settings -> General page. This removes "Register" from the top admin bar. Also do not add the BP "Register" page to a menu. All registration will be via the aMember registraiton page.
3. After registration you should encourage the new user to access their profile page and complete it. This would normally happen during the standard BP registration which is not used in this intregration. You could handle this via a welcome email sent at aMember registration and/or with a BP plugin such as Welcome Pack.
4. On the WP site, provide a way to change their password and email from within aMember. This is best done with the aMember login widget.
5. Group Access Control - With this integration you can still control access to pages/posts/categories like before but there is no access control for groups. You can set up a product to sell membership to a hidden group and then add/remove them manually as the admin. I will contact Alex and see it they are willing to add this one feature to make aMember fully compatible with BuddyPress.

Thank!

I will give it a try and post feedbacks!

Would you install it on the same wordpress install? there is a couple of posts about using 2 wordpress installations connected to the same amember installation. Is it the way to do?

thank you

Sure. BuddyPress is a WordPress plugin that adds social networking features to a standard WP install. Just install the plugin on your existing WP site.

BuddyPress Update

Alexander has agreed to implement BuddyPress group control over the next couple of weeks. I will test and when it is ready for prime time provide documentation on this new feature in the WordPress section of the Member Documentation Wiki.

Any news/updates on the BuddyPress integration ?

Update: Buddypress is now fully integrated to me website and it'S working realy fine!

Thank you gswaim for your support!!

Cool. I actually haven't tried it yet. I will take a look this week. aMember is really coming on strong with this integration. This is one of the few that has native BuddyPress support.

Hi Guys. I am designing my first website. It is for an association and before I started I did a bit of research that pointed to WordPress, Buddypress and aMember being a good combination. I got WordPress up and running, installed the Buddypress plugin and that seems to work ok. But with aMember overlayed on top, the aMember signup does not result in the BuddyPress member/user being created. The usual WP user is created just fine but this is not passed on to BP. I think that I have followed the advice given by gswaim above. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

@gswaim - It is this bit that does not seem to be happening
'If you turn off site registration all references to the BP registration page goes away (so far so good). You can then use aMember to register new users and collect real name, user name, password, and email. All this information gets pushed back into the WordPress (WP) installation (so far so good).'

Ironically I just got a chance to test the new BuddyPress feature created by Alexander tonight. I have some how dorked up my test site and it is getting late. It will likely be tomorrow before I can shake this down and provide detailed documentation on this feature. The information I provided above is based on preliminary testing that was used to plan the BuddyPress feature.

A couple of things. BuddyPress is a WordPress plugin that adds a suite of features on top of WordPress. There aren't any BuddyPress users. They are WordPress users that have additional features that are supported by BuddyPress. Certain features are available globally (outside of groups) and cetain features avaialble within a group.

All registration (signups) and login/logouts need to be handled on the aMember side. You should disable registrations in the WordPress settings and do not show the BuddyPress registration page to users. Provide an easy way for visitors/users to signup & login within aMember. You can use the aMember widget of provide links to the aMember pages.

BuddyPress uses an extended profile which is presented to new members during the BuddyPress registration. So you need to encourage them to complete their profile since the aMember solution bypasses the extended profile (only capture info such as name. email, password) in aMember. Capture the social info inside of BuddyPress. You can use the Achievements for BuddyPress plugin to send users to the BuddyPress profile page at their first login.

Lastly uncheck the "Settings" module in BuddyPress to keep users from changing their email and password from within BuddyPress.

I will try to test this pretty heavily tomorrow and write up some decent documentation for the Wiki, so hang tight

I got test site squared away and took another look at this. I too am not seeing protection for a group. I set up protection on a public group and a user without a membership to the group still was shown a "Join Group" link and was able to join.

I documented this via a screencast and submitted a ticket.

Hi gswaim - firstly thanks for looking into this, I am starting to feel a bit lost with it. I don't fully understand the aMember Buddypress groups side of things - but was not too worried about that as I assume that I can always manually control access to the group home page. It is the lack of sync between the amember signup and the creation of WP user / BuddyPress member that really bothers me. I guess that without it it will not be possible to run Buddy press because Amember requires the 'anyone can register' button to be unclicked and BuddyPress requires it to be clicked. I'm assuming that this is what you mean by disabling registrations in WP?
I understand about BP members actually being WP users with extra info associated. I am using the aMember signup widget and I will hide the BP register page before the website goes live. I have also removed the settings module in BP. No joy. Just stating my assumptions here to make sure that I am on the 'page'. Thanks again. Gareth Not sure how useful it is but this is my website forestschoolassociation.org