Before I get going with this quick ‘how to’ on integration between Buddypress and Thesis Theme, let me throw a few caveats out there. First of all, this isn’t an ‘all in one’ solution – you’ll have to grab some css files from either the default Buddypress theme or a custom Buddypress theme you manage to track down. Your site might look a bit ugly, but you’ll have it cleaned up and looking lovely in no time at all. I promise.
Second – at this point i’ve not managed to figure out how to get <title> and meta description tags working on Buddypress pages after the integration, but my hunch is that Seo For Buddypress might work. I just thought i’d get this tutorial up quickly because I’m sure many other developers have been banging their heads off their desks for days to get a Thesis / Buddypress integration up and running – I know I have! Here goes…
1. Obviously, have Buddypress and Thesis installed. I’ve got the latest version of both up and running for this tutorial (1.2.5 and 1.7 respectively).
2. Download the excellent Buddypress Template Pack from the WordPress plugin repository. Unpack it, install it, then follow the steps to set it up. In case you’re lost, you’ll find a new link under your ‘Appearance‘ tab called ‘BP Compatibility‘. You’ll be able to follow the setup steps here – just remember to have the folder of your theme writable before you begin. The plugin will automatically write all the necessary Buddypress template files to your active theme directory.
3. This is the fun part – the really, really fun part. Not. You’ll need to replace
get_header ()
and
get_footer()
in each of the Buddypress template files you need to edit. I’ve attached sample code for the ‘activity’ index.php template for you to get an idea what to change.
There you go – you should be sort of up and running and have an idea of what to change in your Buddypress files to get it all up and running.
Hack and enjoy!
Few extra things:
- Thanks to ‘danny’ over at the Thesis Theme forums for pointing me in the right direction (click here and log in to read the post – you’ll only get in if you’re a Thesis Theme member).
- I’m on WordPress 3.0 – if this doesn’t come good for you in a different version of WordPress, please don’t beat me up.
- I nicked the image for this post from the Buddypress website – I was in a rush, so didn’t have time to come up with a better image for it!