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BuddyPress Tips: How We Built chekmrk

BuddyPress Tips: How We Built chekmrk

BuddyPress is a plugin created by the makers of WordPress, Automattic. It's an incredible tool that is rarely understood and under appreciated. In this presentation I illustrate how we harnessed the power of BuddyPress to build a project management system called chekmrk. Our topics include, Why project management apps are important. How we chose BuddyPress to build chekmrk. Why chekmrk is different. How we used BuddyPress to build chekmrk.

Wes Chyrchel

June 03, 2012
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  1. Innovation happens by knowing what the rules are and then

    bending them or breaking them to do what we want. How we built chekmrk
  2. BuddyPress is a powerful tool. We discovered a unique way

    to use the software. We challenged ourselves to think about the software differently. How we built chekmrk
  3. At the heart of the issue is the failure to

    distinguish between narrative, data and method. How we built chekmrk - Greg Glassman, Founder, CrossFit (In response to the fitness industries unsubstantiated claims. Example: Why doesn’t the “AB Roller” work?)
  4. Narrative is a story. “Our projects are on time and

    on budget!” How we built chekmrk
  5. How we built chekmrk Data is something that is measurable,

    observable and repeatable. “It takes us 3 months to build a website.”
  6. Method is the exact approach you took. “We use the

    Waterfall process.” How we built chekmrk
  7. Narrative, Data and Method cannot exist independently. - Narrative is

    just guesses without data How we built chekmrk - Data needs narrative for direction - Method needs data to figure out which process to employ
  8. Businesses can use Narrative, Data and Method, to track projects

    better. - Narrative is the project scope How we built chekmrk - Data are the tasks for the project - Method is the software used to complete the tasks
  9. How are you keeping track? - A project management app

    is one of the few tools we have to measure the success of our business. How we built chekmrk
  10. • Keep project on track • Central place for communication

    • Accountability, if it's not in the project it doesn't exist. • Team member leaves, the next person can pick up quickly. • Anyone can go on vacation at any time. Why use a project management app? How we built chekmrk
  11. How we built chekmrk HISTORY: how we chose BuddyPress to

    build a project management application.
  12. How we built chekmrk ProjectGroupie (2003 - 2009) Pre-BuddyPress -

    The first project management app we built
  13. • People don't use most features • People relied on

    email updates a lot • People liked having a dashboard • Communication happened outside • Scaling the app was difficult. When we built ProjectGroupie, we learned a lot about how people actually manage projects. How we built chekmrk
  14. BuddyPress is a social networking plugin. Incredible sharing and data

    collection features. How we built chekmrk BuddyPress 1.0 (April 30, 2009)
  15. • Display data from all main areas, Activity, Forums, Members,

    Groups, Blogs, Group Members, Private Messages and Profile. • Share data across features, between users • Extensive plugin utilities • Custom profile build out • Keep data public or private Why BuddyPress? It’s about the sharing and data. How we built chekmrk
  16. How we built chekmrk ProjectGroupie was “project centric” We realized

    people contribute to projects. Projects don’t contribute to people.
  17. How we built chekmrk chekmrk is people centric. chekmrk is

    a “virtual hallway” where people can share and contribute to others projects.
  18. How we built chekmrk This doesn’t look like WordPress! What

    we see when we first install BuddyPress
  19. Essentially, we created a child theme of BuddyPress. Stripping everything

    away and only bringing back in what we wanted, where we wanted it. How we built chekmrk
  20. • Create a child theme • Build custom templates for

    pages • Add BuddyPress or WordPress Plugins • Use conditionals for public or network • Create multiple menus for better UI • All WP & BP tags and functions play well together How to customize BuddyPress How we built chekmrk
  21. • Create template pages for flexibility • Use template tags

    to customize display • Mix and Match WP & BP tags and functions • Really tweak CSS to make it yours • Experiment with BP Plugins BuddyPress Creative Power Tips How we built chekmrk
  22. Thank you! • Slides at www.CrowdedSites.com • chekmrk invite signup

    www.chekmrk.com • For any questions feel free to contact me! • [email protected] How we built chekmrk