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.

Transcript

1. BuddyPress Tips: How we built chekmrk
2. Innovation happens by knowing what the rules are and then bending them or breaking them to do what we want. How we built chekmrk
3. 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
4. How we built chekmrk DATA: how do you get data about your business?
5. 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?)
6. Narrative is a story. “Our projects are on time and on budget!” How we built chekmrk
7. How we built chekmrk Data is something that is measurable, observable and repeatable. “It takes us 3 months to build a website.”
8. Method is the exact approach you took. “We use the Waterfall process.” How we built chekmrk
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. • 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
13. How we built chekmrk HISTORY: how we chose BuddyPress to build a project management application.
14. How we built chekmrk ProjectGroupie (2003 - 2009) Pre-BuddyPress - The first project management app we built
15. • 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
16. BuddyPress is a social networking plugin. Incredible sharing and data collection features. How we built chekmrk BuddyPress 1.0 (April 30, 2009)
17. • 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
18. How we built chekmrk ProjectGroupie was “project centric” We realized people contribute to projects. Projects don’t contribute to people.
19. How we built chekmrk chekmrk is people centric. chekmrk is a “virtual hallway” where people can share and contribute to others projects.
20. HOW BUDDYPRESS WORKS: How we built chekmrk
21. How we built chekmrk BuddyPress is just a plugin ( With Privileges )
22. How we built chekmrk This doesn’t look like WordPress! What we see when we first install BuddyPress
23. 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
24. • 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
25. How we built chekmrk chekmrk public facing site
26. How we built chekmrk chekmrk network dashboard
27. THE BREAKDOWN: How we get the data How we built chekmrk
28. How we built chekmrk Using WP functions and BP tags
29. How we built chekmrk WP, BP Loops & Filters
30. How we built chekmrk BP Group Loops
31. • 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
32. • WP.Tutsplus.com • BP-Tricks.com • Stackexchange.com • WPMU.org • StackOverflow.com • BuddyPress.org BuddyPress Resources How we built chekmrk
33. Thank you! • Slides at www.CrowdedSites.com • chekmrk invite signup www.chekmrk.com • For any questions feel free to contact me! • Wes@CrowdedSites.com How we built chekmrk