How does BuddyPress work with WordPress?

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BuddyPress is a WordPress plugin.  It makes WordPress members be able to post updates and mentions to other users — kind of like Twitter.

BuddyPress is installed just like any other WordPress plugin.  Search it in “WordPress dashboard -> Plugins -> Add New”.

After installation, by default you get the URLs …

http://www.example.com/members/

http://www.example.com/activity/

Members lists all the BuddyPress members.   Activity list member activity. These corresponds to WordPress pages that BuddyPress created for you in WordPress.  These pages are publicly visible (users do not have to be logged in to view).

If you want people to be able to automatically create their own member accounts, you have to checkmark “Anyone can register” in WordPress Dashboard -> Settings -> General” and set “New Default Role” to “Subscriber”.  Please do not set this to “Administrator”.

To give user a BuddyPress registration page, which requires an email link activation and hence an activation page as well, you have to create these two new pages in WordPress and then as admin in WordPress dashboard -> Settings -> BuddyPress -> Pages, set “Register” and “Activate” to those two newly created empty pages.

In order to view these two pages, you have to be logged out.  Otherwise, BuddyPress will just redirect you to homepage.

BuddyPress set of users and the WordPress set of users are the one and the same. The register and login of Buddy Press and the WordPress register and login at /wp-login.php are the same underneath.

So if an user shows up in the WordPress dashboard -> Users -> All Users, then they are Buddy Press members. Now if the user has never logged into WordPress (or BuddyPress same thing), the member will not show up in BuddyPress members listing at /members/

But as soon as the member logs in (either via WordPress /login.php or Buddy Press login widget on sidebar for example), the member will show up in the BuddyPress listing.

If an admin deletes a member from WordPress dashboard -> Users -> All Users, then it is gone from Buddy Press as well. If the Buddy Press member deletes himself/herself via BuddyPress -> Settings -> Delete Account, it will disappear from WordPress Users. Whether a Buddy Press member can delete own account is set by admin in WP Dashboard -> Settings -> Buddy Press in the “Settings” tab . By default, they can delete own account.

By default, Buddy Press members will get notifications when they are mention in updates using “@username” syntax and when someone replies to the member’s update. These can be set independently by the member in their “Settings -> Email”.

As admin, you can disable all BuddyPress notifications by going into WordPress Dashboard -> Settings -> BuddyPress -> Components” and uncheck BOTH “Notifications” AND “Activity Streams” components (which are enabled by default).

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