BuddyPress is still in a pre-release state, and therefore the installation process has not been streamlined into a nice easy package. I decided to write this article to help anyone else who is trying to install BuddyPress for the first time. This article is very detailed so beginners and experts alike can setup BuddyPress!

Step 1 Install WordPress MU
I’m not going to write how to install WordPress MU. WPMU is as easy to install as regular WordPress and the installation guide can be found here:

http://trac.mu.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/README.txt

One thing to note - When you install WordPress MU, DO NOT edit/rename the wp-config-sample.php file. This is a common mistake made as that is what most people do to install WordPress. If you edit this file your WordPress MU site will display a blank page. WPMU will automatically rename/edit the wp-config-sample.php file during the setup process.

Step 2 Visit the BuddyPress Installation Page

Visit the official installation page located here: http://trac.buddypress.org/wiki/installing-buddypress

This is where you will find the current installation guide and required components for the BuddyPress install. You can read the installation guide here:

http://trac.buddypress.org/browser/trunk/INSTALL-README.txt

The installation guide helps, but there are a few issues it fails to address.

Step 3 Download the required BuddyPress components

Since BuddyPress is in pre-release, you will need to download the installation package from the BuddyPress trunk located here:

http://trac.buddypress.org/browser/trunk

Scroll down to the bottom and click the link titled Zip Archive. This will download the most recent release of the BuddyPress framework.

Step 4 Unzip the components

Extract all of the components from the ZIP file inside the trunk folder to a directory on your computer.

Step 5 Install the plugins and theme

Now comes the time to install the components to your WordPress MU installation. Upload all of the component directories and files (except for buddypress-theme) that you extracted during the previous step to the wp-content/mu-plugins folder. Your mu-plugins directory should look similar to the screenshot on the left.

Open the buddypress-theme folder. The two folders inside are buddypress-member and buddypress-home. Navigate to wp-content/themes/ directory on your WordPress MU installation. Delete the home folder from your server and upload the buddypress-member and buddypress-home directory from your computer to the themes folder.

Step 6 Setup BuddyPress in WordPress MU

Now log in to your WordPress MU admin dashboard. If you copied all of the plugin files and directories to the correct places you will now notice a few new admin sections under Site Admin called BuddyPress, Groups, and Profile Fields.

If you receive an error message stating “Registration has been disabled” you need to enable registration on your WordPress MU site. Navigate to Site Admin > Options and Enable Registrations where it says Allow new registrations

The final step is to enable the BuddyPress Home Theme on your site. Navigate to Site Admin > Themes and activate the BuddyPress Home Theme. Now navigate to Design > Themes and click the BuddyPress Home Theme and activate it for your specific site. Now you can view the new theme via your main site URL.

Congratulations! You have just setup a vanilla install of BuddyPress for WordPress MU!

Common BuddyPress Issues and Errors

Error Message: The image you upload must have dimensions of 450 x 450 pixels or larger.

When you upload a Profile Avatar you receive the above error message. BuddyPress is very picky about image sizes. You must upload an image larger than 450×450 for the upload to work. Also verify you have the proper write permissions on the directory wp-content/blogs.dir

Error Message: Please make sure your BuddyPress enabled theme includes a header.php and footer.php file

This error means you have not uploaded the theme folders and files properly to the wp-content/themes directory. You need to extract two folders inside buddypress-theme from the trunk zip, buddypress-member and buddypress-home. Both of these folders need to be placed in your wp-content/themes directory for the profile theme to work. Make sure you delete the old home directory that WPMU created first.

Error Message: Registration has been disabled

You need to enable registration on your WordPress MU site. Navigate to Site Admin > Options and Enable Registrations where it says Allow new registrations.

I hope this article helps anyone wanting to install BuddyPress. If I missed anything or you run in to errors not covered please post a comment. This post will make a nice repository for helping others along the way and we’ll try to help as best we can.

WebDevStudios.com is learning the ins and outs of BuddyPress so we can offer this service to our clients. If you are interested in launching a BuddyPress site, please contact us!

Thesis is a powerful WordPress Theme that gives users very flexible tools for customizing your WordPress powered website. With features including custom RSS feed link, customizable navigation menu, and search engine optimization right out of the box, it’s easy to see why Thesis is so popular among WordPress themes.

Thesis can be extended to execute any custom written code needed. With its large array of functions and hooks, you can create virtually any modification to Thesis and WordPress powered websites.

Not only is Thesis a solid WordPress theme, but they also keep their design updated. The most recent update, version 1.3.2, was released on November 13th, 2008. That’s just four days before this post.

Below is a list of very valuable Thesis references and hooks for website developers and designers.

Thesis References and Hooks

Thesis Support Forums
Thesis Hook Reference List
Default Hook Usage in Thesis

WordPress also has a wide range of functions and hooks that can also be used to create custom plugins and widgets.

WordPress Function and Hook Reference

WordPress Codex Function Reference
WordPress Hooks Database
WordPress Hooks Directory

WebDevStudios.com can help you extend your Thesis WordPress theme to handle any task or functionality. We also have very talented graphic designers who specialize in Thesis styling and theming using CSS.

OpenSocial has grown immensely in its first year of deployment. To date there have been over 315 million application installs across social networks including MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, Orkut, and Hi5. OpenSocial now has a total reach of 600 million users worldwide, with that number increasing daily.

Social Network Applications, including applications built on the OpenSocial framework, are growing at an extreme rate and have become a standard feature on all major social networks.

WebDevStudios.com can create any type of Social Networking Application you can dream up! We’ll work with you to help you understand the capacities available to your application and how you can utilize that data to help your application spread!

WordPress 2.7 introduces some major changes to the WordPress Administration Dashboard user interface and new functionality. The new admin menu will now be displayed in the left sidebar instead of the traditional way of displaying across the header.

The new WordPress release will also include some much anticipated functionality enhancements including Mass edit posts/pages, auto pagination of comments, quick edit from the manage screen, and the much requested sticky post for your home page.

Let WebDevStudios.com help you upgrade your WordPress powered website to WordPress 2.7 when the final version is released! We will also help you learn and take advantage of all the new features offered by version 2.7! Contact us today for more details.

Eric Martin carved this custom pumpkin with the WordPress logo! We loved it so much we wanted to share with you. You can view more of his awesome WordPress pumpkin carving on his blog.

Have a safe and spooky Halloween 2008!

WordPress version 2.6.3 fixes a vulnerability in the Snoopy library. The Snoopy library is used to fetch RSS feeds that are displayed on the WordPress dashboard.

WordPress does state this is a low risk vulnerability, but it is always a good idea to upgrade as new versions and patches are released. Once WordPress 2.6.3 has been installed in our development environment, we will begin to push out upgrades to all customers still on a current support contract.

This release does patch critical security vulnerabilities exposed in older versions and is a recommended upgrade.

Drupal is a powerful open source content management system and an excellent choice for E-Commerce Stores, Corporate and Intranet Websites, and Community Web Portals.

Once Drupal 5.11 and 6.5 have been installed in our testing environment, we will begin to push out updates to clients running on the Drupal framework.

Trendy Minds, an Indianapolis based design firm, worked with us to help create our new logo with a more modern web 2.0 style.  Trendy Minds did an excellent job encapsulating our vision for a new logo and identity.

Trendy Minds and WebDevStudios.com have worked together on various projects throughout the year. We highly recommend the amazing work that they do!

There are no major security vulnerabilities exposed in this release, but it does contain a number of important bug fixes which can be tracked on the WordPress MU development timeline.

WordPress MU is a powerful blogging platform with the ability to publish and maintain thousands of blogs with a single install of WordPress MU. A blog network is a great way to increase organic search engine traffic, expand customer loyalty, and build new reader relationships.

Contact us today to discuss how WebDevStudios can help you leverage the power of WordPress MU.

The T-Mobile G1 will launch commercially on October 22nd of this year. With the launch of the first Android powered cell phone, the market is widely open for custom developed Android applications. Android will feature an Android Market where developers can publish their custom built Android applications to be easily downloadable directly to any Android powered cell phone.

WebDevStudios has been hard at work researching and developing with the Android SDK and are able to create any type of custom Android application needed for your business or services.

Contact us today to get started on bringing your ideas to reality on the Google Android mobile OS!