After the release of BuddyPress 1.2, everyone rejoiced as bloggers who are using WordPress only will be able to enjoy the additional community features provided by BuddyPress. Earlier BuddyPress was compatible with WordPress MU only, that kept BuddyPress to not grow as fast as one would have expected. Since WordPress & WordPress MU are merging in version 3.0 – we can expect to see that it will grow by leaps and bounds! Don’t take the impression that BuddyPress has not grown at all, it has grown well enough that it powers some popular websites.
Steps to install BuddyPress on WordPress
Adding BuddyPress is as simple as installing any other plugin on WordPress. It just requires few extra steps to ensure that its compatible with your theme. We’ll cover all the steps to ensure that you won’t be stuck at any moment.
1. Permalinks – BuddyPress requires permalinks to be on. So before you plan to enable BuddyPress, just ensure that your webhost lets you enable pretty permalinks. Most decent hosting services will let easily do so.
2. Installing BuddyPress – WordPress lets you easily install any plugin in its repository. You just need to follow these instructions in order to install BuddyPress through WordPress dashboard.
a) Go to Add New under Plugins.
b) Search for the term “buddypress”.
c) Click install in front of BuddyPress 1.2.1
d) Click on Activate and thats it!
3. Making existing theme compatible with BuddyPress – Andy Peatling, creator of BuddyPress has taken care of this issue by making a new plugin that makes the WordPress theme compatible with BuddyPress. Simply follow the above instructions to install BuddyPress Template Pack. Just change the term from “BuddyPress” to “BuddyPress template pack“. Its a wizard that you have to follow till the end and it will automatically make your theme compatible with BuddyPress.
Other resources for BuddyPress
1. Pimp your BuddyPress – I’m sure it’ll be a nice domain name ;) Interestingly BuddyPress has quite a handful number of plugins. BuddyPress official repository has some wonderful plugins listed. Don’t forget to extend your BuddyPress installation with these plugins.
2. Premium themes & plugins – WPMU Dev has some decent premium themes and plugins.
3. Amazing BuddyPress themes and getting started guide.
We’ll be constantly pushing out information about BuddyPress and will share various links and resources. So don’t forget to signup for our newsletter at the top of this article.
