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CBOX Classic Core Plugins

The plugins discussed in this section comprise a typical CBOX Classic installation.  Some are required, others are recommended.

Required

BuddyPress

BuddyPress is a social networking platform for WordPress, enabling a community to connect using profiles, groups, and more. BuddyPress’s features form the core functionality of CBOX Classic and surfaces community activity.

  • Required
  • Documentation: BuddyPress plugin page
  • Authors: Written and maintained by a host of Core developers, including johnjamesjacoby, DJPaul, Ray Hoh, and Boone Gorges
  • Support: BuddyPress has its own Site and Codex at Buddypress.org.

Download BuddyPress screenshot

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Recommended

bbPress Forums

The bbPress plugin adds discussion forum functionality to groups. On a CBOX Classic group, bbPress creates the Discussion section of a group’s home page, allowing members of the group to start discussion topics, create discussion threads, tag content, and easily add images and links.

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: See the bbPress plugin page.
  • Authors: Developed by John James Jacoby, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, and many others.
  • Support: See the plugin’s own support site.

Download bbPress screenshot

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Docs

“Part wiki, part document editing,” BuddyPress Docs creates a space for members to create collaboratively edited documents on any group home page. Version control is automatically maintained, and members can revert changes, or simply track a document’s evolution. Permissions can also be set to control editing and viewing privileges, and documents can be tagged, sorted, and filtered.

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: See plugin page. For more information, see the post on the CUNY Academic Commons Codex.
  • Authors: Written by Boone Gorges in conjunction with the CUNY Academic Commons
  • Support: Available here. For feature requests and bug reports, visit http://github.com/boonebgorges/buddypress-docs

BuddyPress Docs screenshot

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Group Email Subscription

The Group Email Subscription plugin notifies members of a group via email when other members post content. Admins can configure the content of each type of email, and members of the community can choose the frequency of notifications for each group: (1) No Email; (2) Weekly Digest Summary; (3) Daily Digest Summary; (4) New Topics Email; or (5) All Email. Members can also determine what kind of group activity that want to be notified about.

Group Email Subscription Options screenshot

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: See plugin page and further documentation on the Commons Codex.
  • Authors: Developed by shambhalanetwork.org, the CUNY Academic Commons, and bluemandala.com.
  • Support: Support for this plugin can be found here.

Email Notification Screenshot

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Invite Anyone

The Invite Anyone plugin allows group admins to send out email invitations to join their group, and allows community members to invite others to join the community.

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: Available at Invite Anyone plugin page.
  • Authors: Developed by Boone Gorges in conjunction with the CUNY Academic Commons.
  • Support: Plugin support can be found on the plugin page.

Invite Anyone Screenshot

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Featured Content Widget

The Featured Content Widget plugin is a convenient tool that can be used to feature site content: blogs, groups, individual posts, members, or resources. It is BuddyPress dependent, and will not work on non-BuddyPress installs. Since it is a widget, you will need a widgetized area to put it in – the default CBOX theme automatically places it on the home page, to the right of the slider, but this is totally configurable. Featured Content Widget is a recommended plugin, and can be de-selected if you choose.

CAC Featured Content Screenshot

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: See plugin page.
  • Authors: Developed by Boone Gorges and Dom Giglio, in conjunction with the CUNY Academic Commons.
  • Support: Support for the plugin can be found here.

 

Screenshot on the right shows the widget’s settings panel. Screenshot below shows the front-end display:

Featured Site Example Screenshot

 

 

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Wiki

BuddyPress Docs Wiki lets members create a sitewide wiki and collaboratively build a knowledge repository.  Documents can be tagged, categorized, and grouped hierarchically.  Revision tracking makes it easy to go back to past versions.  For more information, see CBOX Classic Sitewide Wiki.

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: See plugin page.
  • Authors: Boone Gorges in conjunction with the CUNY Academic Commons
  • Support: Available here.

If you have this plugin installed and are using the CBOX default theme, you can easily dress up you wiki homepage.  The theme provides four widgetized areas – wiki top, wiki sidebar, wiki bottom left, and wiki bottom right, and you can add specially designed wiki widgets (or any widgets) to achieve the desired effect:

Wiki Screenshot

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Custom Profile Filters

Custom Profile Filters ScreenshotThe Custom Profile Filters plugin enhances a BuddyPress member’s Profile Page. The plugin automatically converts some fields in a user profile into links, and aggregates group interests into groups to let members with similar interests find each other.

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: See the plugin’s page.
  • Authors: Developed by Boone Gorges in conjunction with the CUNY Academic Commons.
  • Support: Support for this plugin can be found here.

Please note that this plugin requires some profile fields. By default, only “Name” is available. See the following screenshot to see how profile fields are added:

Profile Fields Screenshot

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Group Announcements

The Group Announcements plugin removes the BuddyPress default “What’s New” announcement textbox (see screenshot, below) from a group main page, and makes it available instead on a new Announcements tab on the group’s sidebar. The functionality is identical – announcements that a member posts go directly into the group’s activity stream. The plugin addresses the confusion members face when posting to the forum, and accidentally posting an announcement, and clarifies how new discussion threads should be initiated.

  • Recommended
  • Documentation: Available at its plugin page on GitHub.
  • Authors: Developed by Boone Gorges and Ray Hoh in conjunction with the CUNY Academic Commons.
  • Support: Plugin support can be found here.

The screenshot below shows BuddyPress’ default behavior (without BP Group Announcements activated):

BuddyPress default behavior screenshot

When BP Group Announcements is activated, the textbox highlighted above disappears, and instead is replaced by an announcement tab:

BP Group Announcements enabled screenshot

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CBOX Classic Guide

  • Overview
  • FAQ
  • Installation Guide
  • Plugins
    • Core Plugins
    • Optional Plugins
    • Expert Mode
  • Configuring CBOX Classic
    • CBOX Classic Theme
      • Dashboard
      • Homepage and Slider
      • Widget Areas
      • Sitewide Wiki
      • BuddyPress vs. bbPress Forums
      • Handling Registration
  • CBOX Classic Theme Developer Guide

CBOX has its roots in the CUNY Academic Commons, which in turn was made possible through funding from The City University of New York itself.

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The Commons In A Box was made possible through the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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The CUNY Graduate Center has directly contributed to the CUNY Academic Commons, housing the project since its inception, and has contributed to CBOX through its GC Digital Initiatives.

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