The plugins discussed in this section come packaged with every CBOX OpenLab installation. Core Required plugins are installed automatically during the initial installation process and cannot be deactivated because they’re necessary for the site to function. Core Recommended plugins are not strictly required for the site to work, but functionality would be limited without them. Core Recommended plugins are included in the installation wizard, but the step may be skipped, and they can always be installed or deactivated later as described in the Core Plugins section under Configuring CBOX OpenLab. Other plugins, found in the Community Features and Member Sites tabs are offered as part of the package but admins may decide to activate them or not depending on the needs of the community.
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 OpenLab, and are what allow community members to create their own profiles, create searchable directories of different group types, and dynamically refresh the homepage with the most recently active groups.
bbPress Forums
The bbPress plugin adds discussion forum functionality to groups. On a CBOX OpenLab 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.
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.
Docs In Groups
This plugin creates the page called “Docs” on a group’s home page, which allows BuddyPress Docs to be associated with that group, and include features like group navigation, etc. While this is installed as a plugin, it’s technically more of a configuration for BuddyPress Docs to work more effectively with groups.
Group Documents
BP Group Documents creates a section called “Files” within each group, allowing members to upload and store many types of files, such as PDFs, images, Word documents, and more. The files can be downloaded by group members, or any visitor if a group is public.
Group Email Subscription
The BuddyPress 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.
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.
Featured Content Widget
The Featured Content Widget plugin generates the “In the Spotlight” section of the CBOX OpenLab homepage, and is used to feature community content, including sites, groups, individual posts, members, or resources. The widget has many configuration options, and can be configured in Dashboard >> Brand Settings. Detailed instructions can be found in the Brand Settings section of documentation.
More Privacy Options
More Privacy Options adds more fine-grained privacy settings to group sites.
Recommended
Events
Events allows members to create calendars of events for any group. Public events from all groups will also be included in a site-wide calendar made up of events from the entire community. It includes two plugins — Event Organiser, and BP Event Organiser. The latter extends the use of the former to BuddyPress.
