Commons In A Box | Basem Aly | Activity https://commonsinabox.org/members/baly/activity Activity feed for Basem Aly. Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:21:25 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-US 30 hourly 2 d1bcb6b35d4e8e9971f8ade0186798ae Basem Aly replied to the topic Member ID number in profile URL in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/member-id-number-in-profile-url/#post-6500 Mon, 04 Jun 2018 13:46:52 -0400 Thank you, Ray. That was extremely helpful. I fixed it with a MySQL query.

]]> 781360b5d99ea32655a81f41558adf72 Basem Aly replied to the topic Member ID number in profile URL in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/member-id-number-in-profile-url/#post-6497 Thu, 31 May 2018 19:55:02 -0400 After digging around a bit, I realized that some users are identified by their username, while others are identified by their ID number. I’m not sure what’s causing the difference. It seems their user profiles have the same type of information. However, when I try to look at my user, for example, I can only access my profile using my ID number but…[Read more]

]]> 311cbecbcbfa761233c675ac22bd87f2 Basem Aly started the topic Member ID number in profile URL in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/member-id-number-in-profile-url/ Thu, 31 May 2018 14:41:28 -0400 Hello. I’m not precisely sure how member profile URL’s are generated. When I click on a user’s profile I get the URL https://commons.pratt.edu/members/xxxxxxx/profile/ where ‘xxxxxx’ is their internal school ID number. We’re not allowed to expose this number, even for internal audiences. Is there a way to mask or replace that ID? It’s not an…[Read more]

]]> 29347d3bf1f3ad20722ced358e19f73a Basem Aly replied to the topic Wrong time in daily digest emails in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/wrong-time-in-daily-digest-emails/#post-6451 Mon, 29 Jan 2018 15:13:28 -0500 I think I’ve narrowed-down the problem of having the wrong server time for email digests. Under the “Group Email Subscription Options” page, I found this message:

“<i>The server timezone is UTC (UTC); the current server time is 3:10pm (15:10); and the day is Monday.”</i>

How would I change the timezone listed here?

]]> 610af1cc4dfe52c939e676cb0634c491 Basem Aly started the topic Network-enabled Buddypress vs. sub-sites in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/network-enabled-buddypress-vs-sub-sites/ Mon, 22 Jan 2018 16:27:18 -0500 I saw the Buddypress link describing different ways to activate Buddypress on Multisite networks. Is there a definitive set of “best practices” for deploying Commons in a Box & Buddypress on Multisite, specifying which plugins should be network activated and which could be sub-site activated?

When run a performance profiler on our network…[Read more]

]]> cc18383023df2ebbfc5e50f57d675541 Basem Aly started the topic Wrong time in daily digest emails in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/wrong-time-in-daily-digest-emails/ Mon, 22 Jan 2018 15:38:47 -0500 Despite setting the correct time zone and time on our Multisite top site, some of my users are reporting that their Buddypress Daily Digest emails are showing their activities happening during the wrong times. Is there a different place to set activity times other than under the top site’s “Settings–> General” area in the Dashboard?

]]> 86704e734202c12e9dc96422c4c3fe0f Basem Aly replied to the topic LDAP support in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/ldap-support/#post-5845 Fri, 20 Nov 2015 19:45:16 -0500 After struggling for a few months trying to get LDAP to work for authentication, I ended up using Active Directory Integration. My bosses now want to revisit trying to use LDAP again. Can anyone suggest a plugin that might work? I had previously tried Simple LDAP (see my message above), but had no luck.

]]> 16080508f4a1f9bd3f3bfba38ff058fc Basem Aly replied to the topic Blank white screen when managing users in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/blank-white-screen-when-managing-users/#post-5810 Fri, 23 Oct 2015 16:23:51 -0400 Here’s what I found when I turned “Extended Profiles” back on. I turned on the Debugging Log and looked in the httpd-error log. There weren’t any errors in the Httpd-error log.

Here’s the output I got from the WP debug log. The first error refers to a custom plugin we created that lets us mass-import new users into a group. We had tested it…[Read more]

]]> b5d1932a44a5a26d72ecedbc3c7355f7 Basem Aly replied to the topic Blank white screen when managing users in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/blank-white-screen-when-managing-users/#post-5807 Thu, 22 Oct 2015 15:59:05 -0400 I finally tracked down the culprit that returns a blank screen whenever I try to promote or remove a member. It’s the “Extended Profiles” component of Buddypress. This is after updating all my plugins and disabling everything related to BB groups. Hopefully the “Extended Profiles” will be fixed soon.

]]> cdafb74839f26be846397b00f6ac7343 Basem Aly replied to the topic Blank white screen when managing users in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/blank-white-screen-when-managing-users/#post-5782 Sun, 30 Aug 2015 19:34:48 -0400 Thanks, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. I deactivated then deleted the Logout Redirect plugin, but I’m still getting the same white screen. Now in addition to the white screen when trying to promote/ demote members, I’m getting the white screen when trying to change a Group from Private to Public. Any more help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

]]> 1b594c2d916809a728e2c447270e5c54 Basem Aly started the topic Blank white screen when managing users in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/blank-white-screen-when-managing-users/ Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:15:02 -0400 I’m suddenly getting a blank white screen whenever I try to promote or remove a user from a group. When I turned-on debugging, the only messages I saw were about an unrelated logout redirect. I’m not sure how to proceed. Can anyone give me an idea of what to try next? Or alternatively, how I can manually promote or remove users from the DB in the…[Read more]

]]> 3795ae2bae878bf677cb051f46d69e71 Basem Aly started the topic User roles in sub-sites in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/user-roles-in-sub-sites/ Mon, 27 Jul 2015 18:46:28 -0400 We’ve got several custom roles (students, staff, faculty, alumni) created using User Role Editor Pro in our main Commons site. However, when anyone creates a sub-site, and they get to the blog setup screen, their default member options only include the default roles (admin, editor, author, contributor, subscriber). So when any current user logs-in…[Read more]

]]> 1f70da112ef6f6028baa7ee3ba1fcad7 Basem Aly replied to the topic Radio button for Privacy not-selectable in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/radio-button-for-privacy-not-selectable/#post-5721 Tue, 14 Jul 2015 15:59:48 -0400 Oh cool. Thanks it worked when I removed the hyphen in the URL. It’s weird, however since if you use the ordinary group-creation menus and decide to add a blog to your group, then the blog takes your group name and replaces hyphens with spaces. How can you create a straight blog (without associated group) with hyphens in the URL?

]]> ae935abf1c06b6948c62f1dbbd41ca4d Basem Aly replied to the topic Radio button for Privacy not-selectable in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/radio-button-for-privacy-not-selectable/#post-5717 Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:41:43 -0400 This is getting strange… I tried creating a site with some of the “Additional Privacy settings” and with “New Blog Templates” activated, and when I filled-in the site create form, It returned me to the same page without evidently doing anything. I tried it again with “New Blog Templates” disabled and got the same non-response, saying”There was a…[Read more]

]]> ba09f83597e4a5738fbf2f13e84b0788 Basem Aly replied to the topic Radio button for Privacy not-selectable in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/radio-button-for-privacy-not-selectable/#post-5715 Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:22:35 -0400 OK I disabled both “New Blog Templates” and reduced the “Additional Privacy Options” and I also disabled my cache plugin (WP Super Cache), and when the radio buttons worked; when I re-enabled the “New Blog Templates” plugin, the radio buttons still seem to be working. So this might be a cache issue, or something in “additional privacy options.” It…[Read more]

]]> e8e10581f5e6b6d16f35908b551220a9 Basem Aly replied to the topic Radio button for Privacy not-selectable in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/radio-button-for-privacy-not-selectable/#post-5713 Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:14:23 -0400 Looking at it again, it’s strange to me that the Privacy settings are split by the template selection appearing in between the Privacy settings radio buttons. Could this mean the “Blog Template” plugin might be interfering with the css for the privacy settings? I’ll disable blog templates and see how it affects the privacy settings.

Are other…[Read more]

]]> 197b463debf6fcfdd6db717a8e35422c Basem Aly replied to the topic Radio button for Privacy not-selectable in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/radio-button-for-privacy-not-selectable/#post-5712 Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:05:50 -0400 Hi, sorry I camping for a few days. The strange thing is the top 2 radio buttons under ” I would like my site to appear in search engines, and in public listings around this network. ” My mouse turns into the pointer icon, which means the browser recognizes it as a clickable entity, but nothing actually works.

Basically, I’d love some way to…[Read more]

]]> 8963b5c947034d20f08985a9f5d567ad Basem Aly replied to the topic Radio button for Privacy not-selectable in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/radio-button-for-privacy-not-selectable/#post-5699 Wed, 01 Jul 2015 15:33:16 -0400 I’m still trying to figure out the best way to adjust the privacy options when setting up a new blog. I’m using the “More Privacy Options” plugin, but it seems the options conflict (or at least are confusing) with the privacy options above them (see the attached screenshot). What is the best way to remove the first set of options so that only the…[Read more]

]]> ed9e99c0797ed2d30cc0a4a34c0f2956 Basem Aly replied to the topic Adding a page in a sub-site takes me to the main site in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/adding-a-page-in-a-sub-site-takes-me-to-the-main-site/#post-5698 Wed, 01 Jul 2015 15:11:14 -0400 It looks like it’s an issue with the theme I was using.

]]> 67cf3c49682e080066e555e1b59ff3b7 Basem Aly started the topic Adding a page in a sub-site takes me to the main site in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/adding-a-page-in-a-sub-site-takes-me-to-the-main-site/ Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:31:23 -0400 I noticed something strange when testing a third-party theme in one of our sub-sites. Whenever I publish a new page on the sub-site, I get redirected to the main site’s dashboard. The admin bar changes from listing the current sub-site’s name to listing the name of the main Commons site. Has this happened to anyone else? I’m not sure if the…[Read more]

]]> 4a6b8b8c425963b10b046bb35754301b Basem Aly started the topic Radio button for Privacy not-selectable in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/radio-button-for-privacy-not-selectable/ Mon, 29 Jun 2015 15:22:16 -0400 I noticed a strange thing in Mac Firefox/Chrome. When trying to create a new site, users are unable to select the privacy setting for the site they create. It seems this setting is redundant with the additional privacy settings below. How do I remove the first privacy setting (“I would like my site to appear in search engines… “) while leaving…[Read more]

]]> 1b5c938a8fa48dcc826dad8ede77d0e0 Basem Aly started the topic Renaming a group's blog to something different in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/renaming-a-groups-blog-to-something-different/ Mon, 29 Jun 2015 14:57:56 -0400 One of our network users would like to rename their Group’s associated blog to a different name than the group. To do this I was thinking of editing some of the database tables (wp_blogs, wp-posts, wp_31_options).

Should I do a blanket search and replace for the old URL, or change the tables by hand? Is that advisable, or would this cause problems?

]]> 9ae158fd8f96e683f4cb91052cf3807b Basem Aly replied to the topic Decoupling site-creation from groups in the forum CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/groups/cbox-developers/forum/topic/decoupling-site-creation-from-groups/#post-5552 Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:18:22 -0400 Woohoo it was the Network site registration settings. Thanks, Scott!

]]> 4c3bea9887c6c732e1dd3b710468f989 Basem Aly replied to the topic Decoupling site-creation from groups in the forum CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/groups/cbox-developers/forum/topic/decoupling-site-creation-from-groups/#post-5548 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 19:35:40 -0400 That’s strange. I’m getting a ‘page not found’ error when I try to go to the /blog/create/ url you suggested above. Could this be a clue as to why the ‘create site’ button isn’t showing up? It’s weird because I can create sites using the Dashboard (wp-admin/network/site-new.php) and I can create a site using the Buddypress Group Blog plugin. I’m…[Read more]

]]> 915088ab1ea7de3da961dd7d3129cf51 Basem Aly replied to the topic Decoupling site-creation from groups in the forum CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/groups/cbox-developers/forum/topic/decoupling-site-creation-from-groups/#post-5545 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 16:06:05 -0400 I’ve been trying to figure out why the “Create a Site” button isn’t appearing on my “Sites” page. I disabled all the plugins that I could, but the button still isn’t showing. I also looked through the C-Box and other settings to make sure site creation isn’t turned-off somewhere in the settings, but so far no luck. I switched back and forth…[Read more]

]]> 1e50b313a5241a323fdc4313adf05583 Basem Aly replied to the topic BBPress Subforums in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/bbpress-subforums/#post-5544 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 15:46:02 -0400 Thanks, that’s a good suggestion!

]]> 4e5e3df3e9c8b18ad3712bf97d539c7e Basem Aly replied to the topic Help for Commons in a Box Site to Change the World in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/help-for-commons-in-a-box-site-to-change-the-world/#post-5543 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 15:29:29 -0400 Hi, Greg. This sounds like a really exciting project. It meshes with a couple of projects I’m working on. I’d love to help if I can. Please feel free to get in touch with me directly at baly@pratt.edu. Best of luck!

]]> b4a78ad1391fd74da21d17b9be864374 Basem Aly started the topic Participant role can't write to Hidden group forums & why no forum search here? in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/participant-role-cant-write-to-hidden-group-forums-why-no-forum-search-here/ Tue, 17 Mar 2015 18:33:05 -0400 I recently noticing a strange thing where users with the “participant” role aren’t able to start new forum topics or reply to existing ones. When I changed the user to moderator, it worked but that’s not a good solution. I tried looking at the capabilities with the “User Role Editor” plugin but I can’t find any bbpress-related capabilities. It…[Read more]

]]> 2108e64e049936b314a961e57cf6f1df Basem Aly replied to the topic BBPress Subforums in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/bbpress-subforums/#post-5524 Tue, 17 Mar 2015 18:26:45 -0400 I see that’s a helpful explanation. Thanks. I’m basically trying to move the forum from the group page to the group’s blog. Before you explained it to me, I wasn’t clear on where the forum actually resides.

So now I’m wondering if there’s a good way to copy the group’s forum into the site, or at least mirror the forum’s contents so that the site…[Read more]

]]> 85260ef600821642cd4cfc13dfda01d7 Basem Aly replied to the topic BBPress Subforums in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/bbpress-subforums/#post-5522 Tue, 17 Mar 2015 14:05:36 -0400 Yes, BBPress is network-activated. I see the “Forums,” “Topics” and “Replies” custom post types in the blog’s dashboard, but they’re all empty, even though the blog’s associated group isn’t.

]]> 4eb9c1c31dfb6081237d3e8b9c21bc72 Basem Aly started the topic BBPress Subforums in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/bbpress-subforums/ Mon, 16 Mar 2015 17:39:31 -0400 I’m trying to show one of my group’s BBPress forums in the blog associated with the same group. I tried the bbPress shortcodes like and but it’s not able to find the existing forum. How do you show your group’s forum within the group’s blog?

I’m also very curious about how forum parent-child relationships work. Do posts from a child forum…[Read more]

]]> 5d69c999d3245b7fffffd39d978eb1f2 Basem Aly replied to the topic Decoupling site-creation from groups in the forum CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/groups/cbox-developers/forum/topic/decoupling-site-creation-from-groups/#post-5512 Wed, 11 Mar 2015 15:09:57 -0400 I enabled Site registration for logged-in users, and set the Site Directory. But I don’t see a “Create a Site” button. Is it supposed to be at the top? Here’s a screenshot:

 

]]> c366f725041b62fd3b5deb7819aadc47 Basem Aly changed their profile picture https://commonsinabox.org/activity/p/6549 Wed, 11 Mar 2015 14:32:09 -0400 cba2ed955a6f00ae151c3941d5ebc86d Basem Aly replied to the topic Decoupling site-creation from groups in the forum CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/groups/cbox-developers/forum/topic/decoupling-site-creation-from-groups/#post-5510 Wed, 11 Mar 2015 14:30:55 -0400 Thanks, guys. That’s really helpful. So basically, unless you use the Group Blog plugin, I have to enable site creation through the Network Settings page. If I enable site creation in Network Settings, then what URL should I offer users to create a new site? Is there a front-end form or plugin they can use? I’m reluctant to link to the dashboard’s…[Read more]

]]> 3bbe284cc30a4b42530014530d7b4a59 Basem Aly started the topic Decoupling site-creation from groups in the forum CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/groups/cbox-developers/forum/topic/decoupling-site-creation-from-groups/ Tue, 10 Mar 2015 18:27:44 -0400 Hi there. I’m mulling over allowing users in our Commons-in-a-Box instance to create blogs and sites without having to create a group first. Is that advisable from a technical point of view? Or is there a compelling reason to always have site-creation be coupled with a group? Some users are only interested in creating a blog and have no use for…[Read more]

]]> 8eceda7874a78c5fc35cf94d2ef39563 Basem Aly started the topic Defining custom roles & user types from Active Directory/ LDAP in the forum CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/groups/cbox-developers/forum/topic/defining-custom-roles-user-types-from-active-directory-ldap/ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 20:50:31 -0400 Hello, there. I’m hoping someone can help me out with creating custom User Roles for specific kinds of users based on their group assignments or departments in Active Directory or LDAP. I’m using the plugin “Active Directory Integration,” which does a great job of adding users to specific Groups in BB/Commons-in-a-box, but I’d like to define…[Read more]

]]> 792f80bf42c00e2de2c0664036a96a9e Basem Aly joined the group CBOX Developers https://commonsinabox.org/activity/p/4404 Tue, 18 Mar 2014 20:42:47 -0400 59b681f8fd5c20d7adeb2e3a4df71d75 Basem Aly replied to the topic LDAP support in the forum Help & Support https://commonsinabox.org/groups/help-support/forum/topic/ldap-support/#post-4452 Tue, 11 Mar 2014 19:27:56 -0400 Hi, all. I’ve gotten Simple LDAP to work on my site, which is running with multisite, and it’s supposed to register new users once they’ve successfully logged-in with LDAP. However, I’m noticing that the upper-right corner menu linking to a user’s activity, profile edit, friends, and other typical BBPress things doesn’t work. The user gets a 404…[Read more]

]]> 101402d23354702b6fc764094f19fd21 Basem Aly joined the group CBOX Classic Support https://commonsinabox.org/activity/p/4355 Tue, 11 Mar 2014 19:22:12 -0400 921ecb882645b751bce93ade483dac36 Basem Aly became a registered member https://commonsinabox.org/activity/p/4242 Tue, 18 Feb 2014 21:10:13 -0500