[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress] #2673: Plugins Management for Groups

[buddypress-trac]

#2673: Plugins Management for Groups
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 Reporter:  michaelha                            |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  1.9
Component:  Groups                               |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch 2nd-opinion needs-testing  |
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Changes (by boonebgorges):

 * milestone:  Future Release => 1.9


Comment:

 Thanks for the really interesting patch, imath. I have some conceptual
 questions for the whole group, and then some technical feedback on the
 patch.

 Concept: In general, I really like the idea of allowing extensions to be
 toggled on a group-by-group basis. This patch both does less and more than
 this: it does more by allowing for a global default setting for each
 extension (the Groups > Extensions panel), and it does less by not
 allowing group admins to handle this task. If I'd been the one to write
 the first draft, I would have set it up a bit differently:
 - I would have created a front-end UI for group admins to toggle
 extensions. To my mind, the real power of this functionality is to let
 group admins have it.
 - I would have left out the global defaults. They're a bit confusing: as
 imath wrote the patch, they provide global fallback settings. But they're
 just fallbacks - there's no way to force an extension toggle across all
 groups. So, it seems to me like it's of limited use, especially given that
 we're adding an entire admin panel for it. A more fleshed out version of
 the admin panel would do a bit more: it would allow super admins to set
 the *default* value for each extension, and it would let the admin toggle
 whether group admins would have granular control over that given
 extension's toggle.(This is how xprofile field visibility works: admins
 can set a default level, and can also say whether individuals can modify
 it.) IMHO, it's only worth adding this panel if we provide this kind of
 rich functionality. If it's just for fallbacks, the same thing can be done
 with filters.

 What do others think? Is this the kind of power we want to give to group
 admins as well as super admins? IMO, the answer is yes; moreover, if we're
 only going to give it to super admins, I think it'd be better handled by a
 plugin, not by BP itself. I'd also tentatively suggest that we table the
 Extension admin panel (and the idea of global defaults) at first, and
 think about adding it after the UI for individual groups has been set.

 Technical considerations: imath, you wrote much of this like a plugin,
 which is to say you added a bunch of functions, but didn't change anything
 about BP. This is good for a plugin :) but it makes for some ugly hacks.
 So, instead of fishing around in `$wp_filter`, we should just register all
 new extensions at the time that `bp_register_group_extension()` is called.
 `BP_Group_Extension` already creates ReflectionClass objects for each
 extension, so your ReflectionClass stuff (which is clever, btw) should be
 moved there instead. See 2673.02.patch for a mostly-working version of
 these suggestions.

 I'm moving this to 1.9 for preliminary consideration. Let's talk about it
 at the next dev chat to see if it's something we can agree on conceptually
 in time for 1.9.

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2673#comment:4>
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