GSoC 2013
Table of contents
Introduction
Google Summer of Code is a program in which Google sponsors exceptional college students to develop open source code under the guidance of mentoring open source projects. This year, BuddyPress is hoping to be a mentoring organisation.
Know you want to propose a GSoC project around BuddyPress, but aren’t sure what you want to do? Check out our Ideas list below. If you have your own idea for a project, include it in your application and describe it thoroughly. You are not limited to ideas from this list.
Unfortunately, BuddyPress wasn’t chosen to be a mentoring organisation for 2013. However, WordPress did make it in and we can mentor BuddyPress projects under their umbrella, so if you were interested, you should check out https://codex.wordpress.org/GSoC2013 and apply through WordPress.
Timeline
- March 18, 19:00 UTC: Mentoring organizations can begin submitting applications to Google.
- March 29, 19:00 UTC: Mentoring organization application deadline.
- April 1 – 5: Google program administrators review organization applications.
- April 8 19:00 UTC: List of accepted mentoring organizations published on the Google Summer of Code 2013 site.
- April 9 – 21: Would-be student participants discuss application ideas with mentoring organizations.
- April 22, 19:00 UTC: Student application period opens.
- May 3, 19:00 UTC: Student application deadline.
Ideas
Project: Extract Notifications into BP-Notifications Component
- Brief explanation: Every part of BuddyPress has some kind of interaction with notifications. Since notifications were first introduced, they’ve always treated like second-class citizens. It’s time to elevate this functionality to the major component level it should be in.
- Expected results: Make the notifications functionality into a new Notifications Component which can be activated and deactivated at will, then refactor each existing BuddyPress component to work with this new approach.
- Knowledge Prerequisite: PHP, WordPress
- Questions? Find this person on IRC: jjj
Project: Privacy Component
- Brief explanation: Comprehensive privacy controls has been one of the most popular feature requests since the first release of BuddyPress, and while we made some small improvements in BuddyPress 1.6, there’s lots more to do. Provide users with fine, granular control over who has access to which pieces of their BuddyPress-generated personal data.
- Expected results: Privacy controls for the users. API for developers to use with other plugins.
- Knowledge Prerequisite: PHP, WordPress
- Questions? Find any of these people on IRC: boonebgorges, jjj, paulgibbs, r-a-y
Project: Media Albums
- Brief explanation: BuddyPress doesn’t have a canonical solution for handling or displaying user-generated content from their other social networks; for example, videos from YouTube and Vimeo, pictures from Flickr, music from soundcloud, and much more. Build a media album that allows users to upload images, but also pull in and display their external content.
- Expected results: A media album page added to the user profiles which shows that user’s uploaded images and linked external content.
- Knowledge Prerequisite: PHP, Backbone.js, WordPress
- Questions? Find this person on IRC: paulgibbs
Project: Unified Activity Stream
- Brief explanation: BuddyPress has distinct channels for communication: direct messages, user updates, forums, and blog post comments. This creates a fragmented experience where you’re forced to interact in a variety of different places depending on the type of content. Create a centralised place for all discussion that also routes updates back to the source. e.g. replying to a forum topic creates a reply; replying to a blog post creates a comment.
- Expected results: Updated activity templates that unify discussion and act as a central point for interaction on the site.
- Knowledge Prerequisite: PHP, Javascript, WordPress
- Questions? Find this person on IRC: karmatosed, paulgibbs
Project: Import/Export BuddyPress Data
- Brief explanation: To create a backup or migrate a BuddyPress site from one host to another, you currently require technical knowledge as this has to be done at the database/filesystem level. This is not user friendly and contributes to a perception that BuddyPress data somehow has a proprietary lock-in (anything but!). Create an importer/exporter for WordPress that migrates BuddyPress data.
- Expected results: WordPress importer/exporter for BuddyPress data.
- Knowledge Prerequisite: PHP, XML, WordPress
- Questions? Find any of these people on IRC: boonebgorges, jjj, paulgibbs, r-a-y
