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Changing Internal Configuration Settings

N.B: This article lists deprecated settings as well as current ones

There are many internal configuration settings that can be changed by adding a configuration definition line to your wp-content/plugins/bp-custom.php file or use a filter if available. Here’s a list of the current configurations that can be changed:

Avatar Configurations

Avatar specific settings can be changed:

define ( 'BP_AVATAR_THUMB_WIDTH', 50 );
define ( 'BP_AVATAR_THUMB_HEIGHT', 50 );
define ( 'BP_AVATAR_FULL_WIDTH', 150 );
define ( 'BP_AVATAR_FULL_HEIGHT', 150 );
define ( 'BP_AVATAR_ORIGINAL_MAX_WIDTH', 640 );
define ( 'BP_AVATAR_ORIGINAL_MAX_FILESIZE', $max_in_kb );
define ( 'BP_AVATAR_DEFAULT', $img_url );
define ( 'BP_AVATAR_DEFAULT_THUMB', $img_url );

Cover Image Configurations

To customize cover images please visit this link: https://codex.buddypress.org/themes/buddypress-cover-images/

Advanced Configurations

Put profiles in the root — http://example.org/username/

define ( 'BP_ENABLE_ROOT_PROFILES', true );

add_filter( 'bp_core_enable_root_profiles', '__return_true' );

N.B. If you use BP_ENABLE_ROOT_PROFILES there might be a situation where some user profiles get the same url as some posts or pages rendering either of them inaccessible. This might also be true of sub-sites if you’re running multisite with subdirectories. See ticket #1426 for more information.
Change the default tab opened when looking at a user’s profile (default is activity):

define( 'BP_DEFAULT_COMPONENT', 'profile' );

(Note: if you change the URL slug of xprofile, say, define ( 'BP_XPROFILE_SLUG', 'info' );, you would have to change it here accordingly, define( 'BP_DEFAULT_COMPONENT', 'info' ); otherwise, link to the profile page would always jump to homepage.)
Change the default tab opened when looking at a group (default is home):

define( 'BP_GROUPS_DEFAULT_EXTENSION', 'members' );

Disable the admin bar / buddybar at the top of every screen:

define ( 'BP_DISABLE_ADMIN_BAR', true );

Swap the Buddybar for the WordPress toolbar: (default in buddypress 1.6)

define ( 'BP_USE_WP_ADMIN_BAR', true );

Disable the custom header functionality on the default BuddyPress theme:

define( 'BP_DTHEME_DISABLE_CUSTOM_HEADER', true );

Disable the “You’ll need to activate a BuddyPress compatible theme…” warning message in the WordPress administration screens:

define( 'BP_SILENCE_THEME_NOTICE', true );

Enable support for LDAP usernames that include dots:

define( 'BP_ENABLE_USERNAME_COMPATIBILITY_MODE', true );

Disable auto-joining of a group when non group member performs group activity:

defined( 'BP_DISABLE_AUTO_GROUP_JOIN', true );

Ignore all deprecated code (don’t load it):

define ( 'BP_IGNORE_DEPRECATED', true );

add_filter( 'bp_ignore_deprecated', '__return_true' );

Forum Configurations

Change the parent forum to use for all BuddyPress group forums:

define ( 'BP_FORUMS_PARENT_FORUM_ID', $forum_id );

Database Configurations

Set a custom user database table for BuddyPress (and WordPress to use):

define ( 'CUSTOM_USER_TABLE', $tablename );

Set a custom usermeta database table for BuddyPress (and WordPress to use):

define ( 'CUSTOM_USER_META_TABLE', $tablename );

Multisite Configurations

Allow BuddyPress to function on multiple blogs of a WPMU installation, not just on one root blog (More details about BP_ENABLE_MULTIBLOG):

define ( 'BP_ENABLE_MULTIBLOG', true );

add_filter( 'bp_is_multiblog_mode', '__return_true' );

Set which blog ID BuddyPress will run on:

define ( 'BP_ROOT_BLOG', $blog_id );

add_filter( 'bp_get_root_blog_id', 'filter_root_blog_id' ); // return blog ID integer

Deprecated Configurations

Change the URL slugs of BuddyPress components:

The references to slug Constants are deprecated, this section requires updating.

define ( 'BP_ACTIVITY_SLUG', 'streams' );
define ( 'BP_BLOGS_SLUG', 'journals' );
define ( 'BP_MEMBERS_SLUG', 'users' );
define ( 'BP_FRIENDS_SLUG', 'peeps' );
define ( 'BP_GROUPS_SLUG', 'gatherings' );
define ( 'BP_FORUMS_SLUG', 'discussions' );
define ( 'BP_MESSAGES_SLUG', 'notes' );
define ( 'BP_WIRE_SLUG', 'pinboard' );
define ( 'BP_XPROFILE_SLUG', 'info' );
define ( 'BP_REGISTER_SLUG', 'signup' );
define ( 'BP_ACTIVATION_SLUG', 'enable' );
define ( 'BP_SEARCH_SLUG', 'find' );
define ( 'BP_HOME_BLOG_SLUG', 'news' );

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