Using a WP custom page template for a BP component's page

[modemlooper]

I was trying to create a custom page template but no matter what BP is using the activity loop instead. If you do not have a posts loop on the page it seems to reject anything else. Check out images below of screen shots of the page and page template

[modemlooper]

choosing page template in admin

[modemlooper]

page template code

[modemlooper]

link to the page showing the activity loop ​http://dev.taptappress.com/buzz

[r-a-y]

Are you trying to override a BP component's directory page with a custom page template?

If so, you can't based on ​this. A workaround is just to modify the activity directory index template in your theme - /activity/index.php.

Update: I guess you could filter 'bp_activity_screen_index' and tell WP to use your custom page template if one exists. Sounds like a good enhancement!

[modemlooper]

Ray, your suggestion would be a killer idea for theme developers to include custom template files that are choosable like page templates. +10,000

Ok so, on two installs I'm getting same thing but on another it's working as normal. I'm testing more to see if it's something specific. I think it's when BP is on a sub domain it's messing with WP page templates. I need to do another fresh test site on a sub domain to confirm. Sites on a url.com seem to be ok.

[r-a-y]

I spent a little bit of time to implement this and it works!

Here's the code snippet:

/**
 * On the WP page dashboard, if you set a custom page template for a BP 
 * component page, let BP know of it and use it!
 */
function ray_use_custom_page_template_for_bp_component_index( $template ) {
	// see if a custom page template exists for the BP component page
	$custom_template = get_page_template_slug();
	
	// if no custom template, return the default one
	if ( empty( $custom_template ) )
		return $template;

	// return our custom page template; we strip the extension because bp_core_load_template() requires it
	return ( str_replace( '.php', '', $custom_template ) );
}
add_filter( 'bp_activity_screen_index',                  'ray_use_custom_page_template_for_bp_component_index' );
add_filter( 'bp_blogs_screen_index',                     'ray_use_custom_page_template_for_bp_component_index' );
add_filter( 'bp_members_screen_index',                   'ray_use_custom_page_template_for_bp_component_index' );
add_filter( 'bp_forums_template_directory_forums_setup', 'ray_use_custom_page_template_for_bp_component_index' );
add_filter( 'groups_template_directory_groups',          'ray_use_custom_page_template_for_bp_component_index' );

Core devs: Not sure where to put this in core. I was thinking of adding the function to bp-core-functions.php. Then, adding the applicable filter to each component's bp-COMPONENT-filters.php. Let me know what you think.

get_page_template_slug() does use a few DB queries though - get_post(), get_post_meta() - just something to think about.

The code snippet could be released as a tiny plugin as well.

[DJPaul]

Not sure if we'll want/need to do this when we put theme compatibility into BP, but moving to the future release milestone for review at that point in time.

[mercime]

+1 for bp-default theme especially as many are using only bp-default child themes in their installs. I do :-)

[DJPaul]

Not fixed yet as not committed into BuddyPress. Related ticket is #4639

[johnjamesjacoby]

Replying to modemlooper:
Please add a comment in the ticket when making changes to it, otherwise it's impossible to know what your intentions were at the time.

[modemlooper]

I figured that theme compat was fixing this, no?

[r-a-y]

I just closed #5686 as a duplicate.

I figured that theme compat was fixing this, no?

Theme compatibility does not address this. My code above works on bp-default installs.

However, imath's code in ticket:3741#comment:27 (the second part) would address this for theme compatibility.

[boonebgorges]

I like the idea of adding page template support. Obviously, this would only work for top-level templates. If we do, I don't think it's necessary to do it for bp-default style themes.

[DJPaul]

This has been implemented sometime previous, circa 2.2.