Remove restriction that XProfile fields must have a field group

[johnjamesjacoby]

In xprofile_insert_field() BuddyPress bails early if no field group is specified. This makes sense from a data-hierarchy stand-point, but also prevents developers from easily having "hidden" or "groupless" fields, and instead forces them to intercept output, filter raw query data, etc...

How do we feel about allowing profile fields to not have a field group? Any caveats y'all can think of?

[boonebgorges]

The template loop bp_has_profile() loops first through groups, and only then through fields. Fields without a group will therefore not be queryable through a normal template loop.

I don't like the way the template loop currently works, so I think it's worth looking into rewriting it. But I think we probably shouldn't change the behavior of xprofile_insert_field() until it's possible to query groupless fields with bp_has_profile().

[DJPaul]

I think profile fields ought to be always in a group, not orphaned. Need to think more on the use-cases otherwise, none of the points raised so far seem that critical to me.

[DJPaul]

We're closing this ticket because it has not received any contribution or comments for at least two years. We have decided that it is better to close tickets that are good ideas, which have not gotten (or are unlikely to get) contributions, rather than keep things open indefinitely. This will help us share a more realistic roadmap for BuddyPress with you.

Everyone very much appreciates the time and effort that you spent sharing your idea with us. On behalf of the entire BuddyPress team, thank you.

If you feel strongly that this enhancement should still be added to BuddyPress, and you are able to contribute effort towards it, we encourage you to re-open the ticket, or start a discussion about it in our Slack channel. Please consider that time has proven that good ideas without contributions do not get built.

For more information, see ​https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/our-awaiting-contributions-milestone-contains/
or find us on Slack, in the #buddypress channel: ​https://make.wordpress.org/chat/