Introduction

BuddyPress Giphy

BuddyPress Giphy adds an animated GIF picker to your BuddyPress community. Members can search a GIF library and attach a GIF to any activity post, activity comment, or private message, plus bbPress forum topics and replies when bbPress is active. The GIF is saved alongside the activity and shown in the stream for everyone to see.

What it does

When a member opens the GIF picker, the plugin loads trending GIFs from the provider you have configured (GIPHY or Klipy). The member can scroll through trending results or type a search term. Selecting a GIF attaches it to the post form. On submit, the plugin saves the GIF URL and renders it in the activity stream.

Where GIFs can appear (each area is toggled in settings):

• Activity stream on member profiles
• Activity stream inside groups
• Activity comments
• Private messages (BuddyPress Messages component)
• bbPress forum topics and replies

What you need before installing

• WordPress 5.0 or later
• BuddyPress, or bbPress (the plugin requires at least one of these to be active)
• A free API key from either GIPHY or Klipy (see Choosing a GIF provider)

BuddyBoss note: BuddyBoss is not supported. The plugin deactivates itself and shows an admin notice if BuddyBoss is detected.

What is stored

Each GIF attachment stores two values in BuddyPress activity meta under the key _bp_activity_gif_data:

• bp_activity_gif_id: the GIF’s ID on the provider
• bp_activity_gif: the direct URL of the GIF image

Nothing is uploaded to your server. The image URL points directly to the provider’s CDN.