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Build a community site

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Build a community site

Section titled “Build a community site”

You will end up with a community where people can register, log in, see a header with notifications, messages and a profile menu, and browse sample members, spaces and posts. BuddyNext is the plugin that provides the community features. Reign makes it look right.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • Reign is installed and active. See install Reign.
  • You are logged in as an administrator.
  • BuddyPress is not active. BuddyNext and BuddyPress cannot run together, so deactivate BuddyPress first if you have it.
  • This is a new or test site. Sample content is easy to remove, but it is still best not to try it first on a live community.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. Go to Reign Settings > Extend. Find BuddyNext and select Install free. If it says Installed, activate, select Activate instead. You do not need a licence for this.
  2. Open any admin page, for example Dashboard. WordPress takes you to the BuddyNext setup wizard. It has eight steps, and Continue moves you on. Most steps are safe to accept as they are:
    • Branding: your community name and one brand colour.
    • Who can join your community?: choose Open registration for a public community.
    • Set up the pages members will visit: BuddyNext creates Community Feed (/activity/), Members (/members/) and Spaces (/spaces/) for you.
    • What’s powering your community?: every companion plugin is ticked. Untick the ones you do not need before you select Continue, or they are all installed and switched on.
  3. On the last step, Your community is ready., select Add sample content. This adds 12 members, 14 spaces and 22 posts with images, so you can see the site as members will. To remove it later, go to BuddyNext > Platform > Tools, find Demo Data and select Remove Demo Data.
  4. Set up your menus. Go to Appearance > Menus, create a menu and assign it to Primary - Logged in users and Primary - Logged out users. Then assign a second menu to User Profile. This second menu fills the dropdown that opens from a member’s avatar. Build it from the BuddyNext box on the Menus screen, not from typed links, and leave out Log Out (BuddyNext adds it). The full walk-through is in set up your menus.
  5. Check the header icons. Go to Appearance > Customize > Header > Layout and open Header Icons Options. The Message, Notification and User Menu icons are always present with BuddyNext. Drag them into the order you want.
  6. Decide how login and register buttons behave. To use BuddyNext’s own login screens, leave **Appearance > Customize > General > Sign-in & Register Popup

    Sign-in Popup** switched off, and leave Login Page and Registration Page empty under General > Page Mapping.

  7. The Register button only shows when sign-ups are open. You already chose this in the wizard’s Who can join your community? step: Open registration turns WordPress’s Anyone can register on for you. To change it later, use BuddyNext > Members > Registration & Login, not Settings > General, so the two stay in step.
  8. Set a terms page. A fresh BuddyNext asks members to agree to your terms but has no terms page yet, and shows a notice saying so. Create a page with your terms, then select Choose a Terms page on that notice.

Check it worked

Section titled “Check it worked”
  1. Open your site in a private (incognito) browser window. You are now a logged-out visitor. Select the header Login and Register buttons. They should open BuddyNext’s screens, usually at /login/ and /login/signup/.
  2. Log in as a member. Check that the bell, messages icon and avatar appear in the header, and that the avatar dropdown shows your User Profile menu with Log Out.
  3. Open Reign Settings > Integrations. You should see a BuddyNext tile reading Styling active.
  4. Look at the site on a phone. See make it look right on phones.

If something looks wrong

Section titled “If something looks wrong”
  • Login opens a popup, not BuddyNext’s screen. The sign-in popup is on and it wins over BuddyNext. Switch Sign-in Popup off.
  • Login opens a page you did not expect. A page is chosen under General > Page Mapping. Set Login Page and Registration Page back to “— Select a Page —”.
  • There is no Register button. Registration is closed. Set Registration mode to Open registration under BuddyNext > Members > Registration & Login.
  • A notice says terms consent is on but no Terms page is set. Select Choose a Terms page on the notice and pick your terms page.
  • Pages look unfinished. Run BuddyNext’s setup wizard to the end first.
  • The site shows an error after the companion plugins step. One of the plugins it switched on failed. Go to Plugins, deactivate the plugin named in the error, and contact support for that plugin.
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