Monetize your website with ease. With Buddyvents v2 you are now able to create and sell tickets for your events. Receive commissions on every single ticket sale for your members’ events.

As of November 1, 2011 we will not provide any support for Buddyvents v1.x. The respective forums will still be open and accessible though.

All existing customers will receive a voucher code via email. Please make sure to check your inboxes and grab your discounted copy of Buddyvents 2.0 now. Don’t wait too long. The voucher code will be valid until October 15, 2011 only.

Check out the new features of Buddyvents 2.0.

• NEW: PayPal integration
• NEW: Ticketing system
• NEW: API documentation using Documenter 1.4
• NEW: PDF invoice system
• NEW: Sales overview pages for site and event admins
• NEW: Webhooks overview page for site admins
• NEW: 4 dashboard widgets (latest events, this months earnings, unpaid invoices & to be approved events)
• NEW: Custom Google maps info window
• NEW: Events/calendar shortcode system
• NEW: Support for native BP oEmbed
• NEW: Everybody can attach an event to a group (incl. approval system for group admins)
• NEW: Attendees can be added manually

Please find below the rest of the changelog:

• Added: Lots of PHPDoc style documentation for functions
• Added: Various display options for documents, schedules and iCal download
• Added: humans.txt
• Added: Various filters and actions
• Added: More consistent way of removing the upgrade nag
• Added: Backend access is controlled by custom user capabilities
• Added: Email notifications for approved/declined events
• Added: System for adding custom backend bulk actions
• Added: Events to main search form
• Added: Increased security
• Added: Increased security
• Added: Help texts on backend pages
• Added: Ajax loader to colorbox popups
• Added: API keys and webhooks get cleaned up on user deletion
• Added: API keys get suspended automatically if hit limit has been reached 5 times
• Changed: Even better JS loading both on the front and the backend
• Changed: Group contact details can be optional now
• Changed: Moved all options from site_meta table back to blog options to allow for multi-BP setups
• Changed: All instances of file_get_contents and cURL to WP_Http
• Changed: Invites are now disabled during event creation if events need approval
• Changed: BPE Extension now also works in the backend
• Changed: Grid view, Google maps and PHP calendar use AJAX to get event information
• Changed: Dev/minified versions of JS/CSS files
• Changed: Readme and changelog are html files now
• Changed: Slight style changes in the backend
• Changed: Various vars in activity stream functions
• Changed: Log function takes multidimensional arrays and strings now
• Changed: Inconsistency in event comment component
• Removed: Unused datepicker images
• Removed: All WP_DEBUG notices
• Bugfix: Ajax loader for invites did not show
• Bugfix: Group fields get prepopulated again when creating events
• Bugfix: Eventmeta did not get deleted under certain circumstances when event got deleted
• Bugfix: Timezone and venue arrays
• Bugfix: Single navigation showed unapproved events
• Bugfix: Publishing events to Twitter, Eventbrite and Facebook
• Bugfix: Search terms were not picked up on search results map
• Bugfix: Document extension could get deleted when editing
• Bugfix: Random events only return public ones now
• Bugfix: Calendar widget was influenced by normal loop default variables

Please find below the details on our SPECIAL DEAL:

SAVE 15% compared to the original price and get your bundle for EUR 101,15 gross each *

* Price includes 19% VAT for German customers and customers from within the EU unless a valid EU VAT identification number can be provided.

One bundle is consisting of one copy of Buddyvents AND one copy of Mapology! The offer will be valid for a limited time only or while stocks last.

Hurry up and get Buddyvents and Mapology while they’re hot ! Get the ultimate events and maps solutions for BuddyPress now!

Please visit Buddyvents and Mapology for more details on the plugins.

Please find below the details to our Winter Sales 2011 offer:

• SAVE 30% compared to the original price from January 29, 2011 – January 31, 2011: First 5 bundles for EUR 83,30 gross each *
• SAVE 20% compared to the original price from February 01, 2011 – February 05, 2011: Second 10 bundles for EUR 95,20 gross each *
• SAVE 10% compared to the original price from February 06, 2011 – February 12, 2011: Last 15 bundles for EUR 107,10 gross each *

* Prices include 19% VAT for German customers and customers from within the EU unless a valid EU VAT identification number can be provided.

One bundle is consisting of one copy of Buddyvents AND one copy of Mapology! The respective offers will be valid according to the dates specified above or while stocks last.

Hurry up and get Buddyvents and Mapology while they’re hot ! Get the ultimate events and maps solutions for BuddyPress now!

Please visit Buddyvents and Mapology for more details on the plugins.

Due to the ridiculous amount of work that has gone into the development of Buddyvents we have decided to increase the price by the 1st of January 2011.

The new price will then be EUR 50 net instead of the now EUR 40 net, so if you’ve been thinking about purchasing Buddyvents, then now would be a good time.

You can test the new features over on our test site, which runs the latest development version 1.5. The stable version right now is 1.4.1.

Buddyvents can be purchased in our online shop. Please remember to create your free account there first to avoid any problems should you come from outside the EU.

We here at shabushabu.eu wish you once again Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2011!

Here is an extract from the changelog:

= v1.3 =
* NEW: Event reminders before the event starts (Sponsored by Roger Coathup - THX)
* NEW: Support for the Achievements plugin by DJ Paul
* NEW: Basic member management for event admins
* NEW: Show spots left when member amount are restricted
* Added: Number of events show up on nav bars now
* Added: More widget options
* Bugfix: Missing var in notifications function
* Bugfix: Single events did not show when archived
* Bugfix: Archive template for groups
* Removed: Screenshots

The full changelog can be found here:
http://test.shabushabu.eu/2010/11/buddyvents-changelog/

Here is the current feature list from the readme file:

* Events can be created by any user
* Events can be attached to a group, if the event creator is a group admin
* Option to restrict event creation to group admins
* Admin definable events categories
* Event Privacy that includes group integration
* Activity stream integration
* Friends component integration (used for invitations)
* Event comments (activity stream integration)
* Events search
* RSS Feeds for groups, users, categories and all events
* Geocoded locations for events (can be manually modified)
* Google Maps v3 for all events / group events
* Adds basic information like address to groups
* Sidebar Widget
* Support for BP-Moderation
* Calendar integration (global, groups and users)
* Calendar start either on Monday or Sunday
* 12h or 24h time format
* Restrict number of attendees
* Recurrent events (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)
* Show/hide event categories on the map
* Image grid-style and normal list style
* Events on user profiles
* Proximity filtering for events
* Custom default avatar upload
* Action/filter documentation
* oEmbed support for event descriptions (oEmbed for BuddyPress needs to be activated)
* Events management in the backend
* Spam management for events
* Events archive for all closed events
* Get notified of upcoming events per mail/screen notification based on keywords
* Event reminder for event-members
* Integration with BP Achievemants
* Event attendee management

The readme file can be found here:
http://test.shabushabu.eu/2010/10/buddyvents-readme/

With Mapology it is possible to add various Google Maps (v3) including routes for groups, members and posts to a BuddyPress installation.

Check out some of the features of Mapology:

• Overview map for members and (optionally) groups
• Activity stream integration for users
• Profile integration
• Uses MarkerClusterer for basically unlimited numbers of markers
• Search radius for users, activity and groups (available from BP 1.3)
• Blog integration (shortcodes)
• User routes
• Routes can be attached to a group
• Activity integration
• Attach coordinates to blog posts
• Export as KML file
• Custom location post type
• Geo sitemap of all kml files
• Adds geoRSS info to normal feeds
• Feeds for global, member and group routes
• Group admins can remove routes from their group
• Routes directory, groups and member overview maps
• Integration with BP Moderation
• oEmbed support for route descriptions
• Grid view for routes
• Widget
• English
• German

For future versions the following features are planned:

• AJAX pagination
• AJAX route creation
• Import KML files
• Route categories
• Route tags
• Directions
• Frontend locations submission
• Custom infowindows
• Configurable distance search (e.g. 10 km from a chosen city)
• Proximity filtering for profiles
• Blog posts/location post type overview map
• Add super admin menu (edit/delete)
• Sort routes by continent/date/anything else
• Set default directory map locations (for user/groups and directories)
• Highlight locations tab on custom post type and custom taxonomies
• Refactor to use http://code.google.com/p/phpgooglemapapiv3/
• Combine KML files together for download (by group/user)
• When creating/editing routes be able to stop waypoint connections
• Create a map where all pins (routes/members/groups/events/custom components) can be seen
• Random route
• Finish hook reference
• Map ratings

Upon purchase of Mapology, ShabuShabu is giving free support for v1.x of the plugin including all minor updates, e.g. v1.1, v1.1.1, v1.8.5. After every major upgrade, e.g. when the version reaches 2.0, Mapology will need to be purchased again. Please visit the ShabuShabu shop for more details.

We signed up for an account just today and are fascinated by the system behind Flattr, being an alternative to classic banner or text ads when it comes to making some money out of your blog.

After your successful registration you need to add funds to your account being able to flattr things on the net you like. The minimum amount to flattr each month is EUR 2,-. At the end of each month, your monthly amount will be shared among all the things you flattred. By adding your own Flattr buttons to your website or blog, others are able to flattr your stuff in return.

ShabuShabu has three invites to share. So if you are interested in beta-testing Flattr, please write a comment to this post and we will send you an invitation code.

Have a look at the following function:

function shabushabu_change_group_tag_position()
{
	global $bp;

	if ( $bp->current_component == $bp->groups->slug )
	{
         	$bp->bp_options_nav['groups']['home']['position'] = 20;
	        $bp->bp_options_nav['groups']['home']['name'] = __( 'Activity', 'buddypress' );

	        if (  $bp->current_action == 'home' )
		        $bp->current_action = 'group-information';
	}
}
add_action( 'bp_init', 'shabushabu_change_group_tag_position' );

The first thing we need to do is declare the $bp global

global $bp;

To change the position of a tab we need to modify the bp_options_nav array. In this example we change the home tab position on a single group page to 20.

$bp->bp_options_nav['groups']['home']['position'] = 20;

The same way we can change the name of the tabs, like so:

$bp->bp_options_nav['groups']['home']['name'] = __( 'Activity', 'buddypress' );

Now, let’s pretend we created a new tab called Group Information using the Groups API. We already specified that the tab will be the first one, but the Home tab is still the default tab. We can change this by modifying current_action, like so (only on a group page and if the current_action was set to ‘home’):

if (  $bp->current_action == 'home' )
        $bp->current_action = 'group-information';

The only thing left to do is put the complete function into your plugin files and then add it to the bp_init hook

add_action( 'bp_init', 'shabushabu_change_group_tag_position' );

Let us know in the comments if you find this post useful!

A quick look around the net brought up a good few options:

• WP Job Ads (plugin)
• WP Job Board (plugin)
• JobPress (theme)

We actually went so far and bought a copy of JobPress (why re-invent the wheel?), it being a theme and thus giving us more flexibility, just to realize that this wasn’t exactly what we wanted or needed (bummer!). For one, it hadn’t been updated in quite a while. It seemed to be in a pre-WP 2.6 state. Just upgrading the theme to be able to utilize the power of 2.8 would have taken a full day.

We would have had to keep upgrading the theme ourselves as well. It doesn’t look like the author is interested in keeping JobPress up-to-date. It’s not what you’d expect from a product you paid money for. The code wasn’t written that efficiently and some features we wanted, like PayPal integration weren’t fully implemented. Also, JobPress is not GPL. In fact, it seems it doesn’t have any license attached. The author only told us that it was not GPL, but not, what it actually is.

In the end it boiled down to two choices. First, use JobPress, but heavily modify it (for all its disadvantages, it still does, what it’s meant to do). We wouldn’t be able to share the code, it not being GPL, but our job board would be up and running fairly soon, say a week. The other option would be to write our very own job board theme from scratch. It would take a lot longer, but we’d be able to do with it what we wanted, so we went with that choice and JobBoardr was born.

Basically, JobBoardr is a parent-theme, meaning that it can be modified easily through the use of child-themes. You can put all your changes into a separate theme that still uses the templates and functions of its parent-theme. This way none of your modifications get lost during an upgrade of the parent-theme.

There’s a bunch of other features as well, like localization, front-end accounts for both employers and employees, sending job applications as pdf to employers, premium job ads, 7 advanced widgets, an API (so other people can feature job ads on their site), automatic pdf invoice generation for companies posting a job, a complete backend for admins, through which many options can be changed and a few more…

Future features will include a lot of AJAX goodies, an affiliate programme and CV generation for employees, just to name a few. Plus, the job board engine will be GPL compatible. That’s the good news. The bad news is (for you anyways), that we will still need to charge for it. The price will be somewhere between €70 and €100. Our main reason for doing this is that job boards are making money for the people running it.

Here’s a little screenshot from what we have so far (things might change slightly):

At the moment we still consider JobBoardr unstable. The current version is 0.7 alpha. Once it reaches beta stage, we will upload a public hosted version and invite everybody to help test it. As a little incentive, we will give beta testers a discount. The bigger the help, the better the discount.

If you’re interested in helping with the beta testing or just want to be notified when JobBoardr reaches beta stage, then go to JobBoardr and submit your email address.

The features are very similar between the two plugins, which isn’t really surprising. They do the same thing, basically, but just display things in a different way. Read the changelog in readme.txt (included in the download) for a full list of changes.

Again, please let us know if you have any problems, find any bugs or just want to tell us how absolutely fabulous we are… For all of that please use the forum by clicking the link below!

EDIT: You will need the latest SVN version of NextGEN Gallery. A tutorial on how to set up SVN can be found here under Option 2

Cheers, Boris