The Catalyst Connect Plugin

[eric]

I'm super excited to share with you a Plugin we developed called "Catalyst Connect"!

Catalyst Connect is a simple, yet powerful Plugin that makes integrating the BuddyPress, BBPress and WooCommerce Plugins with Catalyst a breeze.

Whether you want to add Social Networking functionality, a full blown Forum, or a comprehensive E-Commerce solution to your Catalyst powered website you will need to apply some specific code tweaks to make it happen. So instead of requiring such customization of Catalyst by the end-user we've developed the Catalyst Connect Plugin to do all the coding work for you.

Just activate this Plugin and then start enjoying easy integration of BuddyPress, BBPress and WooCommerce with the Catalyst Framework.

( And yes, I just pulled all of the above content in from the Plugin's readme file. No need to re-invent the wheel, right? : ) )

For starters we're going to attach the Plugin's zip file to this post, but once it gets cleared for the WordPress Plugins Directory we will just link directly to that page.

See the full screencast here:

The Catalyst Connect Plugin: Showcasing BuddyPress, BBPress and WooCommerce Integration

See the Catalyst/BuddyPress/BBPress demo site here:

http://childthemer.com/catalyst-buddypress/

The current Catalyst Connect version is: 1.0

[doyo]

This is awesome. Thank you so much!

[acanthuscarver]

Eric,

I downloaded the plugin, unzipped it and loaded it in my plugins folder. Activated the plugin after updating to Catalyst 1.5.2. My existing BBPress forum seems to have lost all styling. The sidebar is missing and the forum is a mess. Just need to know what I may have done wrong and how to fix it. It makes no difference whether the plugin is on or off now the forums stay the same. I'm assuming the plugin is supposed to pick up the styling from the rest of the site?

http://www.acanthus.com/forums

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Chuck Bender

[jonhardison]

I know you can't see me doing this, but I'm kissing my screen right now. Yes. I'm literally staring at this post and kissing my screen. I've got these pro monitors that you're really never supposed to touch, but I don't care. I'm doing it anyway.

This is just a personal thank you for doing this. I'm downloading and installing it right now.

Love,
Jon Hardison-
(The guy that's been bashing his head against a wall for weeks cuz of BuddyPress...)

[Michael Eeden]

Thank You Thank You Thank You . Man I love Catalyst !
This is really going to help me out big time ...

[jonhardison]

I loaded everything up, but I'm still getting the "You'll need to activate a BuddyPress-compatible theme to take advantage of all of BuddyPress's features. We've bundled a default theme, but you can always install some other compatible themes or update your existing WordPress theme." message, and all my BP pages are blank. Did I miss a step?

Thanx for your help.
Jon-

[jonhardison]

Never mind! Got it. OMG It works!!! Did I say thank you?

[ben_pyman]

Awesome news Eric! Looking forward to getting a look at it in action!

[tara2]

That IS wow! Thanks

[eric]

Thanks guys! Glad you like it!

@acanthuscarver

Looking at your site I see some "broken" HTML in some of your forum posts. Code like this:

So, you're an Apprentice subscriber to the show but you just want more. Here it is. This is the place for you to ask questions, show off your projects and meet other like-minded woodworkers.  
style="display: none;" 2 style="display: none;" style="display: none;" 2 style="display: none;" 5 months ago
style="display: none;"

That's most likely what's pushing your sidebar down. Now it sounds like you're saying that this came about after updating to Catalyst 1.5.2, but I can't think of any changes that would cause your BBPress HTML code to break out like that.

Eric