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User Blogs Question

hi there I got a question which I’m not quite sure how to word but let me give it a try.

FYI I’m trying to do this using the Social theme.

I want to offer user blogs to registered members I don’t want them to spawn their own actual blogs. what I mean is that I want everything to display within the default Social theme. Much like the main blog does so that I have control over the layoutstyle and (preferably if possible)sidebar content.

basically I would like the user blogs let’s say http://avi.buddypressthemes.org to display like http://buddypressthemes.org/blog. Not talking about URL display on talking about the actual page.

so can this be done and if so any suggestions on how to do it.

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 5:57:34
  • Avi
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    Yeah I thought you might say something like that.

    Me not actually being all that code savvy I’m afraid to ask the following but here it goes. His hard coding relatively easy to do or is it something manual in tricky but I would have to do for each new blog created?

    While I’m at it I might as well ask, would I need to go in and re-change everything on user blogs ( assuming I wanted their blogs have the same layout as the main blog/site) every time I played around with my main sites widgets?

    Thanks again for getting back to me.

  • Aaron
    • Ex Staff

    would I need to go in and re-change everything on user blogs ( assuming I wanted their blogs have the same layout as the main blog/site) every time I played around with my main sites widgets?

    Yes. There have been a number of people who’ve asked for a plugin that cascades widget settings to member blogs. I have actually coded one before, but it requires all the themes to be identical anyway.

  • Avi
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    thanks for the suggestion Aaron.

    Set a curiosity how much does something like that normally cost? I’m kind of doing everything on my own and learning as I go. my project is being funded out of pocket and I’m up poor, poor man. I don’t even think I’ll be able to renew my subscription here next month but anyways that’s another thing altogether.

  • Andrew
    • Champion of Loops

    It’s really hard to estimate how much other developers would charge for a plugin I’m afraid. One thing to watch out for is inexperienced developers with a low hourly rate. You’ll often end up paying more in the end as they’ll have to spend more time than a developer with a lot of experience.

    Thanks,

    Andrew

  • toddfarmer
    • Design Lord, Child of Thor

    @Aaron – cascading widget settings for the social theme is exactly what I need for my implementation, too.

    For this project, I need to (a) create a standardized interface for visitors, and (b) make it simple and no-frills for my bloggers so they can get started using our template

    All blogs will need to inherit the core theme as well as the widget settings when a user sets up a blog.

    Without an automated solution, I’ll need to manually create the blogs and set their widget settings by hand.

    …moreover, if I update the core site’s widget settings, I’ll have to cascade that manually, too.

    Any plans on creating a plugin for this specific purpose?

    If not, how many hours should I expect for a competent WPMU developer to create this?

    Assuming I’d provide a template end user widget-ready theme to base it off of, I’d assume it would take less than 5 hours. Your input would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks!

    Todd