While developing Breadcrumb NavXT 5.4, I spent some time investigating the compatibility issues between Breadcrumb NavXT and BuddyPress. Within Breadcrumb NavXT, every attempt is made to use the WordPress API, when possible, to maximize the compatibility with other plugins such as BuddyPress. However, this is not always enough, and the findings of this investigation are presented in this article.

What You Need

These are the plugins and versions used when performing the testing reported on within this article:

• BuddyPress – At the time this article was written, 2.5.0 was the latest available version and was the version tested against.
• Breadcrumb NavXT – Tested against a development release of 5.4.0.

What Works

Out of the box, group and user/member archives work in Breadcrumb NavXT 5.4.0.Unfortunately, the design of BuddyPress does not incorporate much of the standard WordPress content organization facilities. Hence, out of the box support for BuddyPress in Breadcrumb NavXT leaves much to be desired.

What Doesn’t Work

While user/member and group pages are detected correctly, the breadcrumb for the user and group archives/directory is missing. Additionally, none of the sub-components of the user/member and group pages are represented in the breadcrumb trail.

The Solution

Breadcrumb NavXT BuddyPress Extensions is a free, add on plugin for Breadcrumb NavXT that fixes many of the shortfalls in BuddyPress support. It will fill in the missing breadcrumb to the group and user/member archives/directories when on a group or user/member page. Additionally, it will fill in the correct breadcrumb trail when in a sub-component of a user/member or group page. It is a simple activate and you’re good to go plugin—no configuration required. For non-English language sites, note that you will need to use the included .POT file in the languages directory to create your own translation set to get ‘Members’ and ‘Groups’ to translate to your language.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]