BuddyPress 2.3 beta 1 is now available. Project lead John James Jacoby encouraged site administrators and BP plugin/theme developers to jump in and test the new features.
One of the highlights in the upcoming release is the new Attachments API, which makes it possible for developers to create components that manage uploads. You can see this API in action alongside the newly improved avatar upload UI, revamped to include drag-and-drop upload and support for device cameras.
This release will also ship with companion stylesheets for WordPress’ latest default themes, Twenty Fifteen and Twenty Fourteen. These stylesheets provide a broad sweep on BP elements to harmonize the appearance of the plugin with the default themes and could use more testing and feedback from the community.
Jacoby noted a few other important items to test in 2.3 beta 1, including:
- Blog Post Activity generates better looking excerpts when posts contain images or other embedded media content
- Star Private Messages allows for improved marking of important inbox messages
- The Member Types API now supports member-type-specific directories
- Continued object and query cache enhancements
BuddyPress developers and community managers have plenty of time to test their themes and plugins against the upcoming 2.3 release. A release candidate is scheduled for the week of May 12th. The official release is expected to drop May 26th, shortly before the BuddyCamp that will take place at WordCamp Miami 2015.