BuddyPress and WP https plugin issue — tip

So I was having an issue with BuddyPress styles when using the WordPress https plugin (which normally works great with ssl pages). Since I also use s2member pro with paypal pro forms, I didn’t have a lot of time to really troubleshoot what is happening with the DOM when all three plugins are activated. Instead, I figured out fairly quickly that BuddyPress styles weren’t being loaded, though the call for them was being enqued properly. I noticed I was getting a 404 error for:

Get bp-template-packbp.css?ver=20110918

which, btw, also can be read as:

http://www.xxxx.com/wp-content/plugins/bp-template-packbp.css?ver=20110918

This is a dynamically built/added stylesheet that’s added to the header and associated with the following function in bpt-functions.php:

function bp_tpack_enqueue_styles()

Anyway, the first thing I did was disable the https plugin, so that I could capture the css normally added by the enqued stylesheet. I copied the css in that stylesheet (you can do that via Firefox or Chrome dev tools), and added pasted that css into my custom stylesheet (you can add it to your childtheme stylesheet, if you like).

Since I wanted to get rid of the 404 error that would occur when the https plugin is enabled, I also commented out the following in bpt-functions.php on line 127:

//wp_enqueue_style( ‘bp’, plugins_url( ‘/bp-template-pack/’ ) . $stylesheet, array(), $version );//

After I saved everything and re-enabled all the plugins, everything now looks fine in BuddyPress, S2member works the way it should, and I get nice padlocks in the browser address window on my ssl pages..

A few words of caution, and possible caveats:

You shouldn’t normally make any changes to the core or plugin files, and some folks (here) will yell at you if you do. Sometimes though, a plugin is only as good as the code in it. WordPress is constantly evolving and with those changes, come changes that are often required to maintain compatibility with the core as well as other (e.g.) plugins and themes. I often find myself having to make kludge like fixes just to keep up with all the changes that can and do occur. As a developer, I figure it comes with the turf.

Jan C.

P.S. There’s always the possibility that additional styles will have to added to my custom spreadsheet moving forward. At least now though, if something does break, I’ve got a workaround that seems to do the trick.