Add-on Setup

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Add-on Setup

Before we can create any ranks, we need to make some decisions as to how Ranks will behave or look on our website. All these options are controlled by the add-ons settings, that you can find on your main point types Settings page in your admin area.

 

Base Settings

If you have multiple point types setup on your website, you will notice that the Rank add-ons settings differ from what you see on the Settings page of your main point type, and what you see everywhere else. The main difference is the add-ons Base Settings.

 

These settings are only visible on the main point type’s Settings page and controls the Rank post type. The settings you choose here are enforced amongst all ranks, no matter what point type.

First, we need to decide if we intend to try and list Ranks on our website with archives like you do with posts. Making Ranks public is not a requirement for the add-on to work. This is a purely visual feature.

 

Next we need to select what part of the Rank we need access to. In a majority of cases, a rank title, point requirements and a logo is all that is needed, in which case these settings become useless. But if you plan on making Ranks public, these settings can become useful. Developers planning on making customizations of the Rank post type should consider using the mycred_register_ranks filter to adjust how the post type is registered.

Rank Behaviour

For all point types that we want to create ranks for, we need to decide how ranks will behave. The question you need to ask yourself is:

 

Should a user get demoted if they lose or spend their points?

 

If the answer is yes, then Ranks need to be Based on Current Balance else Based on Total.

 

When you base ranks on a users Total Balance, you also gain access to the “Calculated Total” tool. This can be used if you feel the users total balance is incorrect or if you select to switch from basing ranks on Current Balances to Total Balances.

BuddyPress & bbPress

The Ranks add-on has built-in support for BuddyPress and bbPress. If any of these two plugins are installed, you can select to automatically insert a users rank in BuddyPress profiles or bbPress Topic Replies. You can also set the HTML template for how the details are presented.

 

As always, remember to save, even if you make no changes!