Member Identity Seams - avatar, name, profile URL, cover

Free & Pro

How a plugin (third-party or one of ours) reads a member's community identity from BuddyNext, and the contract BuddyNext follows so you can rely on the result.

If you need a member's avatar, display name, profile link or cover on your own screen, call the helper below. Do not read the usermeta keys directly and do not re-implement avatar resolution - the keys and the resolution order are BuddyNext's to change, and code that reaches around these seams is exactly what drifts out of sync the next time either side moves.

The pull seams

All four are plain global functions, available once BuddyNext has loaded (plugins_loaded). Each is safe to call for any user id and returns a sensible empty value rather than throwing when something is missing.

Function	Returns	Notes
`buddynext_user_avatar_url( int $user_id, int $size = 96 )`	Absolute URL or `data:` URI	Never empty for a real user - BuddyNext supplies a generated initials image when nobody has a photo.
`buddynext_member_url( int $user_id )`	Absolute profile URL, or `''`	The member's community profile page.
`buddynext_member_label( int $user_id, string $fallback = '' )`	Display name, or `$fallback`	The name BuddyNext shows for the member.
`buddynext_user_cover_url( int $user_id )`	Cover URL, or `''`	Custom cover, else the site default; `''` means "use your own fallback".

// In your plugin - render a member the way the community does.
if ( function_exists( 'buddynext_user_avatar_url' ) ) {
	$avatar = buddynext_user_avatar_url( $user_id, 48 );      // always a usable URL
	$name   = buddynext_member_label( $user_id, 'Member' );
	$link   = buddynext_member_url( $user_id );               // '' if unavailable

	printf(
		'<a href="%s"><img src="%s" width="48" height="48" alt="%s"> %s</a>',
		esc_url( $link ),
		esc_url( $avatar ),
		esc_attr( $name ),
		esc_html( $name )
	);
}

Why `buddynext_user_avatar_url()` and not the usermeta

buddynext_user_avatar_url() runs the standard WordPress get_avatar_url() pipeline, which BuddyNext powers. That means it returns the member's resolved avatar under the shared-surface precedence (see below): a real photo - a BuddyNext upload, or a sibling plugin's such as WPMediaVerse - wins, and only when the member has none does BuddyNext hand back a deterministic initials image. You get the same face the community itself shows, and never an empty string.

If all you want is an <img>, core get_avatar( $user_id, $size ) also runs the same pipeline and is perfectly fine to use directly.

Overriding what BuddyNext returns

To change the avatar BuddyNext resolves for a user - a custom avatar plugin, an SSO photo, a per-site rule - hook the buddynext_avatar_url filter and return an absolute URL. Returning '' (the default) means "I have nothing, let BuddyNext decide".

add_filter( 'buddynext_avatar_url', function ( string $url, int $user_id ): string {
	$mine = my_plugin_avatar_for( $user_id );
	return $mine ?: $url;   // never clobber a URL another source already set
}, 10, 2 );

That filter is the single override point: it feeds both buddynext_user_avatar_url() and every core get_avatar() surface (comments, the admin user list, REST embeds), so you set an avatar once and it appears everywhere.

The contract these seams honour: own, share, provide

BuddyNext is the community layer on top of the whole plugin family, so on a BuddyNext-first site it hooks shared WordPress surfaces (avatars, mail identity, templates) for the entire site. Being that hub means integrate, never clobber. Every BuddyNext filter on a surface something else also touches plays one of three roles:

Own - a surface BuddyNext is authoritative for (its own routes, its own emails, its hub pages). BuddyNext wins, but scoped: the override applies only within its own context or send, never leaves a global filter altering another plugin's context, and ships an opt-out filter. (Example: BuddyNext sets wp_mail_from only for the duration of its own send, at PHP_INT_MAX, with buddynext_email_identity_priority to opt out.)
Share - a core surface many plugins fill with real member data (avatars). BuddyNext runs late, defers to any real value an earlier filter set, and contributes only a fallback. A generated placeholder never outranks a real photo. (See the precedence table in WPMediaVerse Surface Ownership.)
Provide - BuddyNext exposes its identity through the buddynext_* helpers and filters on this page, so a plugin that wants the community avatar/name/URL pulls it. Pull, not push - BuddyNext never forces its avatar onto your plugin's surfaces.

The practical upshot for you: read identity through the pull seams, override through buddynext_avatar_url, and if you register your own filter on a shared core surface, run it late and defer to a value already set - never let a placeholder win over someone's real data.