Prevent duplicate Buddypress Group Names

If your buddypress site has the ability for all users to create groups, it’s always a good idea to ensure group names are original.

This code snippet ensure original names and inserts an error message to the user if the name has already been taken.

// Creating the markup
function check_group_name($group_new)
	{
	if ('group-details' == bp_get_groups_current_create_step())
		{
		$args = array(
			'per_page' => null,
			'populate_extras' => false,
			'update_meta_cache' => false
		);
		$groups = groups_get_groups($args);
		foreach($groups['groups'] as $group)
			{
			if ($group->name == $group_new->name)
				{
				$group_new->name = '';
				group_name_error_message();
				break;
				}
			}
		}
	}

add_action('groups_group_before_save', 'check_group_name');

// translatable error message
function group_name_error_message()
	{
	global $l10n;
	$mo = new MO();
	$mo->add_entry(array(
		'singular' => 'That group name is already in use. Please try again.',
		'translations' => array(
			__('That name is already being used. Please use a different name.', 'Buddypress')
		)
	));
	if (isset($l10n['buddypress'])) $mo->merge_with($l10n['buddypress']);
	$l10n['buddypress'] = & $mo;
	unset($mo);
	}