History: Organic Groups

Source of version: 38 (current)

! {{page}}

The idea of organic groups is that __they can be born, grow and die without requiring the involvement of an administrator__. More specifically, these are groups that are created by users and then subsequently managed by the creators of those groups by themselves (and also possibly other group leaders that they choose to add as well).

The concept of organic groups has always been partly possible since ((Tiki4)) as an improvement to the ((Group)) features (see the  [http://dev.tiki.org/Workspace+Roadmap#Organic_Emergent_groups|Workspaces Roadmap]). In ((Tiki 14)) there was a pre-release version of an Organic Group ((Addon)) as a proof of concept of something more complete, but it was realized that in order to do Organic Groups in a manageable and scalable way, Tiki would need a concept of ((Roles)) and ((Templated Groups)), which is  available from Tiki 21.

As such, if you are thinking of setting up organic groups and using Tiki 21 or later, check out ((Roles)) and ((Templated Groups)).

!! Related:
* ((PluginMemberList)) (Tiki4)
* ((PluginInvite)) (Tiki4)
* ((Group Transitions)) (Tiki4)

!! Old Functionality existing since Tiki 4

--new groups can be created by users via ((profiles)) and ((data channels)).
 
--Groups can be "open" or "closed"-- DONE

*each group has an owner and a moderator who can ban or remove users from the group.
*closed groups can exist which are accessible by invite or application only

!!!# Issues
if tracker linked to a group, subscribe from Plugin SUBSCRIBEGROUP should go to insert tracker item: link to [bug1793|Bug/RFE]

!!!# Community features related to organic groups.
*shoutbox specific for group.
*internal message to group.
*group activity statistics.
*invite to group by email.
*email (newsletter) to group.

!!!# Group Security details
 
All groups have 1 "owner" and >1 "moderators"
owners can: 
*transfer owner to other moderator
*create/remove moderators
*disband group with "remove" or "make public" option for group objects.
Moderators can:
*add or remove objects from group
*assing view or edit permissions to members.
*invite, approve and remove members.

!!!# To setup an Organic Group

1. Go to Admin>Admin Home>Profiles.  Click on the "Advanced" tab.  Create the data channel here.  There are four parts to completing the data channel.  For more information, go to the ((Data Channel)) page.  In the example below, the Data Channel is called "test".


2. The next step is to create two wiki pages.  One page will contain the YAML, the other page will contain the Data Channel.  For now, just create the blank pages.  Let's call them "Groups" for the YAML and "Data Channel".

3. Edit the "Groups" page.  Insert the following:

{CODE(caption=>YAML)}
mappings:
 DummyGroupName: $profilerequest:groupname$Default name$

permissions:
 DummyGroupName:
  description: $profilerequest:groupdesc$Default description$
  include: [ Registered ]
{CODE}

More detailed examples of the code can be found on the [http://profiles.tiki.org/Permission+Management|Permission Mangement] page in the profiles section.

Save this page.

4. Edit the "Data Channel" page.  Insert the following:

{CODE(colors=php)}
{DATACHANNEL(channel=test)}
groupname, Name your Group
groupdesc, Describe your Group
{DATACHANNEL}
{CODE}

The two lines between the data channel represent the fields that will be filled out by users to create the groups.  Obviously, the description can be eliminated if you don't want to include that.  If so, it should probably also be eliminated from step two.

Again, save once this is complete.

5. Once this is all complete, you will want to go to the "Data Channel" wiki page.  You'll have two boxes to complete for the name and the description.  Hit the go button and your groups should be completed.

dev:((dev:Organic Groups))

!! Functionality existing before Tiki 4

There was no organic group capability before Tiki 4, but there are related functionality such as:
* Admins can define Groups of users.
* Users can join some groups at registration.
* Users can join some groups after registration.
* Users can categorize pages so that they belong to a certain group.  
* Users of a certain group will by default create objects of a specific category (which can be but is not necessarily "owned" by a group). 
*Users can invite other users to register.
*((Eponymous groups)) upon registration a user can be assigned a group created identical to their username.
*modules, menu items and special content can display only for a certain group.

-=Alias names for this page=-
(alias(OrganicGroups)) | (alias(OrganicTeams)) | (alias(Organic Teams)) | (alias(OrganicGroup)) |  (alias(Organic Group))