Groups

Let’s assume you want to prepare data for a publication online, but you don’t want anybody to see these data, yet, except for yourself and maybe some co-authors. The best way to do this is by using a “Group”.

Groups are private areas on a Scratchpad which are only accessible to group members. A user can have a higher user role within a group. For example someone who is contributor to the main Scratchpad can be administrator for a group and edit group content created by other group members.

Content generated within a group can be publicly visible or hidden. The creator of a group is usually responsible for managing the group and its users, but he/she can give other users administrative rights.

Enabling the Group module

Before you can add a group you need to enable the Group module.

  1. From the Admin menu go to Structure > Tools
  2. In the Groups section turn the Group module On
  3. Click Save
  4. If a message appears that you need to rebuild the content access permissions, click on the Rebuild permissions link and rebuild.
  5. Go to the front page. A new menu item called Group content will appear in the Main menu. As long as there are no groups, the Group content page will show all the content on the site. In addition to the new menu item, new fields related to groups will appear when you add or edit content.

Adding a new group

  1. From the Admin menu click Content and then Add link for Group
  2. Enter a GROUP NAME
  3. In the BODY field you can enter a short description of the group that will be visible to users on general group pages
  4. Select Group visibility - Public or private
  5. Click Save

After saving you will see the main groups page which will show content linked to this group. It takes up to an hour for the Group name to actually show on this page and you will need to refresh the page to actually see it. However, you can already link content to the group or add members.

Add group members

  1. Edit the group

  2. Select the Members tab.

  3. Click the Add people link.

    ../_images/AddGroupMember.jpg
  1. Enter the USER NAME and click the button.

    ../_images/GroupPeople.jpg

A user’s role is the same within a group as it is on the rest of the Scratchpad and the only option is to give a member the “administrator member” role, which can be done on the page. Administrator members can edit the group and manage the subscriptions.

Adding content to the group

Add a new page

../_images/AddGroupPage.jpg
  1. In the GROUPS AUDIENCE box select the new group

  2. In the GROUP CONTENT VISIBILITY drop down menu select Private - accessible only to group members. Group content can also be public or use the default. The default is on public and this can only be changed by members of the Scratchpad team.

    ../_images/GroupPage1.jpg
  3. Click Save

You are now viewing your private group page. Note that the menu item linking to this page is visible and the page also pops up in the Recent pages block on the front page.

When logged out the menu item disappears and the page is not cited in the Recent pages block on the front page any more. The page itself gives an “Access denied” message (after refreshing the browser window with Control+F5).