Improving the Groups page for 1.7

[anon29908737]

Me too!! I need more info…

[Falco]

@anon29908737

Me too!! I need more info…

Groups were created mainly to help configure category access, like in Group A can only read Category Z, and Group B can post at Category Z.

[scombs (Steve Combs)]

The new group page is looking good. Example at Discourse Meta (without the +Join Group button).

Will the “about” description field support markdown and HTML? That will provide a lot of flexibility.

I like how the Members/Posts/Topics/MentionedMessages nav collapses to “Members” on mobile.

[scombs (Steve Combs)]

Really nice work on the group page redesign. Thanks. Comments:

• The Group Title field in the new Edit Group page is updating the Default title for all users in this group field in the Group Admin page. This adds a title to everyone in the group and displays that title across the site even though a user may be in multiple groups. Seems like a bug. The only work around is to go back into each user’s profile and edit their Title field. Can we separate these fields or tie this to the Automatically set as primary group option?

• The Group slugs are showing on the user profiles. Could we show Group Titles?

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Hmm maybe we should not use title as fullname for groups @tgxworld?

[tgxworld (Alan Tan)]

@codinghorror

if the group allows it, let people apply for membership to the group, probably the easiest way to implement this is for 1.7 is a PM button that group PMs the group owners with a pre-filled title and body (we already support this).

This is implemented in

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/da7009a9683f324acc3bb75c2f1b892ab3b058c4

Group logging has been merged in as well in

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/05f55dbc1001227261c24d055e8b37a685fa9625

[tgxworld (Alan Tan)]

Instead of an edit modal which is too small to fit multiple input fields, I moved editing a group into its own tab.

@sam For the user selector, a valid username input is required to enable the Add button.

[ChrisBeach (Chris)]

@tgxworld - many thanks for adding this feature. It’s brilliant for my site.

Just one little bug so far - When adding a member using https://se23.life/admin/groups/custom/group_name, I’m finding I get the following error a lot and the user is not added:

I’m able to add them as owners.

Also a minor rendering glitch with longer font-awesome group avatars (as seen in Safari 10.0 on macOS Sierra):

[tgxworld (Alan Tan)]

@ChrisBeach

Just one little bug so far - When adding a member using https://se23.life/admin/groups/custom/group_name, I’m finding I get the following error a lot and the user is not added:

Opps fixed in

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/2686ee5ab29b33edc1fcb32811421c703bd60ff6

Thanks for reporting!

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

We also need some sort of basic groups directory page like /users but it can be very simple for this release, to be improved later.

Noticed that the group directory page was added here on Meta, awesome ! Understanding that major UI improvements aren’t happening in 1.7, at the moment it is awkwardly centered, making it hard to read. Can the column of group names be left aligned instead?

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Yes the guidance for @tgxworld is to make it mirror the /users page as much as possible, obviously far less columns and not necessary to be sortable, but the UI should match.

[Mittineague]

not necessary to be sortable

Not on the main Groups page, but I like the sort on the individual group pages.

For some of the more populous groups I think a “filter by username” similar to the Users page might be useful.

eg. I’m wondering if Awesome Plugin is still being actively developed.
I can go to the plugin’s topic, navigate to PluginAuthor’s profile and see how active he’s been lately.

But looking for PluginAuthor in the groups page might not be so easy depemding on how many members are in the group.

[ChrisBeach (Chris)]

at the moment it is awkwardly centered, making it hard to read. Can the column of group names be left aligned instead?

Great to see the Groups list page. Agree on the left alignment. Also, could we have description excerpts and “Join/Leave Group” buttons on the Group list page please?

[tobiaseigen]

loving the new groups pages - much appreciated.

one thing noticed: sorting by “last post” displays those users who never posted first. intuitively, it seems to me they should be displayed last.

[Mittineague]

sorting by “last post” displays those users who never posted first

Good question. What value does NULL have and how to deal with them?

I think it’s 6 of one half dozen the other as to where they should be shown, but maybe a “N/A” would be better than empty.

EDIT
I just noticed the group - Trust Level 2

How did they get there without meeting the
“replying to at least 3 different topics”
requirement?

[scombs (Steve Combs)]

Thanks for the /groups page. Some comments for consideration:

• need setting on Admin page for “Show Groups page”; remove from hamburger menu if not shown (at least until other features are added)
• need setting on Groups page for “Show this group on Groups page” (automatic, closed, and other groups could be hidden by group owner)
• show group title first on Groups page (not group slug or hide if title is present)
• sort groups by title (not member quantity or make sortable (so groups are easier to find)

The first item seems the most critical since a lot of sites might not want to show the /groups page until the page could be customized further.

[ChrisBeach (Chris)]

need setting on Groups page for “Show this group on Groups page”

You can hide individual groups from the Groups page by unchecking this (from the admin/groups UI):

Admittedly, I’m not sure what else is controlled by this setting…

[Mittineague]

You can hide individual groups from the Groups page by unchecking this (from the admin/groups UI

Yes, that seems to be the setting.

For example, meta currently has 29 Groups, but I see only 13 of those shown on the Groups page.

[tobiaseigen]

Trying to edit the automatic groups (to e.g. add fa-shield avatar) throws a weird error.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

I don’t think the automatic groups are editable.