In this video, I'll show you how to setup Organic Groups, create and configure a group content type, create our first group and post an article in that group.

Install Modules

Enable Modules

  • Go to "Modules" (admin/modules) and enable:

    • Chaos tools
    • Entity reference
    • Organic Groups (OG)
    • Organic Groups UI
    • Entity API
    • View Bulk Operations (VBO)
    • Views
  • (Save Configuration)

Create Group Type

After we have installed and enabled modules, we are ready to go! First, we'll create a content type that will be used for groups. To do that:

  • Go to "Structure => Content types => Add content type" (admin/structure/types/add)

    • Name: Group
    • Description: A group can be private or public and have its own set of roles and permissions.
    • Click "Comment Settings"
      • Default comment setting for new content: Hidden
    • Click "Organic groups" (Here we can specify or set the content type to be Group or Group Content.)
      • Select "Group" (This will define the content type to be a group. We’ll take a look at another way to define content types as “groups” in Video 7 - Advanced Private Groups)
  • (Save content type)

Configure Group Content Type

Now that we have our Group content type, we can configure the Article content type to to be group content.
Note: There are two ways this can be done, I'll be showing you one way now, and you'll learn the other in the video "Creating Private Groups."

  • Go to "Structure => Content types" (admin/structure/types)
  • Edit the content type: "Article"
    • Click "Organic Group"
      • Check "Group Content"
      • Target bundles: Group
  • (Save content type)

Add content: Group #1

Now let's create our first group.

  • Go to "Content => Add Content => Group" (node/add/groups)
    • Title: Group #1
    • Body: (Lorem Ipsum)
    • Click "Menu settings"
      • Select provide a menu link
  • (Save)

Now we see the group. Notice it says "You are the group manager", this is where the "request group membership" link will be for users who are not a member of the group.

This group is currently a public group, with public content, but membership requires approval by the group administrator.
I'll show you how to set up open groups where users can register without having to be approved in Video 10 - Global OG Group Permissions.
I'll also show you how to set groups and/or group content to be private in Video 7 - Advanced Private Groups or public in Video 8 - Advanced Public Groups.

For now, let's just post an article to the group

Post an article to the group

  • Go to "Content => Add Content => Article" (node/add/article)
    • Title: Article #1
    • Body: (Lorem Ipsum)
    • Groups audience: Choose "Group #1" (You’ll see that I have two fields for groups. The first is groups that I am a member of. This is the field that most users will see. Since I am also a “groups administrator” I have the option to post to groups of which I am not a member. Most users will not see this second field.)
  • (Save)

Now we see the article, and that it is posted to “Group #1”. If we click “Group #1”, we’re taken to that group’s page. You’ll notice that we don’t see any mention of the article here, and that’s because we haven’t configured the display of our groups. We’ll cover that in Video 3 - Organic Groups Layout.