Organic Groups Field Settings

By default, groups are public with public content. In this video I'll show you how to create private groups, that can have private and/or public content, as well as public groups that can have private and/or public content. That may sound a little confusing, but believe me it will make sense when you see it working. So let's dive right in.

In order to configure group access control, we need to enable the module: Organic groups access control. Then rebuild the permissions.

Enable

• Organic groups access control
• Rebuild permissions

Create a private group

To create private groups we need to venture into our first section of Organic Groups settings.

• Go to Configuration > Organic groups field settings

There are a number of bundles that can be chosen here, and in this case, we're going to choose the Group bundle.

• Bundle: Group

There are two sections of fields: one for groups, and one for group content. In general, you don't want to give a group field to something that is group content, or a group content field to something that is a group.
In order to create private groups, we want to add the Group visibility field.

• Fields: Group visibility
• (Add field)

Now, let's create a private group

• Go to Add content > Group
• Title: Private Group #1
• Body: (Lorem Ipsum)

Scroll down and you'll see that we can set the group visibility to public (default) or private. If a group is public, all site users, including anonymous users can see the group. If a group is private, only members of the group can see the group on the site. Let's set it to private.

• Group visibility: Private
• Menu settings: Provide a menu link
• (Save)

Now we see Private Group #1, and it's menu link. However, if we switch over to Safari, we won't see the menu link, and in fact, we can even type in the link directly, and all we'll see is an access denied page.

Create a private article in a private group

In order to allow articles to be private, we need to head back to the Organic Groups field settings. Select the article bundle, and add the field “Groups content visibility”.

• Go to Configuration > Organic groups field settings
• Bundle: Article
• Fields: Group content visibility
• (Add field)

Note: the option "Groups audience" enables a content type to be posted to a group, making it group content. This is the second way to accomplish this as mentioned in the first video "Organic Groups Setup." It can be faster to add this field here if you have a number of content types created before you install Organic Groups. While it may be just as fast to add the field like we did in the first video, when creating a new content type.

Now, let's create our private article

• Go to Add content > Article
• Title: Private Article #1
• Body: Lorem Ipsum
• Group Audience: Private Group #1
• Group content visibility: Use Group Defaults
• (Save)

Now we see Private Article #1. However, if we switch over to Safari and go home, once again, we don't see the article, and once again, we can type in the link directly, and all we'll see is an access denied page.

Create a public article in a private group

This time, we'll create a public article inside a typically private group

• Go to Add content > Article
• Title: Article #2
• Body: (Lorem Ipsum)

Scroll down and set the group audience to Private Group #1. Just below the Groups audience field, we have the Group content visibility field. Our three options are:

1. Public will make the post accessible to anyone (even anonymous users).
2. Private will restrict access to only group members.
3. Use group defaults, is probably what you will use in most cases, but since the group is private, and I want the content to be public, I will override that here.

• Groups audience: Private Group #1
• Group content visibility: Public
• (Save)

Now we see Article #2, and if we switch over to Safari and go home, we can still see Article #2.

Create a public group

Now let's create a public group

• Go to Add content > Group
• Title: Group #2
• Body: (Lorem Ipsum)
• Group visibility: Public
• Menu settings: Provide a menu link
• (Save)

We can switch over to Safari and see that Group #2 is indeed a public group.

Create a public article in a public group

Creating a public article in a public group is easy

• Go to Add content > Article
• Title: Article #3
• Body: (Lorem Ipsum)
• Groups audience: Group #2
• Group content visibility: Use group defaults
• (Save)

Since the group is public, the article is too.

Create a private article in a public group

Let's create a private article in a public group

• Go to Add content > Article
• Title: Private Article #2
• Body: (Lorem Ipsum)
• Groups audience: Group #2
• Group content visibility: Private
• (Save)

We can see Private Article #2, but no sign of it in Safari.
This could be useful when you have a group where most content is public, but occasionally want to post something just for group members.

In the Organic groups field settings, you may have noticed one more field option "Group roles and permissions". This is covered in the "Organic groups global roles" video, as well as the "Organic groups global permissions" video.