Organic Groups Memberships

In this video we will explore the way Organic Groups handles group memberships.

(Before we begin, I’ll create a new user named Chelsea.)

Requesting Group Membership

Let's have Chelsea join Group #2

• Login as Chelsea
• Click on the menu item for Group #2
• Under Group Membership, click on Request group membership

At this point, Chelsea could enter an additional message for the group administrator explaining why she would like to be in the group. However, this isn't being used right now, so, I'm just going to leave it blank and click "join".

• (Join)

Now, you'll notice that the "request membership" link has changed to "unsubscribe from group." This shows that her request has been sent.

Administering Memberships

While logged in as the administrator, I’ll go to the people section of Group #2.

• Click on the "Group #2" tab
• Click the "Group" tab
• Click on "People"

Here we see that my membership is active and that Chelsea's membership is "Pending."
NOTE: If she were to change her mind before a group manager could approve her membership, she could click "unsubscribe from group" and her name would be removed from the member's list.

To change the status of a user's membership, select the box next to their name (you can also select multiple people) choose one of the update options, and click update.
There are three update options:

1. Approve membership of the selected users (This will do what it says. The selected users will become members of the group)
2. Deny membership from the selected users (This will temporarily deny membership to the user, and they must re-apply if they would like to be reconsidered for membership. This will also remove a user from the group.)
3. Block membership from the selected users (This will permanently deny membership to the user, and they cannot re-apply)

This is also where we will assign members to roles. Group roles are covered in the video “Customize Organic Groups Global Roles” as well as the video “Group Specific Roles”.
Let's look at each of these update options in turn.

Denying Memberships

First we will deny Chelsea's membership

• Select Chelsea
• Select Deny membership from the selected users
• (Update)

If we flip over to Safari and refresh, we see that under Group Membership, it says "Request group membership" again.

Blocking Memberships

Let's have Chelsea request group membership again.

• Request group membership
• (Join)

Now, back in Firefox, let's block membership from Chelsea

• Select Chelsea
• Select Block membership from the selected users
• (Update)

Now when we go back to Safari and refresh, we see that she no longer has the “Request group membership” link, or the “Unsubscribe from group” link.
(In order to allow her to request membership again, we need to use "deny membership" to remove her from the list)

Approving Memberships

Let's have Chelsea request group membership one more time

• Request group membership
• (Join)

Now we will flip back to firefox and approve Chelsea's membership

• Select Chelsea
• Select Approve membership of the selected users
• (Update)

Now that Chelsea's membership is active we can flip back to Safari and refresh. And we see that under Group Membership, it now says "Unsubscribe from group". She can also see the post "Private Article #2" because she is now a member.