CUNY Academic Commons

I created a plugin for another site that does something similar.

There are a few admin options for setting the default role, allowing auto-joining without needing confirmation and turning on/off email notification to the site admin. The entry point for regular members requires the use of a widget though, and not the Sites Directory as what Boone mentions for #10464.

The plugin was meant for public sites and having members of the network easily join a site for collaboration though.

The one thing that my plugin will need to add is the ability to add a join button on private sites as requested by Laurie. This button would most likely need to go on the WP login prompt page or whatever prompt is shown on private sites when not authenticated.

Could be an easy win for 1.15? Might need some adaptation for the Commons and UX testing by Sonja.

I should note that there are also some very similar plugins on the wordpress.org repository. Depending on the needs for the Commons, those plugins could also be a consideration.

Boone wrote:

I can imagine this being part of the 'more' dropdown suggested in #10464

Yes, if we decide to implement this, I think it should go into the same UI pattern as 'Remove site'.

The bigger question is, if this is a feature a large percentage of site owners (particularly of private sites) would be interested in. Or if this is a feature that only a few site owners have requested. I agree with the concerns mentioned during the call that admins of private sites might not want people to join or that they might feel overwhelmed by requests to join their site.

If this is a feature we want to move ahead with, I would advice to set the default for this feature to what the majority of private site admins is requesting (disable it if the majority won't use it, but give the option to enable it as an option, or the other way around).

Do we have some insight into how many private site owners would want to use such a feature?

I think this is much prevalent in teaching situations than in others. Would it be possible, as part of our next release, to make this feature automatically present for people who have chosen "teaching" as the purpose of their site and optional for everyone else?

Would it be possible, as part of our next release, to make this feature automatically present for people who have chosen "teaching" as the purpose of their site and optional for everyone else?

Yes, this is possible. I would have to look at how we are saving the site meta for "Primary Purpose" in #10987 before I do this though. However, that information would only be available for new sites. We could also use the Plugin Packages marker (#9942) to determine if the Teaching package was activated.

Thanks, Ray! Just to note, we're not really using the Invite Anyone system anymore (I think it's just there as a fallback). Invitations are stored using cac-invitations. If we go with something like what you've described here, we'll need to interface with that system.

Invitations are stored using cac-invitations. If we go with something like what you've described here, we'll need to interface with that system.

Ah, you're right! Totally forgot about cac-invitations. I'll need to look through that codebase to refresh my memory.

One thing I forgot to mention is the "Request Membership" button should only be shown if the site admin enables this functionality.

We have three non-public privacy options:

[
    'value' => -1,
    'label' => 'I would like my site to be visible only to registered users of the CUNY Academic Commons',
],
[
    'value' => -2,
    'label' => 'I would like my site to be visible only to users I add to it.',
],
[
    'value' => -3,
    'label' => 'I would like my site to be visible only to its Admins.',
]

It seems like the -2 option would be the only logical place to use the "Request Membership" button. During site creation, if the privacy option is set to -2, we could show a conditional field for the site creator to allow members to request membership. This option can also show up somewhere in the admin dashboard. Perhaps under "Settings > General"?

Raymond Hoh wrote:

One thing I forgot to mention is the "Request Membership" button should only be shown if the site admin enables this functionality.

We have three non-public privacy options:

[...]

It seems like the -2 option would be the only logical place to use the "Request Membership" button. During site creation, if the privacy option is set to -2, we could show a conditional field for the site creator to allow members to request membership. This option can also show up somewhere in the admin dashboard. Perhaps under "Settings > General"?

Ray, I finally had a moment to look at your recommended solution and I like it! (https://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/attachments/12401/proposed.png)
This would, as it sounds, only show up for logged in users. Is there a fallback for public view or would private sites not show in the list at all – that's I think what you described on the call this morning. In that case we should move forward with this.

I also like the option for site admins to turn this feature off.
Thanks!

looks good to me, too!

Hi All,

I am wondering if the "request to join site" button might useful in several instances (all of which would require an admin to make the button visible):

A: in the instance of the site being "public". A professor may be teaching an open/OER course and asks students to join. I know that professors can invite students through the invitation system but if selected by the professor, this would provide an alternative pathway for students to join the site.

B: The #1 option above, when site is visible to all users of the Commons. Again a professor could be teaching a course that is open to the Commons (in connection with OER and open pedagogy. The admins may want users to request membership to join as an alternative to using the invitation system.

C: And the #2 option ray suggested above - When a faculty member requests that the site is only visible to users that are added.

I realize that A and B circumvent the invitation system and maybe that is why they have not been suggested. I can think of several use cases where students have trouble finding the invitation email and go to the commons directly to search for their site. In these instances, I think it would be useful to create alternate pathways for joining sites (similar to the pathways for joining groups).

Thanks for the suggestions, Laurie.

Options A and B are already implemented in the plugin I created for another site. As I mentioned in comment 2, the admin would need to activate the specialized plugin and then add a widget to their theme so users can add themselves to the site. The admin can choose whether or not the user can be auto-added to the site or whether the request would require confirmation by the admin.

I'll have something ready for testing on the development site hopefully by next week.

Hi Sonja, I mentioned that the "Request Membership" section is automatic for "Members Only" sites. These are sites that have set their privacy option to "I would like my site to be visible only to users I add to it" under "Settings > Reading" in the admin area.

If you're using a public site, you'll have to manually activate the plugin since this is not functionality that all sites will need.

Let me know what you think.

Raymond Hoh wrote:

Hi Sonja, I mentioned that the "Request Membership" section is automatic for "Members Only" sites. These are sites that have set their privacy option to "I would like my site to be visible only to users I add to it" under "Settings > Reading" in the admin area.

If you're using a public site, you'll have to manually activate the plugin since this is not functionality that all sites will need.

Let me know what you think.

Sorry I missed that, that makes sense.