CUNY Academic Commons

Hi Boone,

Thanks for this detailed response. Sorry if my description was convoluted but I think you understood what I was getting at.

I think what you mean is the interface shown in group-blog.jpg: when writing a post on a group blog, you have the option to send the post to the group. (Not the group forum.) Is that correct?\

Yes. The prof does not want every post on the site posted to the linked group. (to complicate this, they woul most prefer that only admin posts are sent to group and emailed out.)

1. We could introduce a config setting so that group/site admins could decide whether this box is checked by default.

I agree that this is probably the best option.

where does such a setting live? Maybe under the existing Group Site settings ([group] > Manage > Group Site)?

Yes, locating in the group settings makes sense to me.

We'd then need some thought about the settings interface, as it's a pretty arcane piece of configuration.

This convo probably dovetails with revisiting the group UX (which might be happening this fall? not sure)

But either way, it sounds like it's not likely that this toggle will be available by the start of this semester? Understandable -- but I will then advise the interested faculty that we will need to develop a workaround this semester to stop site posts being default posted to group. I am going to suggest uncoupling the group/site once students have joined - so they join both spaces but then faulty can use the group to email the class. If you have any other suggestions or ideas for workarounds, let me know!

Sorry if this follow up is also convoluted - it is a complicated process!

Thanks!

I will add, if 3 is possible now, I have a few sites/faculty members who could beta test this semester.

3. We could build a tool in the Network Admin back-end that allows members of the CAC team to change the default 'checked' status of the checkbox on a per-user/per-site basis, on request from the site owner.

But I realize we may just want to avoid this method altogether.

I will add, if 3 is possible now, I have a few sites/faculty members who could beta test this semester.

I'm concerned that this will create undue maintenance overhead for us, by (a) requiring a member of the team to be responsible for managing the settings, and/or (b) requiring us to maintain backward compatibility with this global config if we do introduce the kinds of UI described earlier in this ticket. For now, I'd suggest that the instructors find other ways of dealing with this problem.

I think either option 1 or 2 would be good to implement.

Option 2 would offer group admins more flexibility. Perhaps we could implement option 2 like this:

# Sending Posts to the Group

By default, posts on the Group Site are sent to the group's activity stream, which triggers email notifications for subscribed group members. You can modify this behavior with the following settings.

## Allow members with the ___ role the option to send a group email whenever their post is published.

   Members with this role (or with a higher permission) will see a 'Send to Group' checkbox in the editor sidebar when creating a new Group Site post. This checkbox is checked by default. Users can also uncheck this box to prevent having their post sent to group members when publishing.
   Members with a lesser role will not be able to see this checkbox and will not have their Group Site post sent to group members or have their post published to the group's activity stream.

__ would be a select dropdown with all core WordPress roles and would default to "Author". Then for sites like what Laurie mentioned in the main ticket description, the group admin could toggle the role to "Editor" or "Administrator", which would address the issue pretty easily.

The dropdown could also be changed to list just the group roles -- Group Administrators, Group Moderators, Group Members -- if that helps to simplify the terminology, verbiage and options.

So, if you are mapping moderators to Editor, and members to Author, what would you choose in the dropdown? Author? Should we then assume that this permission/default applies also to Editors (in other words, "Authors and higher")? Or do we need separate dropdowns for each mapped type in the bp-groupblog interface?

"Authors and higher" is correct. No need for separate dropdowns.

I note this in comment 5 in the code block:

Members with this role (or with a higher permission) will see a 'Send to Group' checkbox in the editor sidebar when creating a new Group Site post. This checkbox is checked by default. Users can also uncheck this box to prevent having their post sent to group members when publishing.

Members with a lesser role will not be able to see this checkbox and will not have their Group Site post sent to group members or have their post published to the group's activity stream.

The verbiage could be changed to explain things better. The copy I wrote above is just some placeholder text.