This module allows users to create private or public groups of users. Groups can be public and joinable or closed to new membership, and the group owner can decide if new members require approval or not. Users can search groups by Category, Country or freetext tags. If the group allows new members then they can join the group. The group owner can send Private Messages to the group or invite groups to Events. This module was based loosely on the MySpace and Facebook Groups implementation.

 See the Poker Groups on PokerDIY for an example of an implementation (here is an example of a Alabama poker group).

You can download a free trial version for your own site.

 Enhancements

• Added Alphabet Search Filter to bottom of GroupSearch page
• New Setting on Group Detail to optionally set the browser title/keywords and decription to the Group Name or to format the current one (CurrentTitle - {0} {1}) for SEO (optional params are GroupName and Group City) and visual effect
• ModuleTitle setting on Group Detail now works. Use format "Current Module Container Title - {0}" where {0} is the Group Name
  • http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Forums/tabid/795/forumid/111/threadid/220846/scope/posts/Default.aspx
• New Token [PROFILEIMAGESMALL], used for list views to display the profile image at 50*50
• New Token [COUNTRYFLAG], which displays the flag for any Country of Location (For EventDetail and Event Guests).
• [ISINROLE] Token now also supports output if false - [ISINROLE|RoleName|OutputIfTrue|OutputIfFalse] e.g. [ISINROLE|Administrators|Admin|Not an Admin]
• Generated token images (Online/CountryFlag) now populate alt text
• WallCanPost cache is now invalidated when a user joins or leaves a group so the Wall is updated immediately to reflect this after a refresh instead of waiting for the 2 minute cache to expire 
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/32/threadid/4953/scope/posts/Default.aspx
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/32/postid/5065/scope/posts/Default.aspx
• Removed duplicated CSS styles from Module.css. You will need to follow the steps described in this post to retain module styles        
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/5/postid/5209/scope/posts/Default.aspx
• Replace Jscript calls - http://www.mitchelsellers.com/Blogs/tabid/54/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/205/Delete-Confirmation-The-Easy-Way-in-DNN.aspx
• Refactored Load/Save templating settings
• Made AcceptMembership and DeclineMembership buttons more obvious with CSS on GroupDetail page.

Bug Fixes

•  Fixed bug with UserMyGroups showing groups with unapproved group membership
• Fixed bug with selecting users on subsequent pages of the user control
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/26/postid/5174/scope/posts/Default.aspx
• ModuleSettings screen now checks for invalid TabID for integration options
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/26/threadid/4638/scope/posts/Default.aspx
• Fix mispelling
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/26/threadid/3864/scope/posts/Default.aspx
• Localized missing language strings
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/5/threadid/4051/scope/posts/Default.aspx
• Fixed problems with Profile Pics when Portal used non-numeric Portal Directory
• Removed extra "/" in image URL (AddtoEvent, AddtoGroup etc) e.g. src="/DesktopModules/Smart-Thinker%20-%20UserProfile//images/addtoevent.gif"
• Fixed problem with profile image when a user had a space in front of their FirstName
• DropDownLists of User-Type now show DisplayName and not Full Name

Note that a UserGroup is a logical, user-defined grouping, and does not affect security or access rights. Please raise any queries about this module on the UserGroup Forum here.

After upgrading you will need to edit the module settings to take advantage of the new features. It is highly suggested that you localise the email templates to punch directly into the Group view (for group invites) - see PokerDIY for an example. This highly increases usablity (feel free to play around on PokerDIY and request to join our DotNetNuke Poker Group if you want to see the emails that are sent).

This module allows users to create private or public groups of users. Groups can be public and joinable or closed to new membership. Users can search groups by Category, Country or freetext tags. If the group allows new members then they can join the group. The group owner can send Private Messages to the group or invite groups to Events. This module was based loosely on the MySpace Groups implementation.

Major Update: Integrates with the Smart-Thinker UserProfile to provide "Add to Group" functionality. Each profile can now display an "Add to Groups" button which displays the logged on users groups. You can see this on my PokerDIY profile.

New Features: The Group Owner can choose if group members can send private messages to the whole group or if just they can. New views to display the groups for the logged on user, or the public groups for a user's profile you are viewing. There is now also a "Latest Groups" view to show the groups most recently created. See the Poker Groups on PokerDIY for an example of an implementation.

Warning if Upgrading: Please check that all your module integrations (ie. UserProfile/Ventrian/Group pages) work by saving the settings again for each view. Some changes were made that might have affected them, but a quick check will fix it.

You can download a free trial version for your own site here.

 Enhancements

•     Added new view for "Add to Group" support for next UserProfile version - Add To Group button on a user's profile
•     Added new view for "My Groups" - shows the groups that a user belongs to (on UserProfile or for logged in user)
•     Added new view for "Latest Groups" - shows the latest groups in the portal
•     Introduced concept of LocationName (ie. John's House) and LocationURL. This will be rolled out to all locations in all ST modules
•     New icons for Physical or Online locations
•     Updated SendMessage icon to match rest of product suite
•     Group owners can now choose if all members can send messages to all other members or just the group owner
•     Profile Caching - significantly reduces database operations for user retrievals and searches - Highly recommended
•     Refactored code to improve performance with less DB hits
•     Latest template and settings ported from UserProfile module
•     Increased integration options with other UserProfile modules by allowing "looser" tab selection for integration options
•     Abstracted all duplicate template language strings into SharedResources
•     Editing of Group Description allows editing with the richtext
•     Editing of templates can now be done with richtext editor (FCK/FTB)
•     Optimised UserSearch Settings to be more efficient and use caching
•     GroupSearch screen has setting for displaying the Country search
•     Changed GroupUser insert statements to always check for existence before adding to reduce errors
•     Added new token for the Profile Image URL - this allows easier image manipulation
•         - http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/mid/546/forumid/11/threadid/2659/scope/posts/Default.aspx#2703

Bug Fixes

•     Profile Template fixes from UserProfile module
•     Fixed PrivateMessaging integration (no longer has settings - Template-based)
•     UserSearches now check for authorised users only
•     Change PM Integration to use pmtype and not type
•         - http://www.ventrian.com/Support/ProductForums/tabid/118/forumid/5/tpage/2/view/topic/postid/12829/Default.aspx

Note that a UserGroup is a logical, user-defined grouping, and does not affect security or access rights.

This module allows users to create private or public groups of users. Groups can be public and joinable or closed to new membership, and the group owner can decide if new members require approval or not. Users can search groups by Category, Country or freetext tags. If the group allows new members then they can join the group. The group owner can send Private Messages to the group or invite groups to Events. This module was based loosely on the MySpace Groups implementation.

Major Update: Group Member Approval (this was a sponsored enhancement) - group owners can decide if new member requests require approval or not. Users can now accept or decline group invitations (before they were instanly added). Now offers better integration with the Smart-Thinker UserProfile module, so that when inviting new members to your group you can select from All site users, MyFriends or both (this is a module-level setting). This follows the Facebook concept of only allowing users to interact with their Friend Lists. Email templates are used which can be localised to improve usability. Caching and SQL optimisations improvements have been ported in this version.

See the Poker Groups on PokerDIY for an example of an implementation. You can set up a test group to see the new approval functionality.

You can download a free trial version for your own site here.

 Enhancements

•      Group Member Approval - users now always get invited to groups, and can accept or decline the request (before they were added to the group immediately, which is a privacy violation).
•     The Group Owner can determine if new group members require approval or not (if Public and Joinable). If so, then they can approve new group requests. If not, the user joins immediately. Email notification is used in all cases.
•     "Invite New Member" screen can now be set to only show the user's friends (requires Smart-Thinker UserProfile module), or All Users (as before/default) or both. This means users could only ever invite their approved friends to groups (this will be applied to events too in a future version).
•     GroupOwner now gets notified when someone joins their group
•     UserProfile Result Lists can now be filtered on Role (Host User accounts no longer appear)
•     Optomised UserProfiling SQL (greatly reduces DB usage)
•     Ported all Profile Caching improvements into module
•     Changed the Back Button on GroupSearchResults to a LinkButton for consistiency
•     Added "Invite to Event" setting and Token (available in Events 4.3.7)
•     The UserProfile List control now only shows the Pager Footer if the total number of records exceeds the selected pagesize (much tidier)
•     The UserProfile List control now only shows the PageSize selector if the total records is more than 1 (smallest possible page size)
•     Removed "lblNoRecords.Text" from SharedResources (now in local resx file prefixed with UserSearchID), e.g. "AddUserlblNoRecords.Text"
•     Included AddToGroup, AddToEvent and NoPhotoS template images

Bug Fixes

•     EditGroup now checks EditRights on module (you may need to check your config to ensure the correct roles can still create/edit groups)
•     SuperUsers are now not added as a group member when they make a group on someone's behalf (they are never shown in profile lists so it affected the count. SuperUsers also cannot Join/Leave Groups
•     Module Actions are no longer shown if GroupID = -1 on GroupDetail page
•     When you leave a private or public group that requires approval then it redirects you to the homepage instead of staying on the detail page and throwing a "Cannot View This" error
•     Fixed bug with bad ObjectQualifier
  • http://www.smart-thinker.com/Support/Forums/tabid/111/forumid/26/postid/3261/scope/posts/Default.aspx

Note that a UserGroup is a logical, user-defined grouping, and does not affect security or access rights. Please raise any queries about this module on the UserGroup Forum here.

After upgrading you will need to edit the module settings to take advantage of the new features. Existing groups default to not requiring approval (as before). It is highly suggested that you localise the email templates to punch directly into the Group view (for group invites) - see PokerDIY for an example. This highly increases usablity.