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.