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.

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.

Please raise any queries you have in this forum...