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Group Templates

This feature request is a part of the Concept for Learning Communities specifically it is a sub-project to implement Teams. 
This article is related to Local Role Templates as well. 

1 Requirements

1.1 Status in ILIAS 5.1 

In ILIAS 5.1 we have two separate concepts implemented

1. "Didactical Templates" which are mostly Role Templates and their according persmission sets that can be applied while creating an object.  The setting "Group Type" with the options "Public Group" and "Closed Group" is actually selecting one out of two non-member roletemplate.  It is applying an implicit didactical template. Allowing proper and explicit roletemplates to be applied this hard wired implicit mechanism has to be healed first. 
2. "Settings Templates" for Surveys and Tests which allow to apply a specific settings configuration for an object while creating an object.  This implementation is thorny and bordering unmaintainable. It is not to be extended to other ILIAS objects because it is bad and we do not allow bad things to grow. 

1.2 Requirement for 5.2 

For Groups we would like to have the opportunity to apply local Didactical Templates. 

• The Group Types "Public Group" and "Closed Group" are to become Didactical Templates. Migrate built-in Group Types to Didactical Templates
• We would like to create a group object definition comprising local roles / permission templates. We would like to be able to manage this this object definition in the adminstration panel and give it a title. 
• We would like to have setting whether or not the application of this object definition can be rolled back to 'default'. We are not sure how critical this requirement is. 
• We would like the permissions sets to be optionally copied along with the object. 
• This would require to make the group title and description multi-lingual as well.

For the role template / permission part of the object definition we would specifically like to be able to 

• Define Group Roletemplates like Group Administrator, Group Member and Non-Member 

1.2.1 For 5.2 we want Groups with the didactical Template "Team" to work as follows: 

Content-Tab with the four sub-tabs is not considered of overwhemling complexity by Uni Freiburg. The sub-tabs will only be displayed to Group Administrators.
This tab should stay as it is in Groups of the type 'Team'.

• View
• Manage
• Sorting 
• Customize Page (only displayed to users with 'edit settings'-permission AND if 'Enable Content Editing in Repository' activated in global administration) 

Info-Tab is considered helpful as it informs potential members about the purpose of the group and provides information about it's owner. 
This tab should stay as it is in Groups of the type 'Team'.

Settings-Tab will be only displayed to the Groupadministrator. This person has signed up for extra respnsibility and can thus be burdened with extra complexity.  This tab should stay as it is in Groups of the type 'Team'.

• Group Settings
• Group Information
• Icon Settings
• Map Settings
• Membership Limitations
• Group Relevant User Data

Members-Tab in 5.1 is presented of the user has 'Edit settings'-permission. This should change, since we want everybody to have to opportunity to manage members but we do not want to overwhelm everybody with the complexity of the Settings-tab. 

• Edit Participants We would like to introduce a new permission 'Manage Members' so access to the Member-Tab can be governed by a local didactical template. 
• Group Members Gallery We would like to make the visibility of the Gallery a feature to be switched on/off in the "Additional Features" section of the Settings-tab, very much as it is for courses. Thus the default will be ON.
• Group Members Map no change required, feature can be switched off in Settings
• Sessions no change required, Sessions will not be available because of didactical template
• Export Participants no change required 

Learning Progress-Tab should be hidden from all people in the team using permissions. This can be done by the local didactic template. Thus no further changes needed for this tab. 

Export-Tab is presented of the user has 'Edit settings'-permission.  This is not considered a terrible nussance for the Group administrator. Thus no further changes needed for this tab. 

Permissions-Tab should be hidden from all people in the team using permissions. This can be done by the local didactic template. Thus no further changes needed for this tab. 

• Object Permission Settings
• Permissions of User
• Owner
• Log

Join-Tab is only displayed if the settings are set accordingly. It could be made a feature to specifically switch-on in "Additional Features"-section of the Settings-tab. This however is not required now. This tab should stay as it is in Groups of the type 'Team'.

Show Member View-Tab would be disturbing if people in a Team would see it. But only Groupadministrators have it and not Group members, since the dispaly of this tab is part of the 'Edit settings'-permission. It could be made a feature to be switched on-off in "Additional Features" but this is not considered critical by Uni Freiburg. This tab should stay as it is in Groups of the type 'Team'.

1.3 Road ahead: Template Object for Groups

General Concept of Template Objects for 5.3

The current implementation of the Settings Templates is thorny to say the least. We will not further the implementation of the settings templates as they are now to other objects. We would love to have them abanonned. 

But we really want to be able to pre-set settings of an object in an editable way without the use of an XML-editor and some config-file magic. 

Thus we want to take the concept of Portfolio Templates to a general level:

• Template Objects for ILIAS objects can be created in the reposititory. These Template objects could theoretically be created for all object types.
• Template objects are governed by RBAC, allow to pre-set settings, apply didactical templates (local role templates)
• Template objects may even come with content structures. Very much modeled after the Portfolio Template object. 

We have to elaborate a Template Object concept that would theoretically accomodate Template objects for all existing object types, to make sure the concept holds water. 

Expamle for Groupobject Template: such a template could 

• Content-Tab should be pre-configurable whether sub-tabs (View, Manage, Sorting, Customize Page) are available and preferably about the boxes News, Calendar etc.
• Info-Tab pre-configurable to be shown or not via Settings
• Settings-Tab settings should be pre-set, it should be pre-configurable whether or not the sub-settings are avaialeble i.e.  Group Settings available, Group Information available, Icon Settings NOT available, Map Settings NOT available, Membership Limitations NOT available, Group Relevant User Data NOT available
  • Group Settings should offer only the sections Title, Description, Type, Registration Procedure, Admission per Link and Timeline. 
• Members-Tab pre-configurable what sub-tabs are shown i.e. Edit Participants available, Group Members Gallery NOT available, Group Members Map NOT available, Sessions NOT available, Export Participant NOT available
• Learning Progress-Tab pre-configurable as it is now via permissions plus settings should be pre-set
• Export-Tab pre-configurable to be shown or not via Settings 
• Permissions-Tab pre-configurable as it is now via permissions plus permissions should be pre-set / come from didactic template 
• Join-Tab NOT configurable besides current settings
• Show Member View-Tab NOT configurable 

2 Additional Information

• Idea / concept: atoedt
• Interest in funding: (please indicate if you are interested/able to fund this feature)
• Maintainer: (will be set by Jour Fixe / maintainer)
• Implementation of the feature is done by (will be set by Jour Fixe / maintainer)
• Testcases by: (please add your name if you want to create the testcases for this feature)

3 Discussion

Killing, Alexander [alex]: One part of the complexity is a lot of "IFs" due to the tab deactivation. I think we can get rid of this completely. E.g. instead of being able to disable the "tab export", the export should be a feature that can be activated like other features in the "Additional Features" settings section. A settings template could deactivate the export feature in the "Predefined Settings" section.

I think we should also get rid of the "hide in settings" feature. Everything should be controlled by "feature activation" in the "Additional Features" section. This way would get rid of the "the object currently uses a settings template" message/handling. Since features could always be activated in the "Additional Features" section of the object settings. We would not need to "leave a settings template".

And for the application of the predefined settings we just may need better interface of the settings template service.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], August 01, 2016: We highly appreciate this request and schedule it for 5.2. Please move chap. 1.3 (object templates) to a dedicated feature wiki page as suggestion for 5.3.

4 Implementation

Implementation for ILIAS 5.2:

• Migrate built-in Group Types to Didactical Templates
• Introduce new permission "Administrate Members" for Courses and Groups, see Separate Permission for Member Administration
• New Group Setting "Show Member Gallery" according to Courses
• Optionally copy permission instead of using standard permissions when copying container objects

Group > Settings-tab > Additional Features > Show Members

Didactical Templates can be imported

You can limit the scope of application of the didactic template.  You can do this in the Settings of the didactic templates. 

The Didactic Templates can have titles in several languages.

To Update a Didactical Template, please work on the respective XML-File and then import the ew version of it.  

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 2016-08-18 by atoedt

• 12960: Didaktische Vorlagen importieren
• 12958: Gültigkeitsbereich von Didaktischen Vorlagen beschränken ("lokale Didaktische Vorlagen")
• 12957: Didaktische Vorlage in mehreren Sprachen pflegen
• 12959: Lokale Didaktische Vorlage anwenden und zurücksetzen
• 12961: Didaktische Vorlagen aktualisieren
• 5429: Zugriff auf die Mitgliedergalerie steuern

Approval

Approved at 23.08.2016 by Glaubitz, Marko [mglaubitz].