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Inviting Users to Join Groups

1 Initial Problem

Users can either join Groups voluntarily or are simply added without an element of choice.

We want to offer an alternative to bluntly adding users to a group and offer a more courteous workflow.

2 Conceptual Summary

Users can be invited to join groups. They decide themselves whether or not they want to join.

New Permission in Groups A new permission is offered: "Invite to Group".  New Personal Setting  A new setting in General Settings on Users' Personal Desktop is offered: "Allow inviting me to Groups". Users decide whether they want to be invited to groups at all. Only Users that check "Allow inviting me to Groups" will have the "Invite to group" action in their "Who-is-online?"-representation. In the future this suggested for adoption-to-group could be carried out via "Who is online? or "Contacts" or the "Member Gallery" of a course or group. See User Action Service for a general approach. A new "User Action" is offered: "Invite to Group".

Overall Process

1. User A wants to suggest collaborating informally to User B and thus clicks "Invite to Group" in User B's Who-is-online?-representation, which is only available because User B has put his or her Personal Settings accordingly. 
2. Depending on User A's furnishing with permissions and group objects ILIAS starts preparing the respective Group and User B.  is listed as iInvited. 
3. User B receives a mail with the title and link to the group, the name of the inviting User A and a confirm / decline link very much as we know it from the Contacts-Mail. 
4. User B confirms the invitation to the Group and added as a member. 
   • OR User B declines the invitation and does not become a member.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

• Members: Invitations table and sub-tab
• Permission: Invite Members 
• User Action: Invite Members 
• Mail

3.2 User Interface Details

3.2.1 Inviting to a Group

Manage invitations in Groups

Users with the permission "Invite to Group" are resented with a new sub-tab in the Groups Member-tab. It shows a table with coulmns:

• Checkboxes
• Name
• Login
• Invitation Date
• Invitation Status with values being: No Answer, Accepted (Date), Declined (Date), No Registration possible (Reason)
• Actions with values being:  Send Mail, Revoke Invitation (if it has not yet been accepted or declined), Remove (if already accepted or declined

The table is lead by a toolbar with textentry field (with autocomplete) for user Logins and an Action-button "Invite". The entry field behaves like the one in "Edit Participants" with the difference that ONLY those users are suggested or accepted that have checked "Allow inviting me to Groups" in their Personal Settings. 

• After inviting such a user that very user will be listed in the table. 
• The Action "Revoke Invitation" will (after a confirmation dialogue) remove the user from the table 

Both actions trigger a notification mail being sent to the respective user. The invitation notification will comprise links for accepting and declining

Whether a user has accepted or declined the invitation or currently cannot register for the group is shown in the column "Invitation Status". 

Invite to Group from 'Who is online?'

In a workflow similar to the one set out in Creating Groups from Who-is-online? users can be invited from the Who-is-online tool. The workflow is only offered if the inviting users has "Invite to Group" permission and the  invitee has set Personal Settings to "Allow inviting me to Groups"

3.2.2 Becoming Aware of an Invitation and processing it

Personal Desktop

Pending Invitations will be displayed in a separate List on top of "My Coureses and Groups". Groups are presented in the same way as in the repository (see below). 

Repository and Info-tab

If a user was invited this is indicated in the repository by a line "Invited on (Date)". Additionally the actions "Accept Invitation and "Decline Invitation" become part of the respective Action Drop-Down.
Provided that this user can currently carry out the "Join" Action, i.e.

• she has the required permission to do so
• the "Registration Procedure" of the Group is not set "No Self-enrolment"
• the Group's availability is not limited by settings in "Timings"
• other P reconditions are met

The Action buttons for "Join" and "Decline Invitation" are also offered on the Info-tab of the Group.

Mail Notification 

The user that was invited to the group receives an E-Mail about this fact and is asked to confirm this or to decline the membership invitation. 

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

4 Technical Information

{The maintainer has to provide necessary technical information, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components, necessary modifications in general services/architecture, potential security or performance issues.}

5 Contact

• Author of the Request: {Please add your name.}
• Maintainer: {Please add your name before applying for an initial workshop or a Jour Fixe meeting.}
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

6 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• ...

7 Discussion

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], Dec 15, 2016: I recommend to add a sub section for Who-is-online? settings on the 'General Settings' screen of a user to bundle all related settings and to make clear that these settings are only related to Who-is-online? When I first had a look at the screen I thought that this setting might have an effect on all group assignment processes.
And how is the permission 'Invite to group' handled? Is it an exclusive permission so one need to have this permission in any case to invite someone to a group? Or is it an inclusive permission of 'Manage Members' so every user with this permission can invite a person as well? Will this permission granted by default to any role template?

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], Dec 19, 2016: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for 5.3. We would like to have a setting in Administration » Groups to enable the 'Invite to Group' feature. If disabled, no setting would appear in the Personal Settings and no 'Invite' tab would be shown in the group. The permission would be shown anyway (similar to Learning Progress). The permission 'Invite to group' is an exclusive permission and not part of 'Manage members'. It affects not only the 'Who is online?' screen but also other 'User Actions' in the future (e.g. Membership Gallery).

Hesse, Joel [Joel_Hesse] 05.04.2018 - In general, we are interested in this feature. We would like to gain a more general process for all learning objects in the repository using the existing dropdown menu on the right side, next to the title on the left. The user should not need be member of this group. The link needs to be usable to be linked with a picture in the page editor. What do you think?

8 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and add screenshots if possible.}

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

• {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.