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Add user

1 Description

In the current version 3.10, the process for adding a user to a course, group or role is the following:

1. Click on "Add user" or "Add member",
2. Searching for the user - either for user name , first or surname
3. Click the check box of the "right" search result and add this user.

Unfortunately the search form fills the entire screen and the search results are always listed below. Why not changing the screen design for step 3? My suggestion for this third step would be to display the search results and a button "New Search" instead of showing the entire search form (see below).

2 Status

• Scheduled for Release: Release 4.0
• Funding: Partly funded by PH Zürich
• Development: Feature is to be developed by LEIFOS

3 Additional Information

• If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: Matthias Kunkel

4 Discussion

JF, 26 Jan 2009:

• Additional idea: We add an input box on the members screen with an "Add" (deactivated) and a "Search" button. If a user enters more than three letters an ajax drop down lists offers all matches. If a valid user is entered, the "Add" button is activated. Otherwise the user may search and the search is already performed in all db fields (last name, first name, institution, ...)

Little, 26/01/2009: (edit 16/2/2009)

• @JF: Interesting idea, but with the "matches-list" some will have a data/privacy protection-problem. (OK, the search results 'til now are also showing similar names) Anyway: We like the alternative! We suppose the search includes every kind of key? (group members, names, mail?) Btw: How about a new key "course members"?

JF (aka Jour Fixe), 18 May '09: We tried to understand Little's posting - but failed :-(. What are you meaning by "key"?
We will try to implement the two-step solution (input box with ADD and SEARCH; search form as suggested above).

W. Randelshofer May 19, 2009

In our team we discussed an alternative approach to speed up the workflow:

Additions to the "Edit participants" page:
- Add a multiline input field at the bottom.
- Add check boxes for each available role ("Course-Administrator", "Course-Tutor", "Course-Member", …). Course-Members is checked by default.
- Add two buttons "Add", "Remove".

Supported workflows:

Quickly add multiple users to a group/course:

1. Fill in multiple login names and/or e-mail addresses into the multiline field. The users can be separated by whitespace. Commas can also be used as separators.

2. Check roles as needed. (Since a user can assume more than one role in a group/course, it is possible to check multiple roles).

3. Click "Add"

4.a If ILIAS can not find all login names in its database, or if the e-mail addresses do not uniquely identify a single login name, a descriptive error message is displayed.

4.b If ILIAS can uniquely identify all logins and addresses, the roles are assigned to the users.



Quickly remove multiple users from a group/course:

Same as above, except for steps 3 and 4:

3. Click "Remove"

4.a If ILIAS can not find all login names in its database, or if the e-mail addresses do not uniquely identify a single login name, a descriptive error message is displayed.

4.b If ILIAS can uniquely identify all logins and addresses, the roles are de-assigned from the users.


This workflow is very fast, because it gets rid of the "search" step if login names or e-mail adresses are already known.
Furthermore - since the contents of the multiline field can be copied and pasted - it is possible to quickly add the same list of users to multiple courses.

Little, 12.06.2009:

@JF:
You're right: My posting was more than cryptic, sorry!

First thing: I've seen your solution in 3.11.0 Pre Alpha b and I'm in love with its slim/"simple" look!

2nd thing: After clicking the "search users"-button it's possible to search via "Login", "Group name" and "Role name". I know, that one can search via "Role name" to find course-members but I'm sure that a lot of admins try to do it via "group name" (and they'll be disappointed). With my last (strange) posting I was pleading for a possibility to search via "Course name", too. That would be more explicit.

3rd thing: For (even more) simplicity: Would it be possible to check automatically the regarding checkbox of the searchform, when one has filled in a field ("Login", "Group name", "Role name")? Because if you checked a box once , after hopping to another group/course it's still checked and you don't get results. The automatical checking would prevent frustration.

@W.Randelshofer:
Having the possibility to search via e-mail-adresses for multiple accounts at the same time would be nice, according to me. But I like the new slim look very much... So I'd prefer the current (new) version to your more comfortable solution, if it means to lose all this new gained space and simplicity (!). (Multiline fields need a lot of space and the more checkboxes are shown, the less clarity there is because of the visual noise, I'd say.)

JF 29 June 2009: We keep the slim version for now. However the text field allows to enter multiple users, separated by comma. We currently do not want to add an additional "Remove GUI element", since it would need an additional input field. It would be confusing to add a "Remove" button after the "Add" in the current version. We also want to add "Course Members" to the search form. If the search form is implemented with the new form class, the input field for course/role will be hidden, unless the radio box is checked.

5 Follow-up