Navigation

My Home

The first page one sees after log in is ‘my home’ page. My home is one’s own group of one – a personal window into Dgroups.

Three principal views of ‘my home’ are the content aggregator, my groups, and administration.

Content aggregator shows most recent content from all groups one is a member of. Content is grouped into content types and shows most recent six contributions of each content type, regardless of the group it was contributed to.

Click on any contribution title to read the contribution, or click on a group name next to the contribution to go to that group.

My groups shows a list of all groups one is a member of. This is a list of all groups one actively participates in and is interested in content of those groups.

Click on group title to go to that group, or click remove to terminate membership in the group.

Administration shows the list of groups one can administer but is not actively participating in. This is usually the case when one has delegated a number of sub-groups to other to manage and has no direct interest in participation (for example, some sub-groups might be in different language, but linked to the topic one started in parent group). This list is only visible to those who are administrators of at least one group.

Both my groups and administration allow you to sort groups alphabetically by title or short name, or to display the hierarchical relationship among groups.

Page Header

The page header is visible on every page within Dgroups. It provides access to your profile, search box, and button to access the help guide.

If a group has a logo set, it will also show the logo and the group title and subtitle.

Below the logo and group title is the breadcrumb bar, showing you where exactly you are within the site hierarchy. Click on any elements of the breadcrumb bar to jump to the page described within that element. For example, if you are viewing a file within a sub-folder, click on the folder name in the breadcrumb bar to return to that folder.

Directory

The Directory shows all groups within Dgroups that welcome participation from new members. A group administrator can decide not to expose the group in directory – in that case, it’s existence would not be obvious to users browsing through group directory.

Group directory is publicly visible – one does not have to be Dgroups user to browse the directory. This also means that the directory will be indexed by search engines, and will appear in their search results. If you are a group administrator, make sure your group title and description are well-written and useful in describing what your group is about.

When in group directory, use the paging bar on the top or the bottom of the page to page through the list of groups you can join.

When you spot a group you would like to participate in or explore its content, click on the join button to request membership.

Discover Other Groups

The Discover Other Groups button is visible on your home page. Click on it to jump into group directory and discover interesting groups you can participate in.

Group Homepage

The group home page has three principal sections: a welcome message, notifications, and latest content added to the group, broken down into different content types. Of the three, only the latest content is always visible.

If a group administrator provided the welcome message, it will always be visible at the top of the page.

If you are a administrator, and there are pending requests to join the group or content to be approved, my notifications section will appear above the latest content list. Once you handle all pending requests and approve all content, the my notifications section will disappear.

The latest content shows latest five of each content type added to the group, sorted chronologically. If there is no content of certain type, the grouping for that content type will not be visible.

Content Selector

When viewing a any page within a group, a green bar appears in the upper right corner of the page. The bar contains words settings or about depending whether you are a group administrator or group member, and then followed by content type names the group supports.

Discussions – click on this link to show all active discussion threads, sorted chronologically – most recent updated discussion first.

Library – browse the group library.

Announcements – archive of announcements to group members.

Events – calendar of events of interest to group members.

Members – a list of all group members, a who is who of this group.

Action Points – task list with task assigned to group members.

A group administrator might have decided to disable certain content types in a group, or prevent the membership list from showing. Accordingly, the content selector will only show enabled content types.

About/Settings link, however, is always visible. Click on it to see details about the group.

Administrator Tools

A group administrator has access to a handy menu for quick actions related to the current group:

Add group allows creating of a sub-group of the group the administrator is currently viewing.

Create member will create a new Dgroups user profile and will add that profile as a member into the current group. This function is also available via settings page, under members section.

Invite member will allow the administrator to invite a new member to the current group. This function is also available via settings page, under invitations section.