Subgroups for Elgg

 

I'm looking for information and feedback on subgroups for elgg. 

I need a subgroups module for a project I am working on. I have cast about looking for information on subgroups for elgg. I have found a variety of groups extension modules - subgroups, related groups, extended groups, etc. None fit my application need. 

In my application the primary requirements are:

1. A subgroup is a group within a group (it is "contained" by the group).

2. Its members are a subset of the containing groups membership.

Secondary requirements are:

1. Group tools (pages and  widgets) are subgroup aware (meaning they know about and can display content from subgroups as well as the containing ).

I've found a subgroup plugin (lorea I think). It allows attaching a group to a group. However, it does not have membership controls nor any work to change group tool behavior. 

I've begun coding and would love to get community feedback as I go. Thoughts?

 

  • I must say that I dont understand the need for Sub groups. That implies a hierarchy which is against the idea of a social group in the first place. I just put a long comment about it on another thread:

    http://community.elgg.org/mod/groups/topicposts.php?topic=241781&group_guid=212846

    However, I do see the need for associating groups together in various degrees where there is commonality - that makes sense.

    The fact that in Elgg you can belong to more that one group anyway means that you already have the basics in place. What you need to add is coding that allows groups to voluntarily share certain permissions - for instance, the member of one group can be a read only member of an affiliated group.

    Anyway, I wont repeat my entire post! :)

  • I too have been looking for the ability for subgroups, but my needs have been more for navigational purposes. I would like to have the groups to be browsable by things like animals lovers, then actual groups for dog lovers, cat lovers... It would be great if you could assign a user to just cate the sub groups, and assign moderators to those groups. I just created my first pluton, to allow me to dynamically change the text of the spotlight othe fly, but this one may be a little beyond my current reach.

    Do any of the existing group plugins just help deal with setting up categories and make it easier for people to browse the groups?