Groups Setup

Groups represent the organization of media in the application. Groups can be found in the Community > Groups section of Media Factory.

Tip: Check out the article about groups, channels and collections on the Filemobile Blog.

The hierachy and list order of groups is displayed on the /grouplist and /galleries pages on the website. The application is optimized for displaying groups up to three layers deep, although the template code can be customized to meet your exact needs if necessary. If you want to change the order of the groups, just drag and drop in Media Factory. If you want to hide a group, simply deny it. The top-level group is configured in the galleryGroupFilter parameter of the Global Variables.

Tip: Create two top-level groups - one for displaying content, and one for content not for display. This is handy for keeping things organized.

Users can upload into multiple groups, and by default all bottom-level groups that appear on the website can accept uploads. You can modify what groups are displayed for upload in the sub_group_selector template. Use caution, this is for advanced users.

Tip: Create stand-alone upload forms by repurposing the /upload template using a single group as a fixed hidden field. Put them anywhere!

Another important feature of groups is that each group can have its own homepage, similar to the main community homepage. A group page aggregates everything within the group, including (optional) sub-groups. To access and edit the details of a group, click the group name on the /communitygroups page in Media Factory.

On the group info page, there are number of fields you should become familiar with.

Below is an explanation of the various fields that apply to the Media Community application. There are lot of other things that you can do with groups, but let's stick to what we need for this project!

Field	Description
Logo	Enter a media ID of a file uploaded into Media Factory. Various thumbnail sizes of this image are used throughout the application.
Name	The name of the group, used throughout the application.
Description	A brief description of the group. Not currently used in the application, but the field is available in the templates.
Parent group	The containing group in the hierarchy - this group's mom or dad. You can use the drop down to reassign the group to a different parent group.
Email	The email address of the group. Any images, video, audio or text emailed to this address ends up in this group.
Map	The map is used to populate the Longitude and Latitude fields below. These values are used to center maps on a geographic areas representative of the group, or placing the group logo on a map.
Email Template	The email template to use when sending email to group members. If this is set, any time content is added to the group, all group members receive the email. This is useful for alerting moderators or producers that new content has arrived.
tout	This is an example of custom metadata. You can add as much metadata as you want, but "tout" is recommended. The value of this field should be a tout header image for the group homepage.
Custom 1	This is a custom field that can be used for search and sorting. For example, if your group had a membership fee, you could use this field to sort all groups by price. Sorry about the uncreative name of the field.

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