GCcollab Closed group defaults to secret/invisible

[klecuyer]

GCcollab is distinctly different from GCconnex because there is no longer the option to create a 'secret' or invisible group. This was an option at one point, so there are a few exception groups in GCcollab.

One group in particular: https://gccollab.ca/groups/profile/248078/feminist-international-assistance-policy-policy-suite-renewal-la-politique-dassistance-international-feministe-mise-en-oeuvre-de-la-politique-dassistance-internationale

There are two options for group membership settings: open (anyone can join) and closed (users must request to join the group

As a user who is not yet a member of the group, if I click on the link to request membership, I cannot 'land' on the page. There is no admin feature to show that this group is somehow invisible/secret and how to turn this off. What a non-member sees is this:

As a group owner, I can't set my group to be landable so users can request membership.

I suspect it's possible that this is somehow an exception that was once created when we allowed invisible groups on GCcollab. How can we make this group so that it's closed, but users can request membership?

@markwooff @LemieuxGen @KevinChagnon

[klecuyer]

https://support.gctools-outilsgc.ca/helpdesk/tickets/2435

[klecuyer]

Also, discussion topics from this closed group are appearing in non-members' newsfeeds and shouldn't be: Link: https://gccollab.ca/discussion/view/374331/evidence-base-base-factuelle This is a sub-group of the parent group linked above. When looking at the access settings: the current setting is 'Missing access level name'. I suspect the group owners do not yet know this but could be a concern in a closed policy group.

For non members, when clicking on the link in their newsfeed, users see: Could not find group.

[klecuyer]

When looking at the sub-group content settings, non-members should not be allowed to access group content. https://gccollab.ca/groups/edit/250682

[klecuyer]

In regards to access settings. Here's someone who has a colleague in the group (sub-group) but is not a member themselves @markwooff Link to user profile: https://gccollab.ca/profile/Conrad.Prince

[markwooff]

The missing field of Who can see this group? has been re-added so that a closed group can still be set to be landed upon, even if users don't have access to its content:

However this doesn't solve the issue with the group's content appearing for all users. Those discussions that have the access level of Missing access level name are actually set to public, but they shouldn't be as they are part of a closed group. Wondering if they were set to public in the past as changing a group's access level doesn't change the access level of its contents.

Unfortunately there isn't a magic button to set all group content to "group access" when the parent group is closed (although I could create one), but I've gone through all the discussions of the group Feminist International Assistance Policy - Policy Suite Renewal and its sub-groups to give them the appropriate access level. We may need to do this again if other group's have the same issue, but the issue should no longer come up going forward.

[JOutram77]

The ability to create invisible groups in GCcollab becomes an issue after every code push because the following option in the GCcollab admin panel reverts back to yes. @markwooff please let me know if you want this changed, but I've left it so not to mess with the access level work mentioned above.

[markwooff]

I think we need to leave as-is otherwise the "Missing access level name" message will pop up again because private groups were once available. Removing those groups that already have this in place will create more issues at this point (unfortunately).