Add-on Simple Groups Preview

[John L.]

Hey everyone, I don't think I can do previews as well as @Kier and @Mike, but I'll try my best!

So we've been working hard for quite some time to write a new groups/clubs addon that would fit the needs of the community. Of course there are already a few addons that replicate such functionality but we wanted to take a crack at it ourselves and offer up another alternative. We are still some time away from completing the addon, but we have made enough progress to show off what we have. I know it's only screenshots, but I hope you enjoy. Perhaps a demo will be available in the future .

For more information and screenshots: http://liquidpro.net/xenforo-addons/simple-groups/

Do you have an ETA?
Not at the moment, we do not give out ETAs. We have our BETA tester group ready and once we are in BETA we will be making an announcement in this thread. Once Simple Groups is stable we will be making a public stable release.

Stay tuned for more!

 

[IcEWoLF]

Interesting project, I might consider this addon.

 

[John L.]

Interesting project, I might consider this addon.

Thanks Icewolf, we're hoping it becomes a solid product for everyone to use. It's a big one, but well worth the time!

 

[BassMan]

Nice work! Keep on like that.

 

[IcEWoLF]

I've personally worked with DBTECH from vBulletin testing their addons and helping them with several mods including their donation plugin.
I'd be happy to give it a shot and help out as much as I can, first I need to know what the cost of the plugin is since I am sure there is a price to pay to become a client to test...at least that's how it worked with DBTECH.

 

[John L.]

I've personally worked with DBTECH from vBulletin testing their addons and helping them with several mods including their donation plugin.
I'd be happy to give it a shot and help out as much as I can, first I need to know what the cost of the plugin is since I am sure there is a price to pay to become a client to test...at least that's how it worked with DBTECH.

Our pricing structure has not been finalized, but we will be doing a similar structure to Simple Forms. We will have two license types to choose from:

• Single-Use: Only one installation on one domain.
• Multi-Use: Multiple installations on multiple domains.

So far the early pricing would be $40 (Single-Use) and $60 (Multi-Use). Our licenses also have a $5 renewal fee for support and upgrades per year. The first year is obviously included free on initial purchase.

Our testers will be decided from a group of current clients, since it will be easier for us to maintain information as well. If you're a current client you'll be eligible of course

 

[IcEWoLF]

Can Single user licenses be upgraded to Multi-Use license by paying the difference in the future? I think it would be a nice option for users. Also does the first year option starts from the date the product goes gold?

 

[John L.]

Can Single user licenses be upgraded to Multi-Use license by paying the difference in the future? I think it would be a nice option for users. Also does the first year option starts from the date the product goes gold?

Yes, it's currently an option for our Simple Forms license as well

 

[Sage Knight]

It's looking great, I actually now don't mind the look as long as it has dedicated templates & style properties for tweaking it further. I'll definitely be purchasing it.

 

[Veer]

@LP-John Very exciting to see this add-on, as I know the quality of your add-ons is great.

Just one thought, the layout design is not that cool yet, I think social groups like thing should have even more pleasing look and feel than the Resource Manager, like facebook groups, and direct user interaction on group view page. I totally dislike the thread integration here like RM.

Looking forward to see further previews, keep it up

 

[John L.]

It's looking great, I actually now don't mind the look as long as it has dedicated templates & style properties for tweaking it further. I'll definitely be purchasing it.

Thank you and definitely all of the pages that are a part of this addon are templates. We also use all phrases and style properties.

@LP-John Very exciting to see this add-on, as I know the quality of your add-ons is great.

Just one thought, the layout design is not that cool yet, I think social groups like thing should have even more pleasing look and feel than the Resource Manager, like facebook groups, and direct user interaction on group view page. I totally dislike the thread integration here like RM.

Looking forward to see further previews, keep it up

The look and feel of the profile pages can be adjusted if you'd like to make CSS changes. Of course the more changes you make the more issues you will come into during upgrades. Of course you can also disable the thread integration if you don't want to use it. It's not a must-use feature.

 

[JABRONI]

I have some sort of makeshift groups thing on my site right now. Basically, I have a section on the site with private forums for each group. People can see the sections, they just can't see the stuff in it unless they join the group. I use Join User Groups by Waindigo to facilitate this. I've been waiting for a good group add-on to finally make the jump.

Few questions here,

Will I be able to move the threads made in the private sections I have for members into a group on this addon?

I currently have members paying for a group, so I need a permission to let only certain people make a group. Is this possible?

When people are leaders of a group, will they be able to moderate the discussions? If so, will you have permissions for that such as the permission to hard delete a thread, etc.

If someone is the leader of a group, will they be able to appoint other leaders? If so, how many?

I see the option to transfer a group, so I'm guessing if people don't want it anymore, they can just push it to someone else in the group? Will that be a two way street? Will the person have to accept the group transfer or will it just transfer automatically?

Will this work with Widget Framework? Will I be able to just use WF to put widgets on the groups home page?

 

[John L.]

Will I be able to move the threads made in the private sections I have for members into a group on this addon?

Sorry, I'm a little lost with this question. So you have threads already created that you want to move into the forum nodes created by groups? Sure, you can move threads into those threads if you like, but it'll be a little manual.

I currently have members paying for a group, so I need a permission to let only certain people make a group. Is this possible?

I would imagine setting up a user upgrade and giving them a special usergroup that allows them to create groups.

When people are leaders of a group, will they be able to moderate the discussions? If so, will you have permissions for that such as the permission to hard delete a thread, etc.

What owners, leaders and members can do will all be permissions-based on the global level for your forum installation. So if you want leaders to be able to moderate the forum node for the group then you would have to set that.

If someone is the leader of a group, will they be able to appoint other leaders? If so, how many?

We haven't hashed that out yet and you can have as many leaders as you want. We can probably set a limit per usergroup so that groups can only have X amount of leaders.

I see the option to transfer a group, so I'm guessing if people don't want it anymore, they can just push it to someone else in the group? Will that be a two way street? Will the person have to accept the group transfer or will it just transfer automatically?

Yes, they need to accept the transfer before it does. If they reject it then it will stay with that user.

Will this work with Widget Framework? Will I be able to just use WF to put widgets on the groups home page?

We will look at creating widgets in the future, but not for the first stable release. It's hard to get everything in on top of developing with someone elses addon.

 

[agison]

Hi John,
Were discussions based on xenforo threads?

 

[John L.]

Hi John,
Were discussions based on xenforo threads?

Yes, the discussions number is the number of threads in your group forum node.

 

[Nevil]

Hi, John. How about personal forums for groups? Kind of like a forums inside the forums.

 

[John L.]

Hi, John. How about personal forums for groups? Kind of like a forums inside the forums.

Hi Nevil,

You can set your installation to create new forum nodes whenever your users create a group. This will be their own private/personal forum that they manage .

 

[agison]

Hi Nevil,

You can set your installation to create new forum nodes whenever your users create a group. This will be their own private/personal forum that they manage .

This's not easy to understand for me

 

[John L.]

This's not easy to understand for me

I don't understand what you mean. What is not easy to understand? It's a forum for each group. See below:

 

[Dinosaur]

Looking good so far. I think the resource manager look isn't very appealing, but you're definitely right about it being consistent and it looks seamless with the stock xenforo layout.

We're currently using a different add-on to achieve our social groups, but I hope this finishes soon so I can try it out.