Automatic User Defined "Virtual Groups"

[MTRichards]

Thinking about usability, and considering a feature called “user defined groups”. The concept of user defined groups is based on users wanting to share their files, and having the annoyance of constantly having to add the same users to the share dialog over and over again every time a file or folder is shared with these people. Think of being able to create a "local" group, which is not a full group in the ownCloud sense, but more of a shortcut to a list of user names within the sharing interface so that people can share quickly with their coworkers as needed.

What if we looked at folder shares and something like a virtual groups. Say I have a folder called "User mgmt designs" shared with user 1, user 2, user 3 and user4. I could type either one of the names and the second entry would be "User mgmt designs (user 1, user 2, user 3 and user4)" or I could directly type "user mgmt .." and that group would be suggested.

Thoughts?
@jancborchardt @karlitschek @blizzz

[blizzz]

First, for me it feels a bit like "Distribution Lists" are too email. However, I see a benefit in having such "Virtual Groups" and the better integrated and the less additional overhead it brings, the better it is.That said, it really fits into the Sharing functionality and can be a layer on top of user and group backends, as well as apps like Contacts, so the user does not need to worry about the source of the contact. While this sounds good, I have my doubts the Sharing box (as it it) is suited to give the user all the power he needs.

Anyway, following questions come to my mind:

• Does the user want to be able to manage those "Virtual Group"? For instance user2 is switching to a different team. Or, user5 is joining and shall get all the shares, too. I.e. automatic updating of all shares to this virtual group.
• How can the user easily see who is part of the list? There is not overly much space in the share dialog, it will look messy with many people. Or won't it? May be this can be stashed in Personal settings, and only the every-day feature-set would be available in the sharing dialogue.
• Shall user be able to use this Virtual Group as a template? E.g. First share the folder "User mgmt artwork" with the "User mgmt designs" virtual group, but replacing user2+3 with user7+8? If so, how does it work together with the first question?
• How can user delete such a "Virtual Group"?

[jancborchardt]

(Here’s my original suggestion for reference:)

We could do several things in the sharing dialog:

• If you share something with a person, get suggestions for other people which you might want to share this with (based on previous shares which both people have been part of)
• Folder shares could be something like virtual groups. Say I have a folder called "User mgmt designs" shared with Matt, Frank, Arthur and Raghu. I could type either one of your names and the second entry would be "User mgmt designs (Matt, Frank, Arthur, Raghu)" or I could directly type "user mgmt .." and that group would be suggested.

There's probably also other means of optimizing that. For the specific use-case those seem very useful, not intrusive, and especially don't require any additional managing work on the user's side.

And to answer your questions @blizzz:

• Does the user want to be able to manage those "Virtual Group"? For instance user2 is switching to a different team. Or, user5 is joining and shall get all the shares, too. I.e. automatic updating of all shares to this virtual group.

No. That’s exactly the point: These groups should be updated automatically. If »Arthur« leaves the folder »User mgmt designs«, then he is not part of that group anymore.

But that’s a good question: Are these groups actual groups, or are they just a quick shortcut to adding multiple people to a share?
If I have two folders shared with the »User mgmt designs« group and I remove a person from the »User mgmt designs« folder – what happens? Do they get removed from the other shares too?

• How can the user easily see who is part of the list? There is not overly much space in the share dialog, it will look messy with many people. Or won't it? May be this can be stashed in Personal settings, and only the every-day feature-set would be available in the sharing dialogue.

We could show something like the »most active« people of that group first. Or the ones which you share most with.

• Shall user be able to use this Virtual Group as a template? E.g. First share the folder "User mgmt artwork" with the "User mgmt designs" virtual group, but replacing user2+3 with user7+8? If so, how does it work together with the first question?

That’s the thing I mentioned as answer to your first question:

• Are these virtual groups actually listed as groups in the share dialog?
• OR are they a shortcut to add all the people in that group to the share?

• How can user delete such a "Virtual Group"?

The virtual group vanishes as soon as the folder is not shared anymore. Just as it’s created inherently (by sharing) it is deleted inherently.

This whole thing is more of a concept question rather than a design question. If we do want to put an emphasis on groups, it might be better to have a way of managing them. And that would be best as stripped-down user-specific version of the User settings or Contacts app, not as yet another separate way of managing people.

[karlitschek]

Hmm. I´m getting more and more the feeling that there is no simple and elegant solution for that.

[jancborchardt]

Yeah, that’s also what I thought. Either we go for »some simple suggestions« which is slight improvements here and there. These suggestions we should do either way, I think.

Or we go for full-on group management – the way it looks we are headed. That should for sure build on either Users or Contacts.

[MTRichards]

As long as the contacts app is not actually required to be installed and enabled for it to work, this would be ok.

I would prefer not to create a complex group management function if it can be avoided, as that can be very heavyweight and doesn't actually make it easier to use ownCloud. Is there a way to automatically create a group, or to store a list of recent shares that are filtered in as you type?

[jancborchardt]

Yeah, »store a list of recent shares that are filtered in as you type« is exactly what I am talking about.

Should be doable, shouldn’t it @blizzz @schiesbn?

[atroxix]

To me it seems that full group management function would still be best. Ideally those user-defined groups could also be shared.

Whether it should be part of Core functionality is another matter - maybe more proper way would implement it in Contacts app and sharing capability could be just extended to groups in Contacts app (individual contacts with Federated ID are already supported).

[PVince81]

Not exactly automatic, but in this other ticket I had the feeling that there is a need for an admin role to administrate group memberships instead of administrating users, see #3362 (comment)

[PVince81]

User-defined groups could be address books on the technical level, in which people can be added and also remove themselves when they want to leave.

Then extend oc_share to have "share with contact" and "share with address book".
A lot of code would then have to do the lookup through this.

[pmaier1]

Has been implemented as Custom Groups app https://marketplace.owncloud.com/apps/customgroups.
All further FRs in the repo, please https://github.com/owncloud/customgroups. Closing here.

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