Enable Groups Help
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The enable groups option changes the way phpRaid works with regards to raids and groups. At the base installation, phpRaid supports raids only.
What this means is that you have a raid leader(s) for the guild and the raid leader(s) are responsibile for posting raids and managing signups.
The RL(s) are the only ones posting raids for the guild, and the rest of the guild members are only able to create profiles (characters) in
phpRaid and signup for raids posted by those users of phpRaid with "Raids" permission (as set in the permissions area).
The typical use of phpRaid in this circumstance is to create and manage guild raids. Raid Leaders are limited in number and normally function
somewhat in an "officer" capacity for the guild. They are trusted to create raids and templates and to post the raids for the rest of the guild
to sign up on.
However, in this situation it is hard or impossible to use phpRaid to track GROUP signups as well. At the base installation, phpRaid doesn't
function well for use as a small group signup system. In most guilds, groups are not posted by a "leader" or officer, instead a group is posted
by a guild member who needs something. For instance, a guild member may need a piece for a key and will try to get people together to obtain that
piece. Obviously it would be a ROYAL pain for that guild member to have to contact a raid leader to get an entry posted on the phpRaid page just
to get 5 people together to get a key piece. But conversely, you don't want that guild member able to post offical 25 man raids for the guild
either.
The problem is there really is no good web based application to manage groups. While phpRaid has everything built in to it to manage groups
for a guild, the default permissions don't differentiate between raid leaders and group leaders.
What this option does is fixes that. It will cause phpRaid to display different options and configurations on various pages to make phpRaid more
"group friendly." A small (but non-all inclusive) list of the changes to the system are below.
* The "Raids" Menu option is now available to users with the "profile" permission instead of just those with the "Raids" Permission.
This allows users of phpRaid to create "groups" in phpRaid (Normally the option to post new raids is only available to people with the "raids"
permission, this allows users with the "Profile" permission to view and create raids.
* Templates now have a "raid leader only" check box assigned to them. For those templates that users should not be able to post (say Gruul's
Lair or Molten Core for example) raids for, this additional flag on a raid tells the system not to display those templates to people without
the "raids" Permission. Templates without this flag are available to people without the "Raids" Permission.
* Templates are still in the control of the members with "raids" permissions. Raid Leaders/Officers would be expected to create proper
templates for each grouping instance for users to be able to follow. This allows the users to be able to post raids, but with the knowledge
that the group requirements are setup correctly by knowledgeable people.
With this change the concept of "Raid Administrators", "Raid Leaders", and "Raid Attenders" is introduced. The code at it's base has been
modified (outside of this checkbox) to now support 3 different permission levels. Please see docs/User_Signup_Flow.txt for more information.
The end result with properly administered templates should be a phpRaid that works identically to how it did before but with the added
flexability of allowing a guild to use this to schedule small group instances as well as large guild wide raids.
With a proper LUA GUI application, this system could be used to replace in game systems like GEM.
If you wish to use phpRaid to manage your guild's small groups and allow your guild members to post small groups for others to sign up
in, turn this option on by checking the box. If you do not wish to manage small groups with phpRaid or your guild does not allow
general members to schedule small groups, keep this box unchecked (or turn it off) to disable the various grouping features of phpRaid.
Also remember that if you do turn this option on in an existing installation your raid administrators will need to go back to the
already created raid templates and turn on the option to disable those templates from general phpRaid user use.