Note

You have a group where you are a manager. Now, you want to invite people into your group, but it doesn't work? You need to properly set up the invitation workflow for your group.

This guide will show you step-by-step how to do it. You need to create two main items:

  • Notifications for the invitation
  • Application to your group



Step 1:

Access the GEANT AAI Service and get into your home Dashboard - https://vo.aai.geant.org/home

To create proper notifications, let's find your group and get to the Advanced setting of it. You will find the "Notifications" settings there. Click on it.

You can find your group using this guide: How to find an existing Group where I am a manager




Step 2:

In the "Notifications" settings you have two choices:

  1. Copy the existing notification settings from any existing properly set Group you are already admin of → click on the grey button "Copy from Organization/Group..." and go to Step 2.1
  2. Create a new notification settings by yourself → click on the green button "Add..." and go to Step 2.2

You would need two notifications set:

  • Invitation - a user will get that message when you'll invite her/him
  • Approved - a user will get that message when you'll approve his registration form (both manual or automatic)

Note: You can modify it later no matter what way it was created. 





Step 2.1:

Copy the existing notification settings from any existing properly set Group.

You need to find the existing notification first:

  • Choose a proper "Source organization"
  • Choose a proper "Source group"
  • Click on the green "Submit" button to create a copy for your Group

In this example, we have copied two notifications (both are needed):

  • Invitation (for a user)
  • Approved (for a user)


Note: This way you will copy all notifications setting from the source group. You can remove those you don't need later.





Step 2.2:

Create a new notification settings by yourself.

We need to create two notifications by ourselves one by one:

  • Invitation (for a user)
    • Email type: Invitation / user
    • Application type: Initial
    • Sending enabled: checked
  • Approved (for a user)
    • Email type: Approved / user
    • Application type: Initial
    • Sending enabled: checked

Then click on the green button "Create" for both notifications.



 

Step 3:

Create or change the subject and body in your newly created/copied notifications.

To properly set up your notifications text, you need to:

  • Click on the notification you want to change
  • Select a tab with language of the notification for which you want to set up the message (at this moment we do support only English -> click on "Language: en")
  • Set up the "Subject" of the notification
  • Set up the body "Text" of the notification
  • Save the changes by clicking on the green button "Save"


Note: You can add tags inside the message where the content of the tag will be replaced by the proper value in the system.

For example if you use tag {displayName} it will be replaced by the proper name of the user when send.

Important: Always add the invitation link tag {invitationLink} to your message. Otherwise users won't be able to access the registration form and complete the registration.

Important: There are two different types of notification:

  • Plain text - without the support of html tags
  • HTML - with the support of html tags

If the HTML one is set up, it is always used as a default. Don't forget to check both when doing any updates!




Step 4:

Set up the application form so user's can register to your group by using the invitation link.

Let's find your group and get to the Advanced setting of it again. Now you will find the "Application form" settings there. Click on it.




Step 5:

In the "Application form" settings you have two choices:

  1. Copy the existing application form settings from any existing properly set Group you are already admin of → click on the grey button "Copy from Organization/Group..." and go to Step 5.1
  2. Create a new application form settings by yourself → click on the green button "Add..." and go to Step 5.2






Step 5.1:

Copy the existing application form settings from any existing properly set Group.

You need to find the existing application form first:

  • Choose a proper "Source organization"
  • Choose a proper "Source group"
  • Click on the green "Submit" button to create a copy for your Group





Step 5.2:

Create a new application form settings by yourself.

We need to add all items to the application form one by one. For our example we will need to add 7 different items:

  • Header
  • Input text field for the given name
  • Input text field for the surname
  • Input text field for the mail
  • Custom HTML text - the separator (line)
  • Custom HTML text - already member message when user try to register twice
  • Submit button

As this is very complex, we strongly recommend to copy any existing form.

It is not the intention of this guide to teach you how to create new application forms with all details.


Important: All items have to be added and then configured properly. Also every application form need to have a "Submit" button, otherwise it can't be used by a user.




Step 6:

Configure the application form.

There are some settings you can define to set up behaviour of the invitation process. One of the most important is the "Approval style".

You can support two forms:

  • Initial form (for invitation purpose)
  • Extension form (for re-registering purpose if your group membership is for specific time only - for example 1 year)

For both types of form you can set up two different Approval styles:

  • Manual (you need to approve every registration manually)
  • Automatic (all registration to the group using the invitation link will be approved by automatic)


Note: In the GEANT we do expect, that the invitation link was send only to the particular user we have invited. For that reason, the Approval style is set to Automatic.



Step 7:

Invite someone to your group:

  • Open the settings of your group
  • Click on the "Members" button
  • Click on the "Invite" button
  • Send your invitations to one or more members


Note: You can find more information regarding the invitation process in the guide here:  How to invite someone to your group