Group Types

What is a Group Type?

A Group Type is a category that organises your groups. Every group in infoodle belongs to a Group Type, and groups are displayed together under their type heading throughout the system.

For example, your organisation might use Group Types like:

• Administration
• Volunteers
• Committees
• Small Groups
• Pastoral Care

Group Types do more than just organise - they also control which fields, Functions, and Team Skills are available to every group within that type. This lets you tailor what information is captured and displayed on a type-by-type basis.

Viewing Group Types in the Groups list

When you navigate to Groups > All Active Groups, your groups are displayed in alphabetical order, grouped under their Group Type headings.

1. Click on a group name to collapse it and hide the groups underneath
2. Click it again to expand it and show the groups

You can also filter by Group Type using the dropdown at the top of the groups list. Selecting a type from the dropdown instantly shows only the groups belonging to that type.

Where to find Group Types in Administration

1. Click the Administration cog in the top-right of your infoodle screen
2. Select Group Types from the list of administrative options

This opens the Group Types management screen, showing a table of all existing Group Types with:

• Group type - The name of the Group Type
• Number of groups - How many groups currently use this type
• Action - Edit and Groups buttons for each row

Creating a new Group Type

1. Click on the administration cog icon, then click Group Types
2. On the Group Types screen, click Add
3. Enter a Group Type Name (up to 255 characters)
4. Configure the fields, options, and icons you want available for this type (see sections below). You may have other fields here if you have added group custom fields.
5. Click Save

Configuring fields available to a Group Type

Each Group Type has its own set of fields that are available to the groups within it. This is where you control which columns and data are shown for groups of this type.

The fields list shows three built-in items by default, plus any Group Custom Fields you have created:

• Function - The role or function a member performs within a group (e.g. Leader, Member)
• Team Skill - Skills associated with a team member (e.g. Sound, Lighting, Hospitality)
• Custom Fields - Any Group Custom Fields you have created appear here too

For each field you have two checkboxes:

• Available - turns the field on for this Group Type. When ticked, the field can be seen and used within individual groups of this type
• Visible in list - when ticked, the field appears as a column on the group membership list (the page that shows all members of a group). Only available to tick if Available is also ticked

Reordering fields

You can drag and drop the fields into your preferred order. Click and hold the drag handle (the three-line icon on the right of each row) and drag the field to the position you want. The order here determines the column order shown in the group membership list.

Choosing which Team Skills are visible

If you tick Available next to Team Skill, a Visible Skills button appears. Click it to expand a list of all your Team Skills and tick or untick the individual skills you want available for groups of this type. This lets you offer a different subset of skills to each Group Type.

Volunteer Hours and Quick Roster icons

Two additional options appear on the form:

Show volunteer hours

When ticked, the Volunteer Hours icon appears on the groups list for groups of this type, giving quick access to logging volunteer time. This is ticked by default for new Group Types.

Show quick roster

When ticked, the Quick Roster icon appears on the groups list for groups of this type. This is also ticked by default. Untick either option if you don't want those icons cluttering the groups list for that type.

The Quick Roster option only appears if your organisation has the infoodle Events and Rosters package. If you don't have that package, the setting is automatically saved as enabled but the icon won't appear. See more information on Packages and Views.

Editing a Group Type

On the Group Types screen, find the type you want to change:

1. Click Edit
   
2. Update the name, fields, or icon settings as needed
3. Click Save

Changes take effect immediately across all groups using that type.

Viewing which groups use a Group Type

On the Group Types screen, click Groups next to the type you want to view

A panel opens listing every group that currently has this Group Type assigned

Each group name is a link - click it to go directly to that group's page.

If no groups are using the type, the panel will display "No groups have this group type".

Deleting a Group Type

A Group Type can only be deleted when all three of the following are true:

• It is not a system Group Type (system types are built into infoodle and cannot be removed)
• It has no groups currently assigned to it
• It does not have a system handle (an internal identifier used by infoodle)

When a Group Type is eligible for deletion, a Delete button appears on its edit screen. Click it and confirm the prompt to remove it.

• If the type still has groups assigned to it, you will see the message:
  "This group type is still in use, to delete it, change the groups that are using this type first"
• If the type is a built-in system type, you will see:
  "This is a system group type and may not be deleted"