This part of the code contains the code that allows people to join groups. It consists of a little-used join page and the heavily used IGSJoiningUser interface.

The join.html page, in a group, is used by people who are logged in to join a group. The new member selects a message delivery setting from the list provided, and clicks the lovely Join button. The IGSJoiningUser code performs the mechanics of joining.

This code is used by the gs.profile.signup module [1] and the gs.profile.invite modules [2]. To join the new member to the group the code in this module is used to adapt a IGSUserInfo to a IGSJoiningUser:

joiningUser = IGSJoiningUser(self.loggedInUser)

The adapted instance has a join method. When invoked the new member will be joined to the group, the site, and all the requisite people will be sent a notification saying that the new member has joined:

joiningUser.join(self.groupInfo)

If no notification is wanted, then silent_join can be used:

joiningUser.silent_join(self.groupInfo)

The Join page uses the latter, silent_join because it sends out its own notifications.

This product sends out two notifications when someone uses the Join page. First, is the Group Welcome, that is sent to the new group member. Then the group administrator will get the New Member notification.

The Group Welcome notification is designed to provide the new member with some useful information about the group, including:

• The URL of the group,
• The email address of the group,
• How to leave the group, and
• The URL of the profile of the new member.

The pages new-member-msg.html and new-member-msg.txt, in the Group context, provide this information in HTML and plain text accordingly. The email message is constructed by the gs.group.member.join.notify.NotifyNewMember class:

notifier = NotifyNewMember(group, request)

The message is sent by calling the notify method:

notifier.notify(self.loggedInUser)

Each of the group administrators needs to be notified that there is a new group member. The New Member notification (at new-member-admin-msg.html or new-member-admin-msg.txt in the Group context) does this by providing the following information:

• The name of the new member,
• The URL of the profile of the new member,
• A link to the Join and Leave Log [3], and
• A little explanation as to why the administrator received the message.

The email is constructed by the gs.group.member.join.notify.NotifyAdmin class:

notifier = NotifyAdmin(group, request)

Usually a loop is used to send the email to every administrator:

for adminInfo in self.groupInfo.group_admins:
    notifier.notify(adminInfo, self.loggedInUser)

• Code repository: https://github.com/groupserver/gs.group.member.join
• Translations: https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/gs-group-member-join/
• Questions and comments to http://groupserver.org/groups/development
• Report bugs at https://redmine.iopen.net/projects/groupserver