Advanced Groups Plugin *REVIEW* - SocialEngine Community

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Advanced Groups Plugin REVIEW

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Jeremiah

Member
November 15, 2021
This review is only for the Advanced Groups Plugin from SNS. This review will also be updated with any updates to resolution or fixes concerning out-of-box issues. Installed plugin and configured in the admin portion - reasonably easy. I noticed unlike other plugins, and you could not change the link to the plugin on the site. So far, The issues I ran into out of the box are as follows:
1. The URL for the group's page for the public is "website.com/sesgroup" you'll have to change this immediately after installation.
2. Membership questions when a user joins a group have issues.
  1. Questions don't save
  2. You can only have text answers, dropdowns, checkboxes, radio sections that are not supported.
  3. When you save the page, it takes you back to the group's home page.
3. Group alignment pages are off.
4. Group profile pictures are mandatory and do not crop to the correct height and width on different pages.
5. 2nd and 3rd level categories didn't show up
6. multiple terms and misspelled English phrases are not in the language manager, and you need to have SNS edit them for you.
7. Group creation has CSS issues that make the image smaller and not the actual size of the container.
8. Creating a group with packages enabled loops back to the plan selection page and does not show the free plan.
9. With packages enabled and when a user creates a group under a paid package. Keep in mind that THERE IS NO DOWNGRADING to a smaller or free package after the group has been made.
10. With Packages enabled, after a member creates a group, it does not take them to the checkout page. It takes them back to the group home, and it makes the user find their page and make a payment manually; from what I gather, it does not auto-renew each month and does not allow the user to downgrade without destroying the group.
11. Group Profile pics are mandatory - I wanted to style my groups like Facebook with no profile pictures, only Cover Photos. Unfortunately, you cannot do this, even with SNS's Facebook Theme.
I have forwarded these issues to SNS and awaiting a reply. I will post updates to each topic as they come and keep everyone updated.
This review is only for the Advanced Groups Plugin from SNS. This review will also be updated with any updates to resolution or fixes concerning out-of-box issues. Installed plugin and configured in the admin portion - reasonably easy. I noticed unlike other plugins, and you could not change the link to the plugin on the site. So far, The issues I ran into out of the box are as follows:
1. The URL for the group's page for the public is "website.com/sesgroup" you'll have to change this immediately after installation.
2. Membership questions when a user joins a group have issues.
  1. Questions don't save
  2. You can only have text answers, dropdowns, checkboxes, radio sections that are not supported.
  3. When you save the page, it takes you back to the group's home page.
3. Group alignment pages are off.
4. Group profile pictures are mandatory and do not crop to the correct height and width on different pages.
5. 2nd and 3rd level categories didn't show up
6. multiple terms and misspelled English phrases are not in the language manager, and you need to have SNS edit them for you.
7. Group creation has CSS issues that make the image smaller and not the actual size of the container.
8. Creating a group with packages enabled loops back to the plan selection page and does not show the free plan.
9. With packages enabled and when a user creates a group under a paid package. Keep in mind that [b]THERE IS NO DOWNGRADING to a smaller or free package after the group has been made[/b].
10. With Packages enabled, [b]after a member creates a group, it does not take them to the checkout page.[/b] It takes them back to the group home, and it makes the user find their page and make a payment manually; from what I gather, it does not auto-renew each month and does not allow the user to downgrade without destroying the group.
11. Group Profile pics are mandatory - I wanted to style my groups like Facebook with no profile pictures, only Cover Photos. Unfortunately, you cannot do this, even with SNS's Facebook Theme.
I have forwarded these issues to SNS and awaiting a reply. I will post updates to each topic as they come and keep everyone updated.
Jeremiah

Member

November 17, 2021

I heard back from SNS This Morning on these issues.

For Issue 1 - You will need to submit a support ticket for them to change the URL linking to /groups/

Issue 2 - SNS Fixed this issue

Issue 3 - Has not been fixed (below for reference)

Issue 4 - Has not been resolved. I have a 400x400 sized image, and the image is still cropped wrong.

Issue 5 - Has been Fixed

Issue 6 - Has not been fixed. You have to submit a support ticket to have phrases changed.

Issue 7 - Has been fixed.

Issue 8 - Has been Fixed

Issue 9 - "We would like to inform you that currently there is no solution like that; it is working in the same way in SocialEngine." - Jessica.

Issue 10 - Has not been fixed. The user will have to create a group, and after the group has been made, they will have to go to "My group's menu" and manually pay for it after creating the group. It does not automatically send to the gateway. Also, There's no cancellation feature for it, and We would have to go to a gateway like Paypal and manually cancel someone's subscription.

Issue 11 - Unknown.

Conclusion: The Group Communities Plugin Performs as Facebook groups did about ten years ago. So it is behind in the times. The invite features functions are hidden on a group's page, so to invite your friends to the group, you're going to have to do a little searching. And by searching, you'll have to click on the Gear icon and click on the "Add Members" button. Weird. Why not say "Invite Friends"? Anyways - even changing the "Add Members" has to be submitted via the ticket system for them to change since it is not in the language manager. So far, it doesn't look good from a consumer standpoint because there's so much broken directly out of the box. I could expect an updated product at the very least, no? I'll keep this Review updated as I test more features out.