Make sure we understand how to configure who receives notifications about new users to approve

[marc-farre]

What steps will reproduce the problem?

Administration -> Users -> Settings ->

• Require group admin approval after registration checked
• Anonymous users can register checked

What is the expected result?

When an anonymous user register, admin should receive a notification (email and desktop) telling him he has to approve this new user.

What do you get instead?

No notification. Admin has got to manually reload the "pending approvals" (/admin/approval) page every day !!

Additional info

This subject is also discussed on the platform here and here

Q	A
HumHub version	1.22
PHP version	7.2
Operating system	Ubuntu server 16.04

[marc-farre]

Where, in the code, could we add theses notifications, until this problem is resolved ? Thanks !

[buddh4]

I think this would be the place to send an approval notification to all admins (or group manager).

[marc-farre]

Great ! Thanks a lot !

[jayjayel]

Has this been implemented? I’m a new Humhub admin, and am wondering the same.

[marc-farre]

Any plan to have this notification in a future version ?

[luke-]

This is planned for the long term, but is currently not on our roadmap.

[gerhardbeck]

I think this would be the place to send an approval notification to all admins (or group manager).

Sorry, I don't understand it: What to do with the registrationcontroller.php in order to get a notification via email?
Can you offer some details for a newbie, please?

[marc-farre]

I've changed the title because now notifications are via Group::notifyAdminsForUserApproval().

But it's hardly impossible to understand that notifications are sent to the managers of the group where the user registered... See https://community.humhub.com/comment/perma?id=48457

There should be at least a hint on this field explaining what manager are for:

But maybe a better idea would be to send notifications to all users allowed to approve new registered users.

[ArchBlood]

I've changed the title because now notifications are via Group::notifyAdminsForUserApproval().

But it's hardly impossible to understand that notifications are sent to the managers of the group where the user registered... See https://community.humhub.com/comment/perma?id=48457

There should be at least a hint on this field explaining what manager are for:

But maybe a better idea would be to send notifications to all users allowed to approve new registered users.

I agree with this, we should modify this so that an admin or someone with the permissions get the notification(s), because currently this function doesn't work unless you're a group manager, so in my eyes it's just unused code;

Suggestion

• Move notifier to own notification class in admin core and call from notifyAdminsForUserApproval().
• Set default permissions for admins to always get notified.
• Disable user editable notification and remove it.

[marc-farre]

@luke- @ArchBlood what do you think about this PR #6907 ?

Discussion: https://community.humhub.com/content/perma?id=276481

Before:

After:

[Gilbertdelyon]

May I add my 2 cents?
In Users settings form

In Group settings form

Doesn't matter if we use "group admin" or "Manager", but the same word should be used in both forms

[luke-]

@marc-farre Thanks for the PR. I am less in favor of renaming the "Manager" field as it is partly used for other features as well.

But we could just customize the attribute hint and add more information about the manager role in the approval context.

Would that be enough? If yes, we could ask @Semir1212 or @mbumpalumpa for help regarding the best wording.

[marc-farre]

@luke- as the "Manager" field is only displayed when "Require group admin approval after registration" is enabled, I fought there where no other usage of it.

[luke-]

@marc-farre Good point, but I would rather stop hiding the field. Some custom modules use it and the user administration for group managers also works without approval.

[Gilbertdelyon]

@marc-farre Good point, but I would rather stop hiding the field. Some custom modules use it and the user administration for group managers also works without approval.

As site admin I agree with this, because as long as the field is hiddeen in group setting form you may not understand what "Require group admin approval after registration" is refering to. This is what appened to me.

[marc-farre]

@luke- commit c348067

Always displayed and no attribute hint (I still think something is missing here to understand what this field is for):

Changed attribute hint:

[luke-]

@marc-farre That's right. We can still add an attribute hint to "Managers". However, I would like to keep the term "Managers".

@Semir1212 @mbumpalumpa Can you please take a look into this?

[marc-farre]

Doesn't matter if we use "group admin" or "Manager", but the same word should be used in both forms

@Gilbertdelyon Sorry, I missed your suggestion. Done in commit 940877e

[mbumpalumpa]

@luke- @marc-farre hopefully, I understood this well, so here is my thought: I would simplify it and make it a bit clearer.

I would also opt for "Manager" as HH is multilingual, and longer sentences will result in longer translations, which may be okay for the desktop version, but in the mobile version, it will result in multiple lines. For example EN (29 chars) "Registration approval manager" is in HR (36 chars) "Menadžer za odobravanje registracija".

---

$base_url/admin/authentication
Current: Require group admin approval after registration
Suggestion 1: Require group admin or group manager approval after registration.
Suggestion 2: If enabled, the group admin or group manager will need to approve registration.

While I understand that mentioning "group" twice in one sentence might seem redundant, I do believe we are better off with it, just to be extra clear.

---

$base_url/admin/group/edit
Current: Manager
Suggestion 1: Manager(s)
Suggestion 2: Group Manager(s)
I would add "(s)" just to be consistent with the field above, "Default Space(s)", and to indicate to the user that they can add multiple managers. Also, the placeholder in "Default Space(s)" is "Add Space", and currently in "Manager" it is "Select user...", so I would also unify that to "Add User".

Help Suggestion 1: Select a group manager who can approve pending registrations.
Help Suggestion 2: The group manager can approve pending registrations.

I wouldn't mention that they will get a notification because if you think about it, it's kind of logical and expected to receive that type of notification. So that part seems, at least to me, like unnecessary clutter.

Anyway, let me know if I'm completely off track.

[Semir1212]

@mbumpalumpa Let's just go with group manger, leave "group admin" out.

As for the suggestions, let's go with option 2 in all three cases.

Just make the last suggestion clearer. The Group Manager can approve pending registrations of his group, not all pending registrations.

[mbumpalumpa]

@Semir1212 hopefully I understood it correctly, here is the table of the "final" copy.

URL	TYPE	CURRENT	NEW
/admin/authentication	Description	Require group admin approval after registration	If enabled, the Group Manager will need to approve registration.
/admin/group/edit	Title	Manager	Group Manager(s)
/admin/group/edit	Help	n/a	The Group Manager can approve pending registrations of this group.
/admin/group/edit	Placeholder	Select user...	Add user

[Semir1212]

Fine with me @marc-farre @luke- @mbumpalumpa

[Gilbertdelyon]

Sorry, something is not clear for me.
In present situation (v1.15.4) I see 2 different issues:

1. Wording of fieds labels, etc is confusing. I understand that this will improved so that it will now be as clear as possible. Good point, thank you!
2. If site admin wants to be notified by email when there is a new "pending approval" it is not obvious for him (it took me a while to find this out, even with help of mentors) that:

• he has to be one of the default groupe managers
• "receive notification for new group member" checkbox must be selected.

It is not clear for me if this second point will be improved?

[marc-farre]

@luke- @Semir1212 @mbumpalumpa Done in commit f3862d7

@mbumpalumpa the first line of your table was unclear (description type), but what do you think about this?

For group, it's OK:

@luke- I've changed the Select user... to Add user in the User Picker (so it will apply to all HumHub):
f3862d7#diff-a3062c7bf604a4bb7718159c46f3719c14663c1cb47d08abdde8170eddbc2b08R92
Is it fine?

[mbumpalumpa]

@marc-farre Sorry, yes, I can see how that can be confusing. Personally, I would name the checkbox "If enabled*, the Group Manager will need to approve registration" rather than adding it as a description. But it is up to @Semir1212 and @luke- to decide.

*Or in this case, as it's a checkbox, maybe "If checked, the Group..."

[luke-]

For me it's fine.

@Semir1212 ? :-)

[Semir1212]

Fine with me @luke- @marc-farre

[marc-farre]

@Gilbertdelyon thanks for your latest suggestions.
I think this PR already allows a better understanding, even if it's maybe not perfect (but we also need to keep texts shorts and simple).
Let's wait for HumHub 1.16 release and if you think it's still confusing, you can create a new issue.