Unable to edit shortname of copied group

[Gordon McLeod]

Using an existing group on 17.04 as a template for a new group with a similar layout. The shortname is created by default and greyed out so cannot be changed. From copying a group that was called BVMSclassof2021 I now have BVMSclassof2021a and BVMSclassof2021aa for the shortnames of group that don't even relate to that programme or year, but can't see any way to edit it (without accessing back-end db, which I'm not allowed to do).
Thanks, Gordon.

[Robert Lyon (robertl-9)]

Hi Gordon,

Hmm - I see that if the user is a site admin they can edit the group shortname but a normal user cannot, even if the normal user created the group and is the group administrator.

I'm thinking that we should allow the group creator be able to change the shortname (if not any group admin)

[Robert Lyon (robertl-9)]

On further reflection we will need to differentiate between
* auto-created groups via web services / CSV files - should not be able to change shortname
* manually created / copied groups - should be able to change shortname

If we do leave it up to group admins to be able to change shorname, I'd say it would need to be any group admin.

We should also allow the changing of the name / shortname via the Administration -> Groups -> Manage configuration screen. That way the site admin does not need to be a admin of the group to change these two values.

They would / should know if there was some auto-process involved in setting up the group when editing them.

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

I guess if we want to ensure that groups created via web services are treated differently, that should go for other settings in the group then as well and not just the short name as you can also control other settings.

Groups created via CSV files could be a bit trickier as there are two use cases:
1. Permanent management of groups via CSV file -> These should not have group short names changed.
2. Initial upload of groups via CSV but no further intention of managing them via CSV -> These could have group short names changed.

In regard to the CSV file groups, I would say that we can expect administrators to download the CSV files from Mahara before making changes to the groups as that is the status quo on the site. Otherwise, it might get too complicated to manage.