logo Calflora Manage Groups Help
Updated September 14, 2022
Use the Manage Groups application to view and edit the groups of which you are a member. If you are the owner of a group or have the data czar role within a group, you can add members to a group, and change the roles of members already in the group.

See also ABOUT GROUPS.


Search
Check My Groups and press to find all of the groups of which you are a member. You can also search by name or other group attributes.

For each group in the results, you will see the owner, the date the group was started, and the number of members. Click the purple crayon next to a group name to see the details about that group.

Group Attributes

Becoming a member
Some groups are open to any Calflora user; others are by invitation only.

The group makes observations
If this is checked, members of the group can contribute observations to the group.

Primary interest in weeds

Some members are data czars
If this is checked, some members of the group have the data czar role -- a data czar can edit any observation associated with the group.

The group has projects and appears on the phone
If this is checked, the group has projects, and will appear on Observer Pro, the phone application. All Weed Manager groups have projects.

The group appears on the phone
If this is checked, the group will appear on Observer Pro, the phone application.

Coordinating Group
If this is checked, other groups share observation data with this group, and this group shares resource data with those other groups. Open the SHARING tab to see which groups are connected to this group.

In the MAP and URLs tab:

URL of a Web Page
If the group has its own web page outside of Calflora, this is the URL of that page.

URL of a Graphic (logo or photo)
The URL of a logo or other photo to help identify this group on Observer Pro, the phone application.

Center Point for observations
The geographical focus of this group, if any.

Adding Members
To add a new member, press in the upper right and open the MEMBERS tab. Enter the email address of person you want to add, and press . The application will give you an opportunity to send an email to this person, telling them that they are now in your group. If the person does not have a Calflora account with this email address, you will have an opportunity to send an email inviting them to start a Calflora account.

To delete a member, press in the upper right. Click the purple crayon next to the person's name. In the popup menu that appears, click remove.

Member Roles

By default, all members of a group are regular members, and the value in the Role column is empty. If

    Some members are data czars
is checked for this group, then you can assign other roles to members. To assign a role, click the purple crayon next to the person's name. In the popup menu that appears, choose a value for Role. Possible values for Role include:

regular member
A regular member can add observations to the group, view others' observations, and use all group resources.

czar
A data czar can edit any resource associated with the group, including observations. A data czar can also use this application (Manage Groups) to edit the group record, and add new members or change member roles.


These roles are available only for Weed Manager groups:

team leader
A team leader can use the Group Options application to edit group resources, such as saved searches. A Team Leader can also use the Project Setup application to edit existing projects, but cannot add new projects.

project czar
A project czar has the same capabilities as a team leader, but with this additional capability: they can edit any observation that is associated with certain projects in the group. The assignment of project czar to particular projects happens in the Project Setup application. To make a member into project czar for a particular project, use this application (Manage Groups) to give them the project czar role, and then use Project Setup to assign them to a project.

nominal member
A nominal member can contribute observations to the group, but cannot see unpublished or private observations contributed by others to the group.

See also this table of role capabilites in various applications.

Sharing Data with Other Groups
Definitions
  • A regular group collects observation data.

  • A coordinating group (CG) does not collect observation data, but owns resources (plant lists, polygons) which are shared with its affiliated regular groups.

  • When a regular group is affiliated with a coordinating group, members of the regular group can use resources owned by the coordinating group. Members of the coordinating group can see observation data owned by the regular group.

  • The relationship between a coordinating group and an affiliated regular group is an agreement to share data. This agreement is initiated by the owner of the coordinating group, but must be accepted by the owner of the regular group before it goes into effect.
Setting up a Coordinating Group
    Check with the owners of the regular groups to make sure that they want to participate. Decide ahead of time who will be in the new CG -- typically one or two members of each regular group will also be in the CG so that they can easily see observation data from the other affiliate groups.

    Make the new coordinating group as follows: Press . Enter a name for the group, and check Coordinating Group. In the MEMBERS tab, add other members by entering their email addresses. Press .

    The next step is to invite regular groups to participate in a data sharing agreement with your new CG. Press and open the SHARING tab. Press . Choose an affiliate group from the drop down. If you do not see the name of the regular group you are looking for in the drop down, use the Search for Groups part of this application to search for it by name -- any groups that appear in the search results will also be in the drop down.

    If you want the affiliate group to share unpblished or private observations with the CG, check Share Unpublished and/or Share Private. Note that at this point, this is only a suggestion -- ultimately it is up to the owner of each affiliate group to choose whether they want to share unpublished or private observations with the CG.

    At this point, the Status indicates that this agreement to share data has been accepted by your new CG, but not yet by the affiliate group. The owner of the affiliate group needs to use this application to accept this agreement before it will go into effect. When you press , the owner of the affiliate group will be notified via a POST to the group.

Accepting the Invitation
    To accept the invitation, the owner of the affiliate group needs to edit the record for their group using this application. Once they press , open the SHARING tab, and click on next to the name of the new CG, they will see this message:

      Your group has been invited to share observation data with this coordinating group:...
      Check the box above to accept the invitation.

    The owner of the affiliate group can change the values of Share Unpublished and Share Private at the same time that they accept the invitation, or at any time in the future.
Adding Resources to a Coordinating Group
  • Plant lists:
    Assign one of your plant lists to a CG using the Plant List Definition application.

  • Lines and polygons:
    Assign one of your polygons to a CG using the Shape Editor application.

  • Saved searches and columns sets:
    Assign one of your searches or column sets to a CG using My Calflora / Searches.

    Note that once a saved search is assigned to a CG, members of the CG can set it up as an email alert in My Calflora / Alerts.

Coordinating Group Resources which are Shared with Affiliate Groups
  • Plant lists
  • Lines and polygons
Affiliate Group Resources which are Shared with a Coordinating Group
  • Observations
  • Surveys

    Note that it is up to the owner of the affiliate group to decide whether to share uppublished or private observations with the coordinating group.

Release Notes

• May, 2020:   v. 2.13. Added the ability to define coordinating groups and to set up relationships between coordinating groups and regular groups.

• March, 2020:   v. 2.06. New page design.