Creating and Managing Groups

A Group is a specific instance of an organization within the hierarchy. For example, Department (Blueprint) could include Math (Group) as a specific instance of a department. Other Groups within the Blueprint "Department" might include English, Biology, or Art History.

Groups are commonly used in the Form Builder and when determining routing in Workflow. Only system administrators have the ability to create and edit groups; however, app administrators may use blueprints, groups, and roles in their apps. (See Creating and Managing Blueprints).

To better understand the basic concept of Groups & Blueprints, please review the Blueprints & Groups Concept Overview slide deck

• Accessing Groups
• Creating a Group
• Editing a Group
  • General
  • Roles
  • Fields
  • History
• Deleting a Group
• Integrations

Accessing Groups

• Click on the Suite Menu icon (), and then navigate to People & Groups.

• In the menu across the top, select Groups.
• By default, groups are sorted in alphabetical order. Clicking Group Name will provide additional sort options. 

• By default, 25 groups will be displayed at a time, although you can choose to display up to 50. To adjust the number of groups displayed per page, click on Rows Per Page in the bottom right corner to select 10, 25, or 50.

• To navigate between pages, click on the arrows to display previous or subsequent pages.
• Groups can also be accessed by selecting a blueprint on the Blueprints tab, and then clicking View Groups using this Blueprint and searching for the group in the side panel that appears.

Creating a Group

Creating a Group creates a specific instance of a Blueprint (e.g. Math Department).

• Click on the Suite Menu icon (), and then navigate to People & Groups.
• Click on the name of the Blueprint in where you want the new group to be listed under.
• Click New Group at the bottom of the side panel that appears

• In the menu that appears, enter a Name for the new Group.
• Click Continue.

You can also create a new group from the Groups tab

• Click on the Groups tab at the top of the page
• Select Add Group in the upper right hand corner

• Enter the Group name.
• Select the name of the Blueprint that the Group should use.
• If the Group should be placed under another Group, select the parent group in the Parent Group dropdown.
• Click Continue.

Editing a Group

Once a group is initially created or you want to edit an existing group you will do the following:

• Click on the Group in the list you would like to edit.
• A modal window will appear, allowing you to edit the details of the Group.
• Edits to the Group will save as you work.
• When you are finished, click the X icon () to close the modal.

Lets go over the tabs options within the modal of a Groups:

General

In the General tab you can update the Group Name or Group Parent.  You can also add Group Administrators that will have access to maintain/edit this specific group (i.e. make edits, add roles/members, etc.).  Lastly, in the General tab you can Delete a group which is explained more in the below Deleting a Group section of the article.

Roles

This is where you can create custom roles specific to this Group.  By default, all Groups will have the roles of Administrators and Members but you can add more via the +Add Role option.  Also, if this Group is associated with a Blueprint, any customer roles associated with that Blueprint will display here also.

Fields

Group fields are additional identifiers for a group beyond its name you would like to track.  For example, if your source data for Groups does not match exactly with the Kuali name, you can utilize a field to associate the Kuali Group with your source data code.  Also, any added fields in the blueprint that this Group is associated will display here.  The available field types are as follows:

Text: Provides a text area to enter small amounts of text (name, etc.) 

Textarea: Provides a text area to enter longer text (sentences or paragraphs).

Checkbox:  Provides a checkbox value in the Group that can be toggled if desired.

History

You can see the history of changes or edits to this Group in the History tab.  It will show you a log of updates by date, user that updated, and the action or change that occurred.

Deleting a Group

• Click on the Group in the list you would like to delete.
• In the modal window that appears, click Delete Group at the bottom of the screen.

Note: A group can not be deleted if any groups reference it. Additionally, deleting a group is permanent and cannot be undone.

You are also able to view your group's hierarchy to view which Blueprint they belong to by toggling on "Show Hierarchy". 

For more on adding roles within a group, you can read more in the Creating and Managing Roles article.

Integrations

Kuali, including blueprints, groups, and roles, has the ability to integrate with your institution's system of record. This allows an institution to create a job locally utilizing our APIs to populate blueprints, groups, roles, and users from a local system automatically.  Each institution's integration will look different based on the local systems and attributes but you can find an example of a sync process here as a reference to help you get started on creating your own.  This is just an example and will require customizations to meet your local needs.  And please reach out for assistance or more information if you have any issues or questions via support ([e-mail]) or directly with your Customer Success Manager.