Working with Groups in Oracle Social Network Desktop

Click to open the Groups panel. The default view (Yours) shows all of the groups you are a member of.

Click the group's name. The group opens in the Detail window. For more information, see How do I open an item?

Marking a group as a favorite is an easy way to keep track of the groups you use most frequently.

To mark a group as a favorite, click next to the group. Click the star again to unmark it.

In the Groups panel (click in the sidebar), click , and complete the information in the dialog.

For more information, see How do I create an item?

To add a description or picture, see How do I edit a group's name, description, or picture?

Open the group. At the top of the group's tab is a membership bar with pictures of all the people who are members of the group.

To manage members, in the membership bar, click to open the Update Members dialog. For more information, see How do I view and manage an item's members?

Note: If you don't see the manage members button (), the group is managed externally (for example, through LDAP), so you can't change the membership through Oracle Social Network.

See Working with Messages.

Open the collection, click the Documents tab. For more information, see Working with Documents.

Open the group, click the Referring Items tab. For more information, see Working with Related and Referring Items.

Let's say you want to share a link to a group in an email or while you're instant messaging. Open the group, click the Options menu (), then select Copy Link. The link to the group is copied to your clipboard, and you can paste it anywhere you like.

Note: When people click the link, they are taken to the web version of Oracle Social Network.

If your messages start going off-topic or a new question or idea is raised, you might want to split that discussion into a new Conversation.

Open the group's wall, click (under the text box), then complete the information in the dialog. For more information, see How do I split a Conversation off from an existing Conversation or wall?.

When you create the new Conversation, messages are posted both in the new Conversation and on the wall of the original group showing a link to the other item.

If you have items in your group lists that you never look at (for example a group that doesn't apply to you), or you're seeing updates on the Overview panel or in your email digests about groups you don't care about, you can mute those groups. Muting a group hides it and its activity from your view. It's still there; you just won't hear about it anymore. (The only exception is if you're flagged on a message on a muted group wall, for which you will still be alerted by email.)

To mute a group, in the Groups panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the group, then select Mute Group.

To unmute a group, view the Muted groups in the Groups panel, right-click the group you want to unmute, then select Mute Group to clear the check mark.

For more information, see How do I mute or unmute an item?

You can deactivate a group you belong to, even if you didn't create it (unless it's managed externally through LDAP or another similar system). Deactivating a group prevents it from being added to more Conversations, disables new posts to its wall, and the group's icon and name are grayed out (the group name is grayed out on membership lists and on the Groups tab).

To deactivate a group, open the group, click the Options menu (), click Group Settings, then select Deactivate Group.

Note: If you don't see the Group Settings option, the group is managed externally (for example, through LDAP), so you can't activate or reactivate the group through Oracle Social Network.

To reactivate a group, open the deactivated group, click the Options menu (), click Group Settings, then select Activate Group.

Tip: If you don't see deactivated groups on the Groups tab, click the Options menu (), then select Show Deactivated Groups.

At some point you might want to download an archive of a group, possibly to view when you're offline or maybe to keep a record of the group's content at a certain point.

The archive is in the form of a .zip file (named after the group). It contains the group's list of members, messages, and replies in an HTML file (named by default index.html) and all the documents added to the group.

Open the group, click the Options menu (), then click Download Archive.

For more information, see How do I download an archive of an item?

Note: You can't make changes to an archive of a group (though you can click a link to open the group in a browser and make changes there). If you want to be able to make offline changes, instead add the item to your Offline Briefcase (see Working Offline in Oracle Social Network Desktop).

Tip: For information about offline briefcases, see Understanding the Offline Briefcase.

In the Groups panel (click in the sidebar), right-click the group, then select Add to Offline Briefcase.

For more information, see How do I add an item to my Offline Briefcase?

Open the group, click the Options menu (), then click View in Web Browser. Your browser opens to the selected group.

For more information, see How do I view an item in the web version of Oracle Social Network?