Sites and Groups can someone explain how they work?

[mcollins323]

I want to create a few sites for external customers and each site will have a few users. 

Does each new site get a new group?
Is it possible to add users to a group or do you need to invite them?
Can I restrict a user from creating new sites?

I guess I just need more info on how groupd and sites work together.

Thanks in advance.

[jpotts]

Yes, each new site actually gets several groups. One maps to each Share site permission level, plus there's a parent group. For example, suppose you have a site called "testsite1", Alfresco will create the following groups:

GROUP_site_testsite1 (which contains the following groups):
GROUP_site_testsite1_SiteManager
GROUP_site_testsite1_SiteCollaborator
GROUP_site_testsite1_SiteContributor
GROUP_site_testsite1_SiteConsumer

You can see these in the Node Browser under System/Authorities.

If you create a new site with code, as long as you use the Site Service, the groups will be created for you. Similarly, if you add users using the Site Service, you do not have to worry about putting users in the appropriate groups.

However, if you just want to update those groups yourself, there's nothing stopping you from doing that.

In the current release, there is no easy way to stop users from creating new sites. You can change the permissions on the "Sites" folder, but users will still see the "create site" button and will then get a permissions error when the script that instantiates new sites tries to run.

For one of my clients, we customized the UI to only show the create site button for a particular group.

I believe the ability to restrict who can create sites is coming in the next release, but don't hold me to that.

Jeff