Welcome to the LimeSurvey Community Forum

Ask the community, share ideas, and connect with other LimeSurvey users!

Can't add users to user group... huh?

  • johnstonf
  • johnstonf's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • New Member
More
3 years 7 months ago - 3 years 7 months ago #204231 by johnstonf
Can't add users to user group... huh? was created by johnstonf
I just can't wrap my head around User Groups...
somehow i was able to add ONE user, but now when i try to add, NONE appear in the dropdown...
see attached screenshot.
WHAT am i missing??

My understanding is that i add users to various user groups, so one user can belong to
various groups, and then i can add a UserGroup to a survey... so i can keep various groups of users for various surveys.
If not, then what is purpose of User Groups?

Tx
Last edit: 3 years 7 months ago by johnstonf.
The topic has been locked.
  • holch
  • holch's Avatar
  • Offline
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
More
3 years 7 months ago #204235 by holch
Replied by holch on topic Can't add users to user group... huh?
What version are you using?

I just tried with LimeSurvey Version 3.22.210+200804 and I can add a user to more than one group.

However, are there any users to add to this group? How many users do you have in your installation? I assume more than 2- "admin" and "johnstonf", right?

I answer at the LimeSurvey forum in my spare time, I'm not a LimeSurvey GmbH employee.
No support via private message.

The following user(s) said Thank You: johnstonf
The topic has been locked.
  • johnstonf
  • johnstonf's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • New Member
More
3 years 7 months ago - 3 years 7 months ago #204264 by johnstonf
Replied by johnstonf on topic Can't add users to user group... huh?
What version are you using?
I'm using 3.17.0

I just tried with LimeSurvey Version 3.22.210+200804 and I can add a user to more than one group.
yes, now i realize i can too with v3.17.0... i was trying to group "participants"...

However, are there any users to add to this group? How many users do you have in your installation? I assume more than 2- "admin" and "johnstonf", right?
Only 2... no use for any more at this point...

Ok, I think i understand... a "user" isn't really a "user", it's an admin type of account (I think it's 'bad' terminology!)... and I don't see the purpose of needing to 'group' admins (most installations wouldn't have more than 1-3 admins).

So, i "can" add users (admins) to groups... kind of useless to me...

Also, as i see it, i CANNOT group PARTICIPANTS (what i would "normally" call a "user") (who came up with these terms??)... there isn't even a field to put a key of some sort, so how can you have nice "sets" of participants??

Maybe we should suggest that they add "participant groups" (or do they have this hidden somewhere??)... that would seem a lot more useful than groups for 1-3 admins (oops, sorry... USERS LoL)

From what i see... (hope this helps other newbies...)...
(some truths... correct me if i'm wrong...)
-LS=LimeSurvey
-Top level LS accounts are USERS, which have/own PARTICIPANTS
(USERS are actually "admins" that can have various system permissions)
(USERS would normally make surveys, etc)
-PARTICIPANTS go into the "CPDB" (Central Participant Database)
(Participants are what you would normally "import" from a CSV file)
(One Participant can fill out multiple surveys)
-"Groups" hold teams of USERS(admins), NOT PARTICIPANTS
Last edit: 3 years 7 months ago by johnstonf.
The topic has been locked.
  • Joffm
  • Joffm's Avatar
  • Offline
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
More
3 years 7 months ago #204267 by Joffm
Replied by Joffm on topic Can't add users to user group... huh?
Well, it is not as ridiculous as you seem to think.

A USER is somebody who uses this software, and a PARTICIPANT is somebody who participates in the survey.

And of course you may "group" your participants.
Each participant may have a lot of additional attributes which you may use to group in several ways (sex, income, owned car brand, ...)

Joffm

Volunteers are not paid.
Not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless
The following user(s) said Thank You: johnstonf
The topic has been locked.
  • holch
  • holch's Avatar
  • Offline
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
More
3 years 7 months ago - 3 years 7 months ago #204270 by holch
Replied by holch on topic Can't add users to user group... huh?
"Users" of Limesurvey are those that can create surveys (survey admins).

Why would you want to group them? Because you have different groups of people in your company/organization and not everyone is supposed to do everything / see everything.

E.g. there are different rolls in the company. Some people are not allowed to change templates/themes, but they might be allowed to see results.

Or employees of location A are only allowed to see surveys for location A, not B.

Only 2... no use for any more at this point...


Well, if you only have 2 users in your installation, and according to your screenshot, they are both in the user group 4 already. So of course the dropdown is empty. You have no additional users to add, they are all in the group already.

Also, as i see it, i CANNOT group PARTICIPANTS (what i would "normally" call a "user") (who came up with these terms??)... there isn't even a field to put a key of some sort, so how can you have nice "sets" of participants??


I think "user" is fine here. Of course you would consider respondents/participants somehow a user of Limesurvey, but the survey admins are more of a user of Limesurvey to me than a respondent. But anyway, what causes confusion is the two different terms of "survey admin" and "user" used for the same thing.

In any way, I personally wouldn't call respondents/participants "users".

But, don't forget that Limesurvey is open source and has been growing a lot in the last couple of years. A lot of different people have contributed to this and especially in the community driven translations you will often see inconsistencies in translations. However, as it is open source, you are welcome to help. The manual is a wiki which you can access with your credentials of the forum and you also can help to translate limesurvey under translate.limesurvey.org.

If you feel that something is labelled wrong, you can make suggestions and bug reports in the bug tracker. However, in your case I (and probably many others) would downvote to call participants/respondents "users", for above mentioned reasons. What I would support is have a consistent naming convention for admins / users. Which of both terms, I don't really care. They both fit. It just should be consistent.

Maybe we should suggest that they add "participant groups" (or do they have this hidden somewhere??)... that would seem a lot more useful than groups for 1-3 admins (oops, sorry... USERS LoL)


There is no real "user management" / "participant management" in Limesurvey, like you expect it (with login and password). For participants you can use the CPDB (I don't know much about this because I hardly had a look at it) or you use token tables (these are on a survey level). But this is more like a list of respondents, no login for them.

What you are actually looking at is often not part of survey tools anyway: You are looking more for an online access panel solution, where you organize respondents for surveys.

I answer at the LimeSurvey forum in my spare time, I'm not a LimeSurvey GmbH employee.
No support via private message.

Last edit: 3 years 7 months ago by holch.
The following user(s) said Thank You: johnstonf
The topic has been locked.
  • johnstonf
  • johnstonf's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • New Member
More
3 years 7 months ago #204276 by johnstonf
Replied by johnstonf on topic Can't add users to user group... huh?
So how do you, personally, pick a subset of participants from 'all participants'?


In the CPDB i only see 8 filter fields... (see attached) to filter on...




I don't see a "sex" column, for example... how would i filter on that for example?
The topic has been locked.
  • holch
  • holch's Avatar
  • Offline
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
  • LimeSurvey Community Team
More
3 years 7 months ago #204277 by holch
Replied by holch on topic Can't add users to user group... huh?
See the button "attributes" on the top? You can create your own attributes.

I highly recommend the manual. It is not always perfect, but it gives you the basics:
manual.limesurvey.org/Central_Participant_Database#Attributes

I answer at the LimeSurvey forum in my spare time, I'm not a LimeSurvey GmbH employee.
No support via private message.

The following user(s) said Thank You: johnstonf
The topic has been locked.
  • johnstonf
  • johnstonf's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • New Member
  • New Member
More
3 years 7 months ago #204305 by johnstonf
Replied by johnstonf on topic Can't add users to user group... huh?
Game changer, thanks!
(i did read manual over, but so much in there, i missed it)
I even glanced at attributes at one point, but also missed it there.
The topic has been locked.

Lime-years ahead

Online-surveys for every purse and purpose