1. Make sure you've downloaded and extracted the Views module into your /sites/all/modules directory, and enabled Views and Veiws_RSS under Admin>>Site Building>>Modules.
2. Download and extract the Organic Groups Module into your sites/all/modules directory
3. Go to Admin>>Site Building>>Modules and enable the OG module
4. Go to Admin>>Content Management>>Content Types and create a new content type. I entered the following:
   • Name = Group
   • Type=Groups
   • Description=A collection of people with a common goal
   • Title field label=Group Name
   • Body field label=blank
   • Minimum number of words = 0
   • Explanation or submission guidelines = blank for now
   • Default Options= Published, Not Promoted, Not Sticky, Don't create new revisions
   • Default comment settings = Disabled
   • Save Content Type
5. Go to Admin>>Organic Groups>>Organic Groups Config and:
   • Access Control: Enable/Disabled your choice (I need to read up on this some more. I've used Taxonomy_Access in the past)
   • Group Details: Pretty self explanitory
   • Node authoring form: Whatever seems right to you. Under Omitted Content Types, you'll probably want to select the "Group" content type you created above, but that might happen automatically after the next step
   • Group home page: Under Group home page node types, pick your Group Content type you created above.
   • Email settings: as desired
   • Member pictures: as desired

Now you can go to Create Content>>Group and create your first group.

Updated 1/27/07: to reflect 5.0 installation of contrib modules into /sites/all/modules instead of /modules

Maybe This step by step will help you.

Setting up Organic groups configuration

* go to module configuration
* go to Organic groups configuration
* go to "Group home page" and expand
* there will be a list of "Group home page node types:" you will need to add a "group" node type
* click the link that states "create a simple node type" at the bottom of the page
* click the link that states "Add content type"
* fill in fields make "type" called "group"
* return to "Organic groups configuration" page in module configuration expand "Group home page"
* you should now see a "group" field for selection highlight it and save configuration

Setting up URL alias configuration for groups

* go to module configuration
* go to URL aliases
* click "add alias" link
* Existing system path: = node/add/group and og/add
* click "update alias" button

Organic groups access control

* go to administration
* go to "Organic groups configuration"
* pull down "Access control"
* click "Enable" button to enable access control for post to controlled groups

Does anybody know how it would be possible to make sure a user can join ONLY one group and not any more?

I have a problem. Just installed OG. Now SMTP server is not working on my system.Its just a Win XP machine. I have created a few groups. Now when a user tries to join a group by click on Request to Join, it says that the request has been sent for approval by administrator. However, I dont find any request anywhere when I log in as admin. It not under notification or messages or anywhere else. I have changed the request method to web. But nothing seems to be working. Pls help.

I am trying to make OG easier for my users, and the Invite functionality is the piece that needs (imho) to be exposed better. (In this context all groups are Moderated, so Invite is always applicable.)

My plan is to redirect users to the OG Invite page after group node creation ... which is where I am currently stuck. Moshe could no doubt do this one-handed and blind-folder, for me it's a stumper.

I already tried FormAPI $form['#redirect'] (see http://drupal.org/node/134000#comment-1556220) but since that value can only do fixed paths, I can't come up with a way to use it so that it ends in the appropriate /$gid.

Here's the og.module function for making the Invite Page:

function og_invite_page($gid) {
  $node = node_load($gid);
  if ($node->og_selective < OG_INVITE_ONLY || og_is_node_admin($node)) {
    return drupal_get_form('og_invite_form', $gid);
  }
  else {
    drupal_access_denied();
  }
}

So presumably I could get there with some custom module magic, but that is just outside my current expertise level.
Any suggestions out there in the Drupalverse?

According to the page above, "You cannot use this module with other node access modules." However, the link points to a 4 year old post. Does anyone know if this is still true? In Drupal 6.x, can Organic Groups co-exist with Taxonomy Access Control?

How about updating the setup instructions for latest D6?
Like many other modules... you need hours to figure out how to setup and use them

I'm using the Organic Groups module to create a collaborative workspace for a very specific purpose, so I would like to go ahead and populate each new group with a particular set of content types and display those as a menu regardless of their states of completion. I'm having a lot of trouble with this and wonder if there's something I don't understand - will I need to use PHP in the menu links (that is, $gid or something to that effect)? Or any other general tips?

Just in case you are looking for it... here is a nice tutorial on D6 OG setup (May 2009)

http://groups.idcminnovations.com/articles/setting-drupal-organic-groups

Here are some tips that I came away with having knocked around OG:

1. If you append ?gids[]= to the add node url, it will automatically select the organic to post to. For example:

node/add/post?gids[]=1

This will bring up the "Add Post" page with the Audience preselected to the OG with a nid of 1

2. If you are using Panels with OG and you want to have a PHP based visibility rule to display a block based off of membership, you can use this code :

$object = $contexts ['argument_nid_1'];
$object = $object->data;
return og_is_group_member($object->nid);

3. Node gallery module is a great module for uploading multiple images - but if you want to include the uploaded files into a block within group, you will need to extend the OG views. I won't go into how to extend a view, but here are the view extension definitions I used to include the Node Gallery:

$data['og_ancestry']['node_galleries_gid']= array(
'real field' => 'nid',
'title' => t("Gallery Image from OG"),
'relationship' => array(
'title' => t("Gallery Image from OG"),
'help' => t("Bring in node gallery's images based off an OG"),
'base' => 'node_galleries',
'base field' => 'gid',
'relationship field' => 'nid',
'handler' => 'views_handler_relationship',
'label' => t("Gallery Image from OG"),
),
);
$data['node_galleries']['gid']['field'] = array(
'handler' => 'views_handler_field_numeric',
);

I hope somebody finds these tips useful

When I create a group and some one post a comment or entry for that groups , the entry will repeat 2 or 3 times. And the group display also repeat 2 or more times , if I am manager of that group. how do i avoid this.

Thanks

Siva

Sorry if this question seems a little thick, but where is the documentation for Organic Groups for Drupal 7?

From the Organic Groups project page, I click on the Documentation link, and am taken to this page, which seems to have two glaring shortcomings. One, it is marked "Deprecated," and two, it says that it applies to Drupal versions 4.7 through 6.

I've found a number of video tutorials for Organic Groups, but they tend to fall into two broad categories: videos for OG under Drupal 6, and videos explaining the differences between the old and the new versions (in other words, tutorials that aren't of much use if you've never used OG before).

Is there some "Getting started with Organic Groups under Drupal 7" documentation I'm just not finding??? TIA for any pointers!