How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
Number of replies: 8
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I have just upgraded a Moodle site from 3.7.2 to 3.8.1+, and noticed that forum posts now display an image (icon?) for each group that the poster belongs to. How can I hide/remove these 'group icons'? To be clear, I am looking at posts made prior to the upgrade, which at the time did not display the 'group icons' but now do. The only change has been the upgrade to 3.8.1.

In many of courses within the above mentioned Moodle site, students belong to multiple groups within a course. This causes a large number of 'group icons' to be displayed down the left-hand side of every post. This will be particularly be annoying when posts are short; the 'group icons' go well beyond where the message text ends, resulting in a lot of empty space. I have attached a image to display how this looks.

forum post with lots of group icons and empty space

This did not happen with 3.7. No 'group icons' were displayed in forum posts. However, it seems that this has been an issue in the past for other users:

https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=349205

and here

https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=378837

Note that the displaying of 'group icons' happens in forums even when ' Group mode' is set to 'No groups' in the forum settings. Also, this happens with either of the themes used in the Moodle system; Boost or Fordson.

So, how can I either:

  1. not display the 'group icons' at all?
  2. or, display the 'group icons' horizontally as they are displayed in this moodle.org site?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

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In reply to Peter Ruthven-Stuart

Re: How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Ray Hinton -
I do not have a local 3.8 site handy, but tried testing on the Mount Orange demo site. Have you tried configuring the "Hide picture" option in the settings for each Group? If you set it to Yes, that removes the icons.

It does seem cumbersome to need to check this for every Group, especially now that the default behavior seems to be different. I do not believe there is a sitewide setting to control the default behavior. I believe that the Forum module has been undergoing some reworking from 3.7 onward, so I wonder if this change was intentional or just a mix up while re-implementing the template.
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In reply to Ray Hinton

Re: How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Rick Jerz -
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Yes, this bothers me too. I think that the default should be "No" to not show group icons. Since the creation of groups is typically an "intentional" task, I think the adding of group icons should also be "intentional."

I haven't gotten around to making a feature request on Tracker. You might be able to beat me to it.

We have had other conversations on Moodle.org about this.
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
Picture of Plugin developers

Thank you Rick for your reply and the link to the other related post.

You mentioned in that other post that you automatically create groups. I too use the 'Auto-create groups' function to create up to 100 groups at a time. Having to then go back and edit every group so that the group icon does not display in forum posts is going to be 'annoying'. I will also have to edit the group settings for all existing courses.

> "I haven't gotten around to making a feature request on Tracker. You might be able to beat me to it."

I may well do.

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In reply to Peter Ruthven-Stuart

Re: How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Mary Cooch -
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Hello all. Helen made a tracker issue when we noticed this in our Learn Moodle MOOC: MDL-67959
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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Rick Jerz -
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Thanks, Mary. I voted for this.  Ray and Peter, make sure to vote.
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In reply to Ray Hinton

Re: How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
Picture of Plugin developers

Thank you Ray. I can confirm that selecting 'Yes' in the 'Hide picture' menu within the 'Edit group settings' removes the group icon from forum posts.

So having to do this for every group in a course is going to be a pain. And not just new courses. This new 'feature/bug' means that all forum posts in existing courses are now displaying group icons if those course contain one or more groups. I hope this can be fixed.

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In reply to Peter Ruthven-Stuart

Re: How to remove group icon images forum forum posts

by Ray Hinton -
Sounds like it has been identified as a bug, and hopefully you can quickly incorporate the fix when it is released!

In the meantime, you could probably change the setting for all your existing groups with some UPDATE query on the hidepicture column in the groups table, but I leave it to you to determine if it is appropriate and safe for your situation. smile
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