Chat workspace

Inviting people

Inviting reaches somebody who is not in the organization or topic yet, from your contacts or by plain email address, and grants the permissions you choose when they accept.

The Invite dialog and its two tabs

Invite sits in the roster strip beside Add participants, and appears only in a scoped space and only if your permissions allow inviting into that organization or topic. Its header names the scope the invitation is for, so you always know where the person is being invited.

The dialog opens on the first of two tabs, and the tabs decide only how you name the recipient. Everything beneath them — the permissions, and in an organization-level space the topic access — is the same whichever tab you use, and one click on the other tab switches without losing what you ticked.

Tab 1 — From contacts

A picker over your contact list: search by name or handle, tick as many people as you need — the count beside the search box keeps up — and every one of them receives the same invitation with the same permissions. Only people already in your contacts appear here; somebody you have never added belongs on the other tab.

The Invite dialog on its From contacts tab: the searchable picker with checkboxes, the count of selected people, the permission grid, and the Invite button — From contacts — tick several at once; the permissions beneath apply to all of them. The phone's sheet, on the topic screen, takes one recipient at a time in a single field.

Tab 2 — By username or email

One field, for one recipient typed by hand. Start typing a handle and registered clients that match are suggested beneath it as you go — pick one and it fills in. Type a full email address instead and the invitation goes out by email to somebody who has no Orchyst account yet; they create one when they accept. The field takes a single recipient per invitation, so for several people use the contacts tab or invite them one by one.

The By username or email tab: the field with mob typed and a list of matching registered clients suggested beneath it — By username or email — one recipient, suggested as you type; a plain email address reaches somebody with no account yet

The phone invites too, from a different place: invitations live on the organization and topic screens rather than inside a space. The sheet there takes one recipient at a time in a single Email or handle field — a handle has to belong to an existing account, an email address does not — so it covers both of the modes the web splits across two tabs. Invite from there and the person appears in the spaces they can reach.

The access the invitation carries

Under the recipients sit the permissions the new member receives on acceptance — the same set the organization or topic membership pages use. Tick only what they need; nothing is granted that you do not tick.

When the space is scoped to a whole organization rather than one topic, the dialog grows: the permission grid becomes the organization's, and a Topic access select appears — All topics, which reaches every topic in the organization, or Selected topics, which reaches only the ones you tick under Controllable topics just below.

The Invite dialog in an organization-level space: the wider organization permission grid and the Topic access select set to All topics — In an organization-level space — the organization permission grid and Topic access

Invite versus Add participants

The two buttons look alike and do different things. Add participants moves somebody who is already in the scope into this space, and takes effect at once. Invite asks somebody who is not in the scope to join it, and nothing happens until they accept.

An invitation goes to the organization or topic, not to this space. Once it is accepted the person is a member of the scope, and you then add them here with Add participants.