Group Manager Tool Overview

Group Manager can be accessed and bookmarked by visiting https://villanova.edu/groupmanage. You will be asked to authenticate using your Villanova credentials.

Upon opening the tool and logging in, you will be presented with an option to create a New Group:

Click "+ New Group" to visit the group creation page. Here you will be asked for 5 required pieces of information:

• Group Display Name - This is the name that will be visible within Outlook to anyone sending to the group. There is a 255 character limit on the Display Name and it is recommended that it be only a few words describing the nature of the group.
• Group Description - This can be a more detailed description of the purpose of the group.
• Group Email Address - This is the specific email address that will be used for the group for either communication or providing access to applications or services.
• Group Owner - This initially cannot be modified and will assigned to the person creating the new group, but once the group is created, you will have the opportunity to add additional owners or even transfer ownership.
• Group Visibility - There is a check box asking if you would like to hide visibility from Villanova's Global Address List:
  
  
  
  Check this box if you would NOT prefer the Villanova community to be able to see your group appear as available to send to within Outlook. If you do check the box, then you will need to type the email address whenever you send to the list in Outlook because it will not be searchable.

After filling out all of the required information, click Next to be taken to the confirmation screen. If all of the information is correct, click Confirm to create your group.

Upon opening the tool and logging in, you will be be able to view the groups of which you are an owner:



For each group you have the option of viewing the Group Details, which includes adding and remove members and owners among other options, or Deleting Group, which will allow you to clean up groups that you no longer require.

Please note that it is highly recommended that all group owners audit and clean up unused groups at least once a year.

Group Types - There are two primary groups types, general groups that can be used as distribution lists for group communication or controlling access to Villanova applications or services or  indicated by  and access groups for shared mailboxes that are indicated by . They are both managed the same though they serve slightly different purposes.

Sync Status - This helpful new feature will indicate when a group is synced and ready for use. After you make a change, you will see the blue cloud symbol () which will indicate that the changes are still in process. Once you see the green check mark (), your updated group is ready for use.

After clicking on the Group Details button for a group, you can add or remove members from that group.

Upon first entering your group, under the Members section, it will say "No Results" which means there are no members. To add a member, click the Add Member button.

On the following screen, you can search for a new member by name.

Enter part or all of the person's name and click Search. Once the search results come up, you can further filter the search results by entering another search string into the Search box on the results screen. Once you find the person you are looking for, click the Add Member button next to their name and they will become a member. Remember that you must wait until the green check mark appears next to the group on the My Groups screen to indicate that the group is ready for use. Using this method, members can only be added one at a time.

Once at least one member appears in your list on the Group Details screen, you will see the option to also Remove Member.

After clicking on the Group Details button for a group, you can add or remove owners from that group.

The process for adding and removing owners is similar to the section above for adding and removing members so please refer to the guide above.

One important thing to note is that owners are not automatically members and will not be eligible for email distribution or access depending on the use of the group. An owner must be added as a member as well to be subject to the use of that group.

Transferring Ownership

You have the ability to transfer ownership of a group entirely to another person by adding that person as an owner and then removing yourself as an owner, however, please note that after doing this, once you leave the tool, that group will disappear immediately from your My Groups list. Please be absolutely sure this is the intent before you remove yourself as an owner.

A new feature of Group Manager is the ability to append additional members to a group through the upload of a CSV (comma-separated values) file or replace the full list with a new list through uploading a CSV file.

Formatting the CSV file for upload

The file needs to be a comma-separated values file with one of the following four headers in the first column: BANNERID, PIDM, EMAIL or USERID. The first column is the only column that is processed and must identify the individuals. The header must be exactly as indicated with all capitals. Each person will be searched by the value in the first column based on the header value supplied.

When creating you CSV in Excel, make sure you select CSV as the file format when you save:

Here is a sample of what a properly formatted file would look like in Excel using EMAIL as the header option:

Uploading the file

From the Group Details page, select the option to with Append or Replace a file:

On the following screen, click in the window or drag a file to the window:

Click on the Upload button to upload the file and you should see a green confirmation message if the file is accepted:

Once the file is uploaded click on Next to process the file. Depending on the number of members in the file, the upload may complete quickly or may take several minutes to complete. Keep an eye on the sync status as well as the member list on the Group Details screen to know when the upload is successful.

If the format of the file is incorrect, you will receive an error message and be asked to try again. Please review the formatting instructions carefully above to ensure you are using the correct file structure.

An exciting feature of the Group Manager tool gives owners the ability to manage broadcasters for their groups. A broadcaster is an individual, shared account, or group that has the ability to send to the email address for a group. The also ensures that sending rights are restricted to the group of Broadcasters defined.

It is recommended that every group owner review the broadcasters that are set for the group.

To manage broadcasts, click Add / Edit Broadcasters from the Group Details page:

On the following page you will be given a list of options for setting broadcasters:

IMPORTANT - You must click Save Broadcasters after making any changes to the broadcast options.

All Villanova users can send to this list - This is the most open, unrestricted option and any Villanova email address can send to the list.

The options for Owners and Members to send are self explanatory and will restrict broadcast rights as each indicates.

I would like to customize the broadcasters for this list - This option allows further refinement of the precise senders for the list:

Aside from the options to open up to all Villanova faculty or staff, you can select the option to enter a custom Villanova email address as a broadcaster. This will allow owners to compile a list of one or more email addresses that have the ability to send to their list. For each valid email address you enter, make sure you click Add Broadcaster to see it appear on the list.

A list of the custom broadcasters that have been added will appear on the screen under the Broadcast List. It important to confirm this list is inclusive of all email addresses that should be permitted to send to the list.

IMPORTANT - You must click Save Broadcasters after making any changes to the broadcast options.

The final option from the Group Details screen is the ability to edit the group's information. To do this, click on the Edit Group Properties button:

This will take you to a screen similar to when the group was created with the ability to edit the following options:

• Group Display Name - This is the name that will be visible within Outlook to anyone sending to the group. There is a 255 character limit on the Display Name and it is recommended that it be only a few words describing the nature of the group.
• Group Description - This can be a more detailed description of the purpose of the group.
• Group Email Address - This is the specific email address that will be used for the group for either communication or providing access to applications or services.
• Group Owner - This initially cannot be modified and will assigned to the person creating the new group, but once the group is created, you will have the opportunity to add additional owners or even transfer ownership.
• Group Visibility - There is a check box asking if you would like to hide visibility from Villanova's Global Address List:
  
  
  
  Check this box if you would NOT prefer the Villanova community to be able to see your group appear as available to send to within Outlook. If you do check the box, then you will need to type the email address whenever you send to the list in Outlook because it will not be searchable.

After filling out all of the required information, click Save to save your changes. Remember to wait until the green check box appears to ensure that your group has synced and is ready for use.