Dynamic Groups

Organizations with thousands of users have complex organizational charts and numerous departments so organizing the groups of something this vast can be complex.

In such cases, make a group dynamic. Dynamic Groups are groups where all the members of these groups are controlled by user metadata. When the user’s metadata changes, participation in the matching dynamic group(s) will be adjusted automatically. 

🚨 PREREQUISITE 🚨

Contact your CSM or Onboarding Manager for configuration prior to using Dynamic Groups.

Note: For Dynamic Groups to be enabled, custom fields must be configured for every environment to add the specific fields the organization uses as part of the users metadata. For more information on creating custom fields, such as the custom field City Keys which is used in this article, see the Managing Environment Settings documentation.

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Creating a Dynamic Group

Using Dynamic Group User Metadata to Assign Groups of Users

Creating a Dynamic Group

1. In order to create a dynamic group, go through the process of creating regular groups. For a step-by-step guide to creating a group, read Creating user groups and assigning permissions.

2. Once a group is created, access the group and click on the Group Info tab. In the Group Info tab, check the Is Dynamic Group check box.

In this example, a group named Alaska is created. This group belongs to a larger dynamic group, United States. We are going to create dynamic groups that belong to Alaska by assigning another level of created groups. In the example to follow, the groups added to Alaska are cities.

3. In this example, a new group field, City Keys, is created in which smaller groups may be added to the created Alaska Group. 

As an example, several smaller groups of the cities in Alaska is added in the Cities Key field as seen below:

4. One of the added items in the City Keys field of the dynamic group is Anchorage. This allows all users inside the Anchorage group to be part of a larger group, Alaska. One of the groups added to the City Keys field is City Key Anchorage-5879400  which corresponds to the group, Anchorage-5879400. The image below shows the group on the group list.

Using Dynamic Group User Metadata to Assign Groups of Users

Once the environment with all the groups is created, admins and managers can now change the groups of users based on the created field, City Keys and the Custom Fields, City.

In this example, the user is not assigned to any City, and have no assigned groups.

In this example, I assigned the City, Anchorage-5879400, to the City custom field and saved the profile.

The groups where the user belongs is updated automatically. The Group page of this user displays the City Anchorage, the dynamic group where it belongs, Alaska, and the larger group, United States.

Note: Saving the profile may not immediately display the group changes immediately upon clicking on the Group tab. Refresh the entire page to see the applied changes.

Changing the City field of the user automatically changes the groups that the user belongs to. In this example, I changed the City to Jackson.

Because the City custom field is now set to Jackson, the group of the user changes to the dynamic groups where Jackson is assigned to. In this case, instead of Anchorage and Alaska, the groups changes to Jackson and New Jersey.

If you run into any issues, please contact support.