Groups and alliances

Active contributors: Sergio Castaño Arteaga, Cintia Sánchez García, Sako Mammadov

Purpose

The groups and alliances feature defines the organizational hierarchy of the platform. An alliance is the top-level container (e.g., "GOUP Alliance"). Groups are sub-communities within an alliance (e.g., "AI Builders Baku"). Groups host events, post jobs, and manage their own membership and teams.

Directory layout

ocg-server/src/
├── handlers/alliance.rs / alliance/      # alliance public pages
├── handlers/group.rs / group/            # group public pages: about, members, events, …
├── handlers/dashboard/alliance.rs / alliance/  # alliance admin dashboard
├── handlers/dashboard/group.rs / group/  # group admin dashboard (settings, members, teams)
├── db/alliance.rs                        # DB queries for alliance pages
├── db/group.rs                           # DB queries for group pages
├── db/dashboard/alliance.rs             # DB queries for alliance dashboard
├── db/dashboard/group/                   # DB queries for group dashboard
├── templates/alliance.rs                 # MiniJinja template structs for alliance pages
├── templates/group.rs                    # MiniJinja template structs for group pages
├── types/alliance.rs                     # Alliance, AllianceDetails, and related types
└── types/group.rs                        # Group, GroupMember, Team, and related types

Key abstractions

Abstraction	File	Description
`DBAlliance`	`ocg-server/src/db/alliance.rs`	Trait: get_alliance, get_alliance_groups, get_alliance_events, …
`DBGroup`	`ocg-server/src/db/group.rs`	Trait: get_group, get_group_members, add_member, remove_member, …
`DBDashboard`	`ocg-server/src/db/dashboard.rs`	Composed sub-trait for all dashboard DB operations

Platform hierarchy

Alliance
  ├── metadata (name, slug, logo, description, social links)
  ├── categories (event categories scoped to the alliance)
  └── Group (one or more)
        ├── metadata (name, slug, logo, description, location)
        ├── members (users with roles: member, admin, owner)
        ├── teams (sub-groups within a group)
        └── events (hosted by the group)

Users join groups; group admins and owners manage settings, members, teams, and events through the dashboard. Alliance admins have visibility and control across all groups.

How it works

Public site

Alliance and group public pages are rendered by handlers in ocg-server/src/handlers/alliance.rs and ocg-server/src/handlers/group.rs. Routes follow the pattern /:alliance_name and /:alliance_name/group/:group_name.

Dashboard

The group dashboard (accessible at /dashboard/alliance/:alliance_id/group/:group_id/…) provides organizer tools:

Settings — edit group profile, location, social links.
Members — invite, approve, remove, and role-manage members.
Teams — create teams and invite team members.
Events — create and manage group events.
Jobs — post and manage job listings.

Member roles and permissions

Permissions are checked via the types/permissions.rs module. Key roles: Owner, Admin, Member. Handlers extract the current user's role from the session and gate actions accordingly.

Alliance team invitations

When a group team administrator invites a user, the invitation is recorded in the DB and an email is sent via services/notifications. The invited user accepts or declines from a link in the email. See notifications for the AllianceTeamInvitation and GroupTeamInvitation templates.

Integration points

Events — events belong to a group; group admins manage events via the dashboard.
Jobs — jobs are posted by group organizers.
Auth — membership actions require authentication; role checks use the session user.
Notifications — GroupWelcome, GroupCustom, AllianceTeamInvitation, GroupTeamInvitation email templates.
MCP server — goup_search_groups, goup_search_members, goup_search_teams tools.

Entry points for modification

Add a group field: extend the Group struct in ocg-server/src/types/group.rs, update DBGroup in ocg-server/src/db/group.rs, and add a migration.
Add a new dashboard section: create a handler file under ocg-server/src/handlers/dashboard/group/ and register the route in ocg-server/src/router/dashboard.rs.
Change role logic: update ocg-server/src/types/permissions.rs.

GOUP documentation