Group organizers can see and invite every member on your site.
You promised each company a private space. Then an organizer opens Send Invites and finds everyone else’s people.
Danica LouweUpdated 5 min readLimit who can be invited, not just who can click the button. In BuddyBoss, give each company its own group type and profile type, then set the group type’s Profile Type Invites to that profile type only. Give every member of that company the profile type, and test while logged in as an organizer.
Who can invite and who can be invited are separate settings.
This comes up on sites where each client or company has its own group. The group looks private, but the invite list says otherwise.
Open by default
If the group type doesn’t limit who can be invited, an organizer can pick from everyone on the site.
The group setting only covers roles
Setting invites to organizers only stops other members sending them. It doesn’t change who appears in the list.
One group limit isn’t a private list
BuddyBoss can stop someone joining a second group of the same type. In our test, that didn’t change the list either.
Hiding the tab only hides the tab
Removing Send Invites with CSS looks like a fix, but the page is still there for anyone who has the link.
Log in as an organizer and look.
Your admin account won’t show you this. Use a real organizer account, or the free User Switching plugin.
- Open Send Invites on their group. Who’s in the list?
- Search for someone from another company. Do they appear?
- Check the members directory and site search from the same account.
- In the group’s settings, which roles can invite others?
- Are group types and profile types turned on, and does your BuddyBoss plan include them?
- Pick a recent member. Do they have a profile type?
Give each company its own pair of types.
The group type holds the rule, and the profile type says who the rule includes. Try this with one company first.
- 1
Limit who can invite
In the group’s settings, allow invites from organizers only, or organizers and moderators.
- 2
Create the company’s profile type
Add one under Profile Types. If the site shouldn’t have a member directory, hide this type from the directory and from network search.
- 3
Create its group type
Under Profile Type Invites and Profile Type Joining, select only that company’s profile type. Leaving these open is what lets everyone through.
- 4
Apply them
Give the group its group type, and give every member of that company the profile type. Add this to your steps for new members too.
- 5
Test as the organizer
Repeat the checks above. You should only see that company’s people, even if you open the invite link directly.
The technical version, for your developer
Our test was in 2022. We’ve checked the settings against current BuddyBoss docs, but not re-run the test on the latest version.
- Plan. BuddyBoss’s docs mark group types and profile types as Pro plan or higher. Its pricing page says Pro has been renamed Launch.
- Group types. Turn them on under BuddyBoss > Settings > Social Groups. Profile Type Invites offers All, Selected or None. Profile Type Joining sets who can join private groups of this type without approval.
- Check the wording. The docs say Profile Type Invites controls who can send join requests. The setting on our screen said only selected profile types may be sent requests. Trust your test over either one.
- Other group type options. “Hide all groups of this type from Groups Directory” hides the groups. “Members already in a group of this type can’t be invited to another” limits a member to one group of that type.
- Profile types. They’re under BuddyBoss > Settings > Member Profile > Profile Types. A WordPress Role set here applies to all members of that type, including existing users, so check it before saving.
- New members. A Default Profile Type applies to every new member, so it doesn’t suit several companies. Assign the type per member or automate it from your signup flow.
Watch it done
A protected group next to an unprotected one, then the group type and profile type settings that make the difference. Recorded in 2022, so labels may differ on your version.
Questions owners ask
Isn’t making the group private enough?
Not on its own. In our setup, the list of people an organizer could invite came from the group type and profile type settings. Group settings only decided which roles could send invites.
Is hiding the Send Invites tab enough?
No. CSS hides the tab, but anyone with the link can still reach the page. Set up the types first. Then hide the tab if your site doesn’t use invites at all.
Do I need a set of types for every company?
If each company should only see its own people, yes. That’s one group type and one profile type per company, which is manageable for a few and worth automating for many.
What about members who are already on the site?
Each one needs the right profile type. Set that before you test, or the people you expect may be missing from the organizer’s list.
Can organizers still find other members some other way?
Check it. Profile types can be hidden from the members directory and network search, but test anywhere else your site shows members, such as messages and mentions, while logged in as an organizer.
