A member group is a grouping of users, used for various business purposes. Member groups data can be stored only in the WebSphere Commerce database. A member group is either of type UserGroup, AccessGroup, or ApprovalGroup. The type of member group indicates the intended usages of the group; that is, a member group of type UserGroup is for general use, a member group of type AccessGroup is for access control purposes, while a member group of type ApprovalGroup is for approval purposes.
Member groups are not part of the membership hierarchy, but are owned by a member. For access control purpose, the following definitions apply:
- A user owns itself
- An organizational entity owns itself
- A member group is owned by an organizational entity
Two types of member groups exist: implicit or explicit. A member group can be both implicit and explicit at the same time. An implicit member group contains users that share common attributes and are therefore considered members of a specific member group. An implicit member group contains criteria on attributes that users must satisfy in order to be considered members of that member group. You can also explicitly exclude certain users although they satisfy the criteria. An explicit member group contains explicitly assigned users who may or may not share common attributes.