It's common for associations and businesses to have multi-tiered structures, such as leadership hierarchies, committees and sub-committees, and product lines with multiple products. Many online communities use a similar "layering" approach when they establish communities and sub-communities, such as for national and regional chapters.

With Higher Logic's Nested Communities module, you can structure your communities to reflect whatever "layer" approach is used by your organization. And with a dedicated management page, keeping your various "layers" organized is a snap.

NOTE: A nested community is any community site that is hierarchically situated below another community.

Why nest your communities?

First, it's important to note that a nested community is a Microsite.

To learn about Microsites, see Microsites Overview.

The Nested Communities module gives you the ability to "nest" three sub-tiers of communities under your main community; that's a total of four tiers of communities. Also:

There is no limit to the number of nested communities on each sub-tier.
Each nested community can host its own unique content that is tailored to its members.
The main community's content can be shared with its nested communities, rather than having to individually update the same content on each nested community. (This is called syndicated content.)

The All Communities list

The All Communities list displays differently for a nested community than for a main community.

Main community - the All Communities list displays all levels of all communities that are nested under it.
Nested community - the All Communities list displays only the communities that are nested under it.

Nested Communities permissions

The View and Join permissions are established independently for each nested community so that you can control the visibility of and access to each nested community.

To learn about these permissions, see Understand Community Permissions.

Access your Nested Communities

To view your nested communities and how they are structured:

In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

Navigate to Community > Tools > Manage Nested Communities.

The Nested Community Management page opens with your entire community structure expanded.

The sections that follow describe how, on this page, you can:

filter the list by community name,
expand and collapse the entire structure, and
add and remove children from a "parent" community.

Manage your Nested Communities

The Nested Community Management page displays your entire community structure so that you can easily view and access your various tiers of nested communities.

Nested communities are listed under their "parent" communities.
Communities are listed by name in the following order:
- names that start with a character (e.g., an underscore, _), followed by
- names that begin with a numeral, followed by
- names that start with a letter (standard alphabetizing).
Each community name is a link to the community; click a community name to visit the community page in a new tab.

Filter the list

You can use the filter feature to refine the list in order to more quickly locate one or more communities.

NOTE: The filter field accepts any characters that were accepted as part of a community name.

You can type letters, numbers, and/or characters in the field.
Letters in community names are not case sensitive (e.g., type "member" to retrieve "Member").
You must type at least three characters for the filtering to initiate.
As you type, the list automatically updates to display all matching communities.

The filtering remains in effect until you clear the field or navigate away from the page.

Expand and collapse the list

The list is fully expanded when you land on the page. To work with the communities and nested communities, click:

Collapse All to hide everything except the main community.
Expand All to display the entire structure of communities and nested communities.
the house icon next to the main community to expand a collapsed list or to collapse an expanded list.
the plus (+) or minus (—) symbol next to a community to expand or collapse its nested communities structure.

Add and remove nested communities

The real benefit of this page is that it gives Admins the ability to easily add and remove nested communities.

NOTE: When a community is nested, it is a "child" of a higher-level community.

All communities, at every level in the structure, have an Edit Children option with which you can add and remove communities.

Add a nested community

Click Edit Children next to a community.
Click Add children.
Review the information in the upper part of the dialog; then you have three options:

specify a community key to choose just that community,
type letters, numerals, and/or characters to refine the list selections, or
choose one or more communities from the list.

Click Save on the dialog and the confirmation.
Review the structure and verify the addition.

Remove a nested community

Click Edit Children next to a community.
Click Remove children.
Review the information in the upper part of the dialog; then you have three options:

specify a community key to choose just that community,
type letters, numerals, and/or characters to refine the list selections, or
choose one or more communities from the list.

Click Save on the dialog and the confirmation.
Review the structure and verify the removal.

Community information and details

The Nested Community Management page is designed as a streamlined, single-purpose tool for managing your nested communities.

General information and specific details about a community or nested community are available on the community's home page and in community reports.

Nested community websites

With a tiered structure, you can create a central website for the entire community tree or individual websites for each nested community. Just as there can be an unlimited number of nested communities, there can be an unlimited number of nested community websites under the single main community.

NOTE: If a nested community doesn't have its own website, its content can be included for display on the website of its "parent" community that does have its own site, or on the main site.