Issue with grouping members in EE using either AB Member Categories or an alternative

Question

I'm struggling with a concept in EE, and indeed explaining it, but what I need is essentially a way to group members so, for example, I'd have a group called Google then other members could be assigned to it. This would allow for content on the front end to be shown only to those that are part of that group.

I can't use member groups for this as I still need those for permission based things. I've looked at using AB Member Categories and this would be okay however it doesn't appear to be flexible enough when it comes to displaying entries from a specific category (group) based on the id/username of the person who is logged in.

Here is an example:

Groups / Members:

• Google
  • Member 1
  • Member 2
  • Member 3
• StackExchange
  • Member 4
  • Member 5
  • Member 6
• Facebook
  • Member 7
  • Member 8
  • Member 9

If Member 4 logs into the site then they will only see content linked to StackExchange, however if Member 2 logs in then they will only see Google related content.

Can anyone help out at all?

Thank you.

Answer 1

I've done this sort of thing using Zoo Visitor. With a category group specifically for visibility, which you use to assign content to said categories, in addition to members to the same categories, you can tie it together by using the Zoo Visitor global variable of "Member Categories" to limit the content displayed to content sharing category assignment with the logged in user using the category parameter on the entries loop. What's nice is that a member can then be part of more than one group if need be.