Chamilo LMS

When "group_category" (c_group_category) and "group_info" (c_group_info) tables are created inside "create_course_tables" function in file "main/inc/lib/add_course.lib.inc.php", the column max_student is declared as max_student int unsigned NOT NULL default 8.

When creating a group, there no way to give a value to this column, so it will always be its default value (8).

If you create a group larger than max_student value (8) Chamilo will change it to that value. This can be seen inside "create_group" function in file "main/inc/lib/groupmanager.lib.php".

It could be quite weird but there is nothing wrong with this issue.

Please add the limit field in the global groups configuration so that you can set it to a default value.

If no value (empty) is set, then the limit should not be changed in any group.
If the value is set to "0", then the limit should be set to 0 in all new groups.
If the value is set to anything else, then the limit should be set to this number in all new groups.

In no situation the configuration on this page should change the existing groups. Only the new ones.

When creating a new group, the default value (coming from the category table) should be "proposed" in the creation form, and should be applied if no change is made to the creation form.

If a change is made to this value ("seats") in the creation form, then this value should be used instead of the value in the category table.

Julio, when creating course groups with 'group category creation' disabled, the group max limit by default will always be 8. There isn't a 'default group max limit' field in course group settings to modify this default value (8) and Yannick and me think this would be necessary. Would this thought be correct?

I reproduced the error.

You need to have the this setting to true:

api_get_setting('allow_group_categories')

When you create a group and put "20" as places, this value will be overwritten with 8. Because it's associated with the "default group" that is correctly set to 8.
This is the part of the code:

if ($places == 0) {
    //if the amount of users per group is not filled in, use the setting from the category
    $places = $category['max_student'];
} else {
    if ($places > $category['max_student'] && $category['max_student'] != 0) {
        $places = $category['max_student'];
    }
}

So the behaviour seems correct for me. A "places" value for a group inside a category can't be bigger than the "places" value in the category. You have to edit the "default group category":

What I could add in the form creation is something like this: "Max 8"

Postponing. A really deep issue that requires more fiddling (but half resolved by Julio's comment about group categories)