Private lists — Groups & roles

Closed groups and role system

Every private list lives in one or more closed groups. Only authenticated members of that group can access the wishlists it contains. The group is the central unit of organisation: a family, a circle of friends, a group of colleagues — you define your own space.

Three principles apply to every member of the group, regardless of their role: anyone can create their own wishlist within the group, anyone can invite other people to join it, and every list is visible to all members — including your own. Within the group, a wishlist is therefore never private from the others: that is precisely what lets them reserve gifts on it. Only the reservations themselves stay hidden from the person being spoiled, to keep the surprise intact.

On top of that, Olaf Wishlist offers five distinct roles to cover every use case. The group owner is at first the person who started it: they can promote members to editor or demote them, and can transfer ownership to someone else. The Editor shares the owner's administrative rights (member management, promotion/demotion), can create and edit gift ideas on any member's list, and cancel reservations. When a list is shared with several groups, being an editor in one of them is enough to hold those rights over it. Each group also chooses whether it shows the names of those who reserve: a new group does not, so its members see that a gift is taken without knowing by whom. Only the owner and the editors can change this, in the group settings.

The regular Member can view all wishlists in the group, add gift ideas to someone else's list, and make reservations — on top, of course, of the three rights shared by everyone (creating their own list, inviting, and seeing all lists). The Beneficiary is the person receiving the gifts — they are at the heart of the list. They can modify their own list but never see reservations before the expiry date. Finally, the guardian manages a list for a person without an account (a child, for example) — unlike a regular beneficiary, they can see reservations on the list they manage and make reservations themselves. Such a list can in fact be looked after by several people: each of them has exactly the same rights, reservations included.

Event types and configuration

When creating a private wishlist, you choose from several event types: Christmas, Birthday or Other. This choice influences the display and helps your loved ones immediately understand the context.

You then set an event date and an expiry date. The event date closes the list: the big day itself stays open, then from the next day no more changes or reservations are possible. The expiry date, always after the event, is when the gift recipient can finally discover who gave what and read the personal messages left by those who reserved gifts.

Adding and managing items

Each item on a wishlist can include a title, an indicative price, a URL to the product, an image, a personal comment, a priority (0 to 5 hearts) and a desired quantity. This information helps your loved ones find exactly what you need, without having to improvise.

Priority is a powerful tool: by marking your most important items with a high priority, you subtly guide your loved ones towards the gifts that would make you happiest. Quantity lets you specify how many copies of the same item you'd like — useful for consumables (candles, coffee capsules) or collections (books in a series, for example).

The image can be extracted automatically from a product URL using the Load button, or added manually.

And if you come across the product in a shop, you can add it to your list by scanning its barcode — available only from the mobile app (see the Mobile app guide).

The surprise preserved until the end

At Olaf, everything is designed to protect the surprise. The gift recipient — the person receiving the gifts — can never see who reserved an item, nor read the personal notes left by those who reserved. This information stays hidden until the list's expiry date. It's only after expiry that everything is revealed: names, messages, contributions — a moment of discovery as moving as the event itself.

Change groups or copy a list

A list isn't stuck in the group you created it in. Until it expires, you can move it to another group: in its settings, under “Sharing”, add the new group, remove the old one, then save. Handy for preparing your list quietly in a small circle, then sharing it with the group that brings everyone together.

Removing a group matters: people who can't see the list through any other group lose access to it, and whatever they had reserved or announced there is cancelled — they get notified. A confirmation reminds you of this before every removal.

Would you rather keep your list where it is? Copy to another group creates a new, independent list with all your ideas and their quantities, but no reservations: each circle organises its gifts on its own.

Giving your list to someone else

A list can change hands. Up to the day of the event, from its settings, under "Transfer the list", you can give it to another member of the group: it becomes theirs straight away, with its ideas, its dates, its groups and the reservations already made. The person is notified, and nothing is asked of them.

You then become a member like the others: you see the list's reservations and conversations. If the list was meant for you, the surprise is therefore spoiled — a confirmation reminds you of this before every transfer. If the person had reserved an idea on this list themselves, that reservation is cancelled.

To look after a list together without seeing any reservations, entrust its management instead: you keep the list, and someone manages it with you. A list kept for a loved one without an account, on the other hand, can't be transferred.

Available on web, mobile and extension

Private lists can be fully managed from the website on desktop or smartphone, from the mobile app on iOS and Android, and from the browser extension on Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Regardless of the platform used, all changes are synchronised in real time for all group members.