After you create a contact or organization directory, see Set Up a Contact or Organization Directory, add it to a Portal page so visitors can use it. You can add the directory in the page designer, or you can install CRM’s ready-made directory pages. This article also explains what visitors see when a directory block does not have a directory selected.
Prerequisites
- The directory you want to show must already exist.
- You need access to your Portal’s page designer to add a block to a Portal page or install a ready-made feature page.
Add a Directory Block to a Page
In the Portal page designer, add a Contact Directory or Organization Directory block to the page. Each block has one setting, Directory ID, where you enter the identifier for the directory you want to show. In the designer, the block shows only its icon and label. After you publish the page, you can view the live directory.
Warning
The Directory ID field is free text. The page does not check whether the identifier matches an existing directory or whether it matches the right kind of directory for the block. Type the identifier carefully, because the designer will not catch a typo. The block will either load the wrong directory or load nothing at all.
What Happens If No Directory Is Chosen
If you leave Directory ID empty, the page shows the first directory of that kind in your Rhythm account, based on the order your directories happen to be stored. It does not choose a directory you selected. Treat this as a fallback to avoid, not as a way to show “any” directory on purpose. Always set Directory ID for each block you place intentionally.
Add Ready-Made Directory Pages Instead
Instead of building a directory page yourself, you can add CRM’s ready-made pages through your Portal’s feature installer in the Portals and Microsites application: Contact Directory and Organization Directory. Installing one of these features creates the page and adds a menu entry for you: Search People for the contact directory page, and Search Organization for the organization directory page. You do not need to place the block or set its Directory ID by hand.
Tip
If your Rhythm account has only one contact directory or only one organization directory, the ready-made page and the fallback behavior above both show it. In that case, the ready-made page is the simplest way to create a working page without using the designer.
What Visitors See When You Have More Than One Directory
If your Rhythm account has more than one directory of the same kind and you want visitors to choose between them, place separate blocks on separate pages, with each block using its own Directory ID. You can also give visitors another way to reach the specific page for each directory. There is no single page or control that lets visitors choose from a list of your Rhythm account’s directories by name.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Each directory is its own separately configured, published listing. To show multiple roster outputs, create a separate directory for each one, with its own searchable fields, display fields, sorting, and rule-based constraints.
- The block's setting is the only thing that decides which directory shows, apart from the empty-block fallback above. When you change a directory’s fields, filters, or layouts, every block or page that points to that directory shows those changes. You do not need to change the Portal page.
- Deleting a directory breaks any page that names it. See Set Up a Contact or Organization Directory for what happens when a directory is removed while a page still references it.
Permissions
You need access to your Portal’s page designer to place or change a directory block. You need access to your Portal’s feature installer to install a ready-made directory feature page. Neither action requires any permission specific to CRM directories.
Validation and Errors
The designer does not validate the Directory ID field when you save a page. It accepts an identifier that does not match any directory, or one that matches the wrong kind of directory, without warning. When a visitor reaches the page, the block will not load anything useful. Check the newly placed block on the live page, not only in the designer, to confirm it shows the directory you intended.