Your association can publish a member or organization directory on the Portal, so visitors can look someone up without signing in. Your association controls which fields you can search and which details appear in the results.
Before You Begin
Prerequisites
- You need a page that contains the directory. If your association added the ready-made pages, they appear in the Portal menu as Directories › Search People for a member directory and Directories › Search Organization for an organization directory. Your association may also have built its own page with a different label.
- You do not need to sign in. Directory search works the same whether you are signed in or not.
Search
- Open the directory page.
- Fill in the search fields on the page. Each directory can be set up differently, so the fields, labels, and order may vary between directories, including a member directory and an organization directory on the same Portal.
- Choose Search.
Result
Matching results appear below the search area in the layout chosen for that directory. Most results include at least a name you can select to see more details. If the directory has more results than fit on one page, Previous and Next controls appear. If nothing matches your search, the page tells you no results were found.
Open a result to see its details. For more about what that page shows and its limits, see View a Directory Entry.
Tip
If names sort unexpectedly in results, some contact names are often stored with inconsistent capitalization, such as ALL CAPS. Standardizing name capitalization, either through data cleanup or by asking members to update their own profile, usually improves alphabetical ordering.
What You Can Search On
A directory shows only the search fields included in its setup, and only while Rhythm still recognizes those fields as searchable for that record type. If your association selected a field that no longer qualifies, the field drops off the search form instead of causing an error. When you do not see a field you expected, it may have been selected for the directory but is not currently available to the search engine.
Search fields use a few input types:
| Field type | What you enter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Any text | Matches when the field contains what you typed |
| Number range | A number range, such as 10-150, 15-, or -90 | Matches values greater than or equal to, and less than or equal to, the numbers you enter |
| Date range | A date range | Matches dates within the range, including the start and end dates |
| Picklist | One or more choices from a fixed list | Appears as a multi-select list of the field's available choices |
| State, country | A single choice from a standard list | Used for address fields |
If the directory has location search turned on, you can also search by postal code and a distance in miles from that postal code.
For a contact custom field to appear as a dropdown or menu of choices, similar to Country, the custom field must be defined as a picklist instead of a plain text field.
Why Some Records Do Not Appear
Unless your association set up the directory differently, a search finds only active contacts or active organizations. If the person or organization you expect is inactive, it does not appear in search results by default. If you already have a direct link to that record's directory entry, the link can still open even when the record does not appear in search. Whether it opens for a specific directory depends on the association's setup.
Results can also be slightly out of date because directories refresh periodically instead of after every search. A very recent change may not appear right away.
A contact's profile image can fail to appear for a visitor who is not signed in, even though it displays for a signed-in visitor, when the image file is stored in a non-public location. Only images stored in a public location display in an anonymous directory.
If the Directory Will Not Load or Search
If the directory cannot be found or loaded, the page shows a message saying the directory could not be loaded, and nothing else happens on that page. This can happen when the page was not set up completely, or when the directory it pointed to no longer exists. If your search is rejected, you see a message saying the search could not run. This usually means one entry does not match the expected format, such as a number range that is not written as a range.