Directories are an invaluable benefit to offer your Members and have the potential to be a non-dues revenue stream for you! Your directories are powered by Groups, giving you the added benefit to:
Create as many directories as needed. Most directory settings apply to each uniquely, and will not affect other directories as you continue to create listings.
Include members or non-members.
Trust your directory to automatically update as your Groups update.
Customize each directory for your target audience.
Monetize your listings.
Before you get started...
This article details the steps to create a new directory, but first, you'll want to complete the following (if not already done):
Learn more about the basics of online member directories, how users can search a directory listing, which members will show in the directory, and what information is displayed about each member.
Check your group settings to ensure who will be displayed in the directory. You can use existing groups or create a new group.
Review your Association Settings for featured listings setup if using in a directory - see the next section below for more info.
In this article...
Sitewide Setting that applies to all Directories
Featured Listings, if enabled, will display in a directory based on the setup in your Association Settings. Before creating a new directory, check these settings to make sure they are set up properly.
Select which profile features are visible in directories for Featured Only member listings, or for both Basic & Featured members. Once Featured Listings is enabled here, you can turn it on or off for each directory.
Create a New Directory
Once your Association Settings are dialed in and you've created a Group, follow the steps below to create a new directory.
1. Go to Members > Directories on the backend of Novi.
2. Click the Add Directory button.
The New Directory modal will be displayed:
3. In the New Directory modal, add the following details:
Name
Enter the name of your directory, which will show on the frontend.
Members To Include
Select the Group to include in your directory from the drop-down list.
Each directory is populated from a single group, so only one option can be selected from this drop-down list.
Visibility
A directory can be made Public or locked down as visible only to Specific Groups.
If you want to display the directory to the Public but only allow logged-in members access to contact info, toggle the Show Contact Info To Public setting to off.
For members who opted in to Hide Contact Info on their individual record, their contact info will be hidden regardless of the directory settings.
Filters
Make it easier for your members to search the directory by adding built-in or custom filters. From the list of available options, use the checkbox to select one or more filters for users to utilize while searching the frontend directory.
Filter options include:
Location-based fields (e.g. City, State, County/Parish, Zip Code, etc.)
Member Type
This filter will show options based on each member type's settings in the "Display Name for Directories" field.
If two member types have the same display name, it will only be listed once in the filter drop-down and the members from both types will be displayed together.
You can also select as a filter any group filters already created
Additional Filter options:
More filter options can be added from custom fields. To add, be sure to include Member Directory Filter in the custom field visibility settings. You can also check the box for Directory Profile Page to show the members' info on their directory profile.
Settings
Choose how your directory listings will display by toggling these features on/off:
Map View: Displays your company members in a geographical location map view (powered by Google Maps). Note, to protect an individual's privacy, they cannot be featured in a map view.
Category View: Enables an alphabetized category display. If this feature is turned on, select the filter category from the Filter for Directory Categories drop-down list (see details below).
Featured Listings: Turn this on to display premium directory listings for select members. Enable and customize how Featured and Basic Listings appear in the directory from your Association Settings. If this is turned off within the directory's settings, all members will be treated as featured.
Special Offers: Toggle on this setting to display member offers in the directory. These will display based on Featured and Basic list settings, as set up in your Association Settings.
Staff Lists: Choose to hide or display staff lists and contact info on company profile pages. Information in the Staff listings will display based on Featured and Basic list settings, if enabled.
Sort Order: There are two options for the sort order of your directories - Random (recommended) or Alphabetical. No matter the sort order selected, members are ordered in groups, as applicable by settings, displaying first featured members, then members with benefits, dues-paying members, inheriting members, and finally non-members.
Filter for Directory Categories
Select the field to use as the filter for Category View.
Member Type is an option, plus any custom fields that include Member Directory Filter in the custom field details (Will be shown in this drop-down list if you have selected it as a filter for the unique directory you are working on!)
Example: Areas of Expertise - Find a supplier member through the service they offer.
Search Engine Optimization
Page Title: The title that will be displayed in search engine results.
Description: The summary of the directory displayed by search engines.
URL Prefix: The end of the URL for the directory. Each directory has a unique URL allowing you to link users directly to each directory. Note that you cannot have a directory with the same URL as a regular static content page.
4. Once you're satisfied with the directory setup, don't forget to switch the directory to Active!
This can be done by toggling the button at the top right of the New Directory modal.
If you want to build your directory and test your settings before it is live on your site, you can leave the directory Inactive when you Save & Close. When you are ready, from the main Directories list, click on the icon in the Active column to set your directory live.
Then click the Save & Close button.
Now that your directory is active you can customize the directory content on the frontend and add the directory to the website navigation, homepage, and lots of other places!
Adding New Directories to Your Website Navigation
This is an important step to make sure the directory you created appears to your members on the frontend of your website!
Find the new directory in Static Content > Website Navigation
Search by directory name or click on the directories folder to see a list!
Drag and drop it into your website navigation.
Directory Visibility Settings
When determining a directory's visibility settings mentioned above, it's important to think about the implications of choosing to make your directory public or locked down to certain groups.
Visibility Locked Down to a Specific Group
If you choose to lock your directory to a group, that means only the members of that group can see any of the profiles or information in that particular directory. Anyone who is not in the group (or not logged in, since the site won't know they are in the group) would receive a restricted content message.
This helps protect the information in the directory from those who either don't have the proper benefits to see it or even potentially bad actors like web scrapers.
Public Visibility
If you choose to make a directory public, remember that means anyone, logged-in or not will be able to see the directory.
Going this route, making a directory public, you can take it a step further to say if contact info is public or only available to logged-in members.
If you choose to show contact information to the public as well, that means that anyone viewing the directory can see the directory members' emails, phone numbers, and addresses (for companies). For some associations, this may be a member benefit - these members want to be contacted by directory visitors. However, keep in mind that this may open the members up to the bad actors looking to scrape emails for email lists.
Our website tools have technical safeguards in place to help protect against robo-scrapers (for example, the use of ReCaptcha and page view limitations that a regular user wouldn't hit); however, it's difficult to distinguish between a real user of your site and a human that's looking to scrape emails from your public directory.
For this reason, you might consider hiding contact info for your public directories. This way, while anyone can see the directory profiles, only logged-in members would be able to access the contact information.
To take it a step further, you may also consider enabling the Member Directory Contact Form, which shows a form to contact members rather than revealing their real email addresses. If enabled, you can also choose to utilize the Contact Form Limit setting which limits the number of messages a user can send via the contact form within a certain timeframe.
Learn More About Directories