Campus Directory
Professional Edition Documentation

Author: eMarket Design
Last Updated: 2019-05-24

Introduction

Campus Directory Pro significantly improves internal and external communication of higher education organizations by integrating people, publications, courses and locations

Concepts

The following is the definition(s) of the concept(s) covered in the context of Campus Directory app:

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People

Any person who is a faculty, graduate or undergraduate student, staff. A person may teach or attend courses or support other persons.

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Quick Start

Feel free to check out our live demo site to learn how to use Campus Directory Professional starter edition. The demo site will always have the latest version installed.

You can also use the demo site to identify possible issues. If the same issue exists in the demo site, open a support ticket and we will fix it. If a Campus Directory Professional feature is not functioning or displayed correctly in your site but looks and works properly in the demo site, it means the theme or a third party plugin or one or more configuration parameters of your site is causing the issue.

If you'd like us to identify and fix the issues specific to your site, purchase a work order to get started.

Purchase Work Order

Get the peace of mind that comes from having Campus Directory Professional properly installed, configured or customized by eMarket Design.

Being the developer of Campus Directory Professional, we understand how to deliver the best value, mitigate risks and get the software ready for you to use quickly.

Our service includes:

  • Professional installation by eMarket Design experts.
  • Configuration to meet your specific needs
  • Installation completed quickly and according to best practice
  • Knowledge of Campus Directory Professional best practices transferred to your team

Pricing of the service is based on the complexity of level of effort, required skills or expertise. To determine the estimated price and duration of this service, and for more information about related services, purchase a work order.

Purchase Work Order

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Content Access

Campus Directory provides access to content based on a user's role in your organization. A role defines a set of tasks a user is allowed to perform and is assigned to a user when he or she registers into the system. Please check the Roles and Responsibilities section of this document to see the available access roles and the functionality they have access to.

Working with People

Using Campus Directory, you can create, modify, delete, and search person records, associated taxonomies, or relationships.

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Creating People

To create person records in the admin area:

  1. Log in to your Administration Panel.
  2. Click the 'People' tab.
  3. Click the 'Add New' sub-tab or the “Add New” button in the person list page.
  4. Start filling in your person fields. You must fill all required fields. All required fields have red star after their labels.
  5. As needed, set person taxonomies and relationships. All required relationships or taxonomies must be set.
  6. When you are ready, click Publish. If you do not have publish privileges, the "Submit for Review" button is displayed.
  7. After the submission is completed, the person status changes to "Published" or "Pending Review". Users must have "publish" right to publish people. Users who do not have "publish" right can still create people; however, these people must be reviewed and approved by a user with person "publish" right. Check Roles and Responsibilities section of this document to see which access groups have person "publish" right.
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Uploading Person Curriculum Vitae

Person Curriculum Vitae file can be linked to People using the admin backend when creating a new person. You can upload at most 1 file.

After the person is created. Only the users who has "publish" right can upload Curriculum Vitae using the person edit screen.

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Modifying People

People can be modified by clicking on the "Edit" link under the person title in the person list page in the admin area. Make any necessary changes and then click Publish.

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Searching People

In Campus Directory, users are only allowed to search people they have access to. Users who have access to people can search using the filter system in the person admin areaor search forms in the frontend You can use drag-and-drop admin interface for sorting, creating/saving complex filters, and ordering columns in the entity list pages.

Administrators and users who have access to advanced Person search page on the frontend can also utilize "Search operators" to drill down the result set without any limitations on access.

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Scheduling People

To schedule People for publication on a future time or date in the admin area:

  1. Log in to your Administration Panel.
  2. Click the 'People' tab.
  3. Click the 'Add New' sub-tab or the “Add New” button in the person list page.
  4. Start filling in your person fields. You must fill all required fields. All required fields have red star after their labels.
  5. As needed, set person taxonomies and relationships. All required relationships or taxonomies must be set.
  6. When you are ready, click "Edit" in the Publish area next to the words "Publish immediately". You can also change the publish date to a date in the past to back-date People. Change the settings to the desired time and date. You must also hit the "Publish" button when you have completed the person to publish at the desired time and date.
  7. After the submission is completed, the person status changes to "Published".
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Password Protected People

To create a password protected person in the admin area:

  1. Log in to your Administration Panel.
  2. Click the 'People' tab.
  3. Click the 'Add New' sub-tab or the “Add New” button in the person list page.
  4. Start filling in your person fields. You must fill all required fields. All required fields have red star after their labels.
  5. As needed, set person taxonomies and relationships. All required relationships or taxonomies must be set.
  6. Click the "Edit" link next to Visibility in the publish box and select "Password protected".
  7. Enter a password that will be required to view that person in the text field. The password is limited to 20 characters.
  8. When you are ready, click the "Publish" button (or "Update" if the person is already published.)
  9. After the submission is completed, the person status changes to "Published".

Only an Administrator and users with "publish" right can change the password set for your person or modify visibility setting by clicking the "Visibility: Edit" link again.

When person content is password protected, person title displays the text "Protected: " before the person Title and the content prints a password form with this text: "This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:".

If multiple people have the same password, one will only have to enter the required password once. Only one password is tracked at a time so if you visit two different people with two different password, you must re-enter the person password to access content. WordPress saves passwords for maximum 10 days. After this period expires, one must reenter the password again to view the protected content.

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Private People

People can be privately published to remove them from person lists and feeds.

To create a private person in the admin area:

  1. Log in to your Administration Panel.
  2. Click the 'People' tab.
  3. Click the 'Add New' sub-tab or the “Add New” button in the person list page.
  4. Start filling in your person fields. You must fill all required fields. All required fields have red star after their labels.
  5. As needed, set person taxonomies and relationships. All required relationships or taxonomies must be set.
  6. Click the "Edit" link next to Visibility in the publish box and select "Private".
  7. Once you change the visibility to private, the person status changes to "Privately Published".
  8. When you are ready, click the "UPDATE" button.

Only an Administrator and users with "publish" right for the person can change visibility setting by clicking the "Visibility: Edit" link again.

Who can publish and see private people?

Only users with "publish people", "edit private people", "read private people", and "delete private people" authorization permission levels can create and see private people. Users who have the same access level with the author but have a relationship-limited access of a private person can not view the content even if they have access rights to the content. User who have access to the content but not limited by a relationship can still see and modify private people.

Check Roles and Responsibilities section of this document to see which user roles can privately publish people.

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Previewing People

To preview person content press the "Preview" button - a button directly above the “publish” button - in the publish box before officially publishing or sending for review.

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Draft People

To create a draft person in the admin area:

  1. Log in to your Administration Panel.
  2. Click the 'People' tab.
  3. Click the 'Add New' sub-tab or the “Add New” button in the person list page.
  4. Start filling in your person fields. You must fill all required fields. All required fields have red star after their labels.
  5. As needed, set person taxonomies and relationships. All required relationships or taxonomies must be set.
  6. When you are ready, click "Save Draft" button in the publish box.
  7. After the submission is completed, the person status stays at "Draft".
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Person Author

Once the person is published the user who created the person is assigned as the person author. Person authors can view and edit the person. One can change the person author from the author box. The author box drop down is limited to the users who have person "publish" right.

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Linking Advisor

You can create connections between People and People by clicking on "Create Connection" link in the "Advisor" box and then clicking on "Plus" sign adjacent to the record title you would like to connect. Optionally, you can create new record. If you create a new one, the record is created as a draft. You must publish all connected draft records to make the connections valid.

After the connection created, you can update or publish your person. You can create as many connections as you need.

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Linking Support Staff

You can create connections between People and People by clicking on "Create Connection" link in the "Support Staff" box and then clicking on "Plus" sign adjacent to the record title you would like to connect. Optionally, you can create new record. If you create a new one, the record is created as a draft. You must publish all connected draft records to make the connections valid.

After the connection created, you can update or publish your person. You can create as many connections as you need.

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Creating Custom Fields

Campus Directory Professional supports creating of custom fields. Creating of custom fields provides a quick way to allow you to extend the content with key/value pairs also known as meta data. Custom fields store arbitrary extra information about people.

To create a custom fields for your people

  1. Edit any person or create a new one in the admin area. You will see the Custom Fields metabox. if you do not see it, enable it from Screen options.
  2. Creating a custom field requires a key and a value. The key is constant, but the value can change for each person. Click on Enter New link or select a key from the dropdown list.
  3. Enter a value and click Add Custom Field button
  4. Repeat the steps above for creating more fields

You can create as many custom fields as you need. If your custom field key may have multiple values, create a new field and use the same key with different values. You can use HTML code in the value box. Campus Directory concatenates each value separated with a space character. By default, WordPress shows 30 custom fields in the dropdown list.

Once you create person custom fields, they are displayed in the frontend. The custom fields are available to be for your forms too. You can enable or disable them in the form layouts from CD Settings menu > Settings page > Forms tab . By default all custom fields are disabled.

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Setting Academic Areas

Academic Area can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Academic Areas" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Academic Area is optional. Academic Area is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Academic Area value to another.

Academic Areas do not have preset values.

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Setting Affiliations

Affiliation can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Affiliations" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Affiliation is optional. Affiliation is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Affiliation value to another.

Affiliations do not have preset values.

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Setting Appointment Types

Appointment Type can be set by clicking on the desired option in "Appointment Types" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Appointment Type is optional. Appointment Type is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Appointment Type value to another.

Campus Directory comes with a preset Appointment Types defined in detail in Glossary section of this document. Administrators can always add/remove/modify the list based on your organizational needs. Some widgets created upon installation are based on predefined Appointment Types.

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Setting Careers

Career can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Careers" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Career is optional. Career is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Career value to another.

Campus Directory comes with a preset Careers defined in detail in Glossary section of this document. Administrators can always add/remove/modify the list based on your organizational needs. Some widgets created upon installation are based on predefined Careers.

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Setting Directory Tags

Directory Tag can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Directory Tags" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Directory Tag is optional. Directory Tag is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Directory Tag value to another.

Directory Tags do not have preset values.

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Setting Honorific Prefixes

Honorific Prefix can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Honorific Prefixes" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Honorific Prefix is optional. Honorific Prefix is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Honorific Prefix value to another.

Honorific Prefixes do not have preset values.

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Setting Honorific Suffixes

Honorific Suffix can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Honorific Suffixes" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Honorific Suffix is optional. Honorific Suffix is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Honorific Suffix value to another.

Honorific Suffixes do not have preset values.

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Setting Research Areas

Research Area can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Research Areas" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Research Area is optional. Research Area is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Research Area value to another.

Research Areas do not have preset values.

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Setting Titles

Title can be set by typing the desired option in the empty text field and clicking "Add" button in "Titles" box and updating/saving the person. Setting a value for Title is optional. Title is also not organized hierarchically meaning there's no relationship from one Title value to another.

Titles do not have preset values.

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Displaying People

Displaying Person archives can be done by creating a link in the Appearance Menus Screen in the admin area.

Alternatively, if you'd like to display a specific Person, you can select the link from Person metabox and add it to your menu. If you don't see Person metabox, check the Screen Options to ensure it is set to display.

To create a custom link for Person archives:

  1. Goto Appearance in the admin menu and click on Menus link
  2. On the right hand side, pick the menu you’d like to include from Select a menu to edit dropdown
  3. Under Links menu navigation item, type in /emd_person to the URL field
  4. Type in People or another label describing the custom link URL in the Link Text field
  5. Click “Add to menu” button to add the item to the menu
  6. Pick “primary location” under “Menu Settings” below the menu
  7. Save your menu
  8. Go to the frontend and click on the link you created to access People. Person archive page content is only displayed to the authorized users who have access permissions.
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Locking People

In Campus Directory, People are locked during editing, preventing other users from accessing and modifying the Person.

If a user clicks to edit one of the Person records that's currently locked they are presented with three options in a pop-up dialog:

  1. Go Back - Return to the People listing.
  2. Preview - Preview the current state of the Person that's being edited.
  3. Take Over - Lock out the current editor of the People and begin editing. (The other user will receive a notification)

The user that has been locked out receives the following dialog, and is no longer able to edit the Person. It can take up to 15 seconds for the current Person editor to be notified that another user has taken over.

Widgets

Widgets provide a simple and easy-to-use way of displaying content and features on your sidebars or dashboard.

Sidebar widgets can be added, removed, and rearranged on the WordPress Administration Appearance > Widgets panel. Dashboard widgets can be enabled or disabled using Screen Options tab in your app dashboard page. All widgets have drag-and-drop functionality.

The following sections list the Campus Directory widgets:

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This Month\'s Hires sidebar widget

This Month\'s Hires is an entity sidebar widget. It shows latest 4 published person records without any page navigation links.

Standards

Standard views display a single type of content in a custom format and can be used in place of archive views. Administrators can display standard views using their shortcodes by choosing the name of the view you want to display from the WPAS component list after clicking on the WPAS toolbar button on any page.

The following sections list the Campus Directory standard views available:

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Alphabetical People List

"Alphabetical People List" is a standard view which displays -1 Person records per page with a post status of publish in descending order by menu_order. Page navigation is disabled. If you choose to install setup pages during plugin activation, a WordPress page is created with a title of "Alphabetical People List". You can visit this page to access the view. To display it in another page or post, use [alpha_people] shortcode or select the view name from the WPAS component list after clicking on the WPAS toolbar button.

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People Detail Grid

"People Detail Grid" is a standard view which displays -1 Person records per page with a post status of publish in descending order by date. Page navigation is enabled. If you choose to install setup pages during plugin activation, a WordPress page is created with a title of "People Detail Grid". You can visit this page to access the view. To display it in another page or post, use [people_detail_grid] shortcode or select the view name from the WPAS component list after clicking on the WPAS toolbar button.

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People Grid

"People Grid" is a standard view which displays -1 Person records per page with a post status of publish in descending order by date. Page navigation is enabled. If you choose to install setup pages during plugin activation, a WordPress page is created with a title of "People Grid". You can visit this page to access the view. To display it in another page or post, use [people_grid] shortcode or select the view name from the WPAS component list after clicking on the WPAS toolbar button.

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People List

"People List" is a standard view which displays 10 Person records per page with a post status of publish in descending order by date. Page navigation is enabled. If you choose to install setup pages during plugin activation, a WordPress page is created with a title of "People List". You can visit this page to access the view. To display it in another page or post, use [standard_people] shortcode or select the view name from the WPAS component list after clicking on the WPAS toolbar button.

Forms

Forms allow users to enter data that is sent to Campus Directory for processing. Forms can be used to enter or retrieve search results related to your content.

The following sections list the Campus Directory forms:

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People search

"People search" form is used for searching person records from the frontend. You can use [people_search] shortcode to display it in a page or post of your choise as well.

The following are the fields used in the form:

  • First Name (text)
  • Last Name (text)
  • Person Type (radios)
  • Email (text)
  • Bio (wysiwyg)
  • Advisees (select-multiple selection allowed)
  • Academic Areas (select-multiple selection allowed)
  • Affiliations (select-multiple selection allowed)
  • Appointment Types (select-only single selection allowed)
  • Titles (select-multiple selection allowed)
  • Research Areas (select-multiple selection allowed)
  • Careers (select-multiple selection allowed)
  • Directory Tags (select-multiple selection allowed)
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Roles and Capabilities

The following table shows the capabilities and the access roles available in Campus Directory app. "Red" color means the users who belong to the corresponding role do not have the capability. "Green" color means the users who belong to the corresponding role have the capability.

CAPABILITYAdministratorEditorAuthorContributorSubscriberCampus StaffCampus Manager
Edit People
Create People
Delete People
Edit Others People
Publish People
Read Private People
Delete Private People
Delete Published People
Delete Others People
Edit Private People
Edit Published People
Manage Operations People
Set Author People
Limit by Author Backend People
CAPABILITYAdministratorEditorAuthorContributorSubscriberCampus StaffCampus Manager
Manage Academic Areas
Edit Academic Areas
Delete Academic Areas
Assign Academic Areas
Manage Affiliations
Edit Affiliations
Delete Affiliations
Assign Affiliations
Manage Appointment Types
Edit Appointment Types
Delete Appointment Types
Assign Appointment Types
Manage Titles
Edit Titles
Delete Titles
Assign Titles
Manage Research Areas
Edit Research Areas
Delete Research Areas
Assign Research Areas
Manage Honorific Prefixes
Edit Honorific Prefixes
Delete Honorific Prefixes
Assign Honorific Prefixes
Manage Honorific Suffixes
Edit Honorific Suffixes
Delete Honorific Suffixes
Assign Honorific Suffixes
Manage Careers
Edit Careers
Delete Careers
Assign Careers
Manage Directory Tags
Edit Directory Tags
Delete Directory Tags
Assign Directory Tags
CAPABILITYAdministratorEditorAuthorContributorSubscriberCampus StaffCampus Manager
All Relationships are open to public.
CAPABILITYAdministratorEditorAuthorContributorSubscriberCampus StaffCampus Manager
All Widgets are open to public.
CAPABILITYAdministratorEditorAuthorContributorSubscriberCampus StaffCampus Manager
All Forms are open to public.
CAPABILITYAdministratorEditorAuthorContributorSubscriberCampus StaffCampus Manager
All Views are open to public.

Administration

Plugins are managed from the Plugins screen in the Administration Screens of your WordPress site. All Plugins listed on this screen are found in your wp-content/plugins directory. Each Plugin has a description in its header section of what it does, an author and website to refer to, and a version number. Find Campus Directory from the list.

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Installation

To install your Campus Directory Plugin using the built-in plugin installer:

  1. Download Campus Directory Plugin to your desktop.
  2. Go to Plugins "Add New".
  3. Under Upload, click "Browse".
  4. Find the campus-directory-professional-VERSION.zip file.
  5. Click Install Now to install the Campus Directory Plugin.
  6. A popup window will ask you to confirm your wish to install the Plugin.
  7. Click Proceed to continue with the installation. The resulting installation screen will list the installation as successful or note any problems during the install.
  8. If successful, click Activate Plugin to activate it, or Return to Plugin Installer for further actions.

Replace VERSION in instructions with the version number of Campus Directory you want to install. After the activation, the Campus Directory plugin setup may display notification asking if you if you'd like to install setup pages or skip setup page installation, click the appropriate button.

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Uninstallation

To uninstall your Campus Directory Plugin using the built-in plugin installer:

  1. Go to Plugins screen.
  2. Find the Campus Directory Plugin you wish to deactivate and uninstall.
  3. Click Deactivate.
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Plugin Updates and Upgrades

WordPress auto-update system displays notification in the Admin Bar and also on the plugins page when new version of the Campus Directory is available.

To install the new version, simply hit the "Update automatically" button. WordPress will automatically download the new package, extract it and replace the old files. No FTP, removing old files, and uploading is required.

Upgrading your plugin

We offer different plugin editions to better match your needs. If you purchased a different edition of Campus Directory, follow the steps below to upgrade your plugin:

  1. Go WordPress plugins page and deactivate and optionally delete the current Campus Directory Professional edition.
  2. Install the new edition based on the instructions in WordPress Codex
  3. Activate the new edition
  4. Go to Plugin Settings page and save settings

Upgrading Campus Directory Professional edition does not have any impact on your existing data but it is always a good idea to back up your WordPress database as a rule of thumb before any changes.

Using Plugin Extensions

Campus Directory Professional edition is configured to work with many plugin extensions. Most plugin extensions work regardless of the edition unless specified specifically in the plugin page.

if you purchased a plugin extension, follow the instructions in WordPress Codex to install and activate your plugin extension like any other WordPress plugin.

If your extension comes with a license key, you must save and activate your license key to get software updates and support.

Maintaining your plugin

Keeping your plugin up-to-date is very important. At emdplugins.com, we regularly update our products to offer plugin or WordPress related bug fixes, product enhancements, patches for security vulnerabilities and more. Ability to receive these updates is critical to maintaining your software and site in working condition.

To be able to see the update notifications and receive updates, you must have a valid, activated license at all times. If your existing license is expired, you must renew it manually if you opted out of automatic renewals.

Please also note that you must have a valid license to get support for your plugin.

To activate your license:

  1. Go to CD Settings > Licenses page
  2. Enter the license key you receive in your purchase receipt
  3. Click "Save Changes" button
  4. Now, you will see, "Activate License" button and "INACTIVE" right next to your license key
  5. Click "Activate License" button to activate your license
  6. If you see "VALID" message in place of "INACTIVE", you should be able to get your plugin updates.

If you followed the steps above and still are not able to get the plugin updates, there could be additional configuration needed for your site.

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Import/Export/Reset Content

Administrators can import/export from/to CSV files or reset Campus Directory entities, taxonomies and relationships by clicking on Operations button in entity list pages. You must be able to get a backup of your content and files before starting importing/exporting or resetting. Operations page is divided into Import, Export, and Reset tabs.

Importing

Import tab is used to visually import existing records into an entity, its taxonomies and relationships. Each fields to be imported must be mapped to the app design.If you have custom fields in your CSV files, these fields can be imported as well. By default, custom fields are not mapped and they do not have a mapped label. You need to specify custom field's label in the corresponding textbox to import it correctly. The imported custom fields are created for every record with the corresponding value specified in the CSV file.

In you import large files with a lot of images or files attached, your server may be temporarily unavailable and return a white screen. This is due to the extended time needed by WordPress to process and create image thumbnails. If you get a white screen, open up a browser screen and monitor the activity in Media library. If you see images getting created, wait until all activity stops. After image or file addition stops, check if all your records are imported correctly. As a sanity check, you can do the import again but this time checking the Update existing data based on unique field(s) option.

Updating and syncing with external systems

Update option checks the existing records against the CSV file and see if there is a change. If there is a change, it finds the difference and updates the record. For example, if an image is added, the new image is added. If the incoming record does not include an existing image, the existing image which is not included in the incoming record gets deleted. All deletions are permanent. If the incoming record is not there, new record is created. You can use the update option to sync your existing records with external systems.

Exporting

Export tab is used to export the content of an entity as a CSV file. If an entity has relationships, they must be exported separately from the main entity. You will see additional export buttons if this is the case. When you export records, all custom fields are exported as well.

Resetting

Reset tab is used to permanently delete the content of an entity including all the attached images and files. You can also choose to delete all entity content, relationships, or taxonomies. Make sure you have a backup of your content, attached images and/or files before any reset action.

You can take a backup of your content to CSV using export tab. However, you need to take a backup of your attached files manually. In addition, if you need to re-import after the reset using the exported CSV, you must modify the URLs of your attached images to the new or backup location to import them back correctly.

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Modifying Form Fields

Administrators can show, hide, and resize form elements by clicking on the Settings page under CD Settings menu. In addition, form captcha element can be set to "Visitors Only","Always Show", or "Never Show".

Required fields can not be disabled however you can change the column size. The optional fields can be enabled, disabled, or modified to occupy more or less space in the form layout.

Make sure to save your changes after any modification otherwise your changes will not take effect.

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Setting Global Options

Administrators can set global options available for Campus Directory. After logging in as administrator, click Settings page under CD Settings menu. Modify the ones you want to be changed and click Save button to make changes active. The following lists the available options:

Alphabetical List All text
Set the text in alphabetical list navbar for the button displaying all academic people.
Alphabetical List No Match text
Sets the text to be displayed when there is no employee to show.
Alphabetical List Initial Letter
Set the letter to used for filtering initially
Alphabetical List Search By
Set the list to be indexed with. Accepted values; Name, Academic Area, Academic Title
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Changing Entity Base Slug

The default entity base slug can be changed within entity tab of settings page in CD Settings menu. After you update, make sure to refresh your site's Permalinks under Settings. You can only change base slug if post name based permalink structure is selected.

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Resolving theme related conflicts

For the most part, Campus Directory templates will integrate nicely with most WordPress themes. However you may run into issues when the default Campus Directory content wrappers do not match your chosen theme or your theme's CSS rules overwrite Campus Directory CSS rules.

Theme related issues manifest themselves by;

  • Breaking your layout on Campus Directory pages and shifting your sidebars into incorrect positions
  • Some random text getting displayed in header or footer of your site
  • Some sections in plugin pages not getting displayed as in the plugin's demo site.

Theme related issues can potentially affect all single, taxonomy, archive and shortcode pages because Campus Directory uses templates of its own to display these pages and it’s impossible for eMDPlugins to know exactly what markup or CSS rules your theme uses.

The following is a Developer level documentation. If you’re unfamiliar with code/templates and resolving potential conflicts, we strongly suggest to hire us or a developer to complete the project for you. Please also note that our complimentary support team is unable to assist with customization per our Support Policy.

There are three methods to resolve theme related issues;

  • Copying and modifying your theme's header.php and footer.php
  • Copying and modifying your theme's page.php
  • Adding custom CSS rules

Modifying header.php and footer.php

  1. Go to your theme's folder -- wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/
  2. Copy header.php of your theme as header-emdplugins.php
  3. Copy footer.php of your theme as footer-emplugins.php
  4. Remove the conflicting code from header-emdplugins.php and/or footer-emplugins.php.
  5. This will make Campus Directory use these newly created header and footer instead of your theme's default header and footer. Save the files. You’re done.

Copying and modifying your theme's page.php

If the issue can not be resolved through simply modifying the header and footer templates, you need to modify your theme's page.php.

Please note that this approach eliminates Your ability:

  • To set page templates for single, archive and taxonomy pages
  • To remove page navigation from archive and taxonomy pages.

from CD Settings, settings page.

To set up this template page:

  1. Duplicate your theme’s page.php file, and name it campusdir-pro.php. This file should be found like this: wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/campusdir-pro.php.
  2. Open up your newly created campusdir-pro.php in a text editor, or the editor of your choice.
  3. Next you need to find the loop (see The_Loop). The loop usually starts with a:

    <?php if ( have_posts() ) :

    and usually ends with:

    <?php endif; ?>

    This varies between themes. Once you have found it, delete it. In its place, put:

    <?php campusdir_pro_content(); ?>
  4. This will make your theme use Campus Directory’s loop instead. Save the file. You’re done.

Adding CSS rules

You add custom CSS rules in the Custom CSS field of Tools tab under CD Settings menu, settings page to overwrite your theme's default CSS. The custom css rules added in the settings are not deleted when your plugin gets updated.

You can learn CSS language by completing the tutorials at w3schools.com

Last Updated: 2019-05-24

Localization(l10n)

Campus Directory can be translated into any language by editing campusdir-pro-emd-plugins.pot and campusdir-pro.pot files.

  • campusdir-pro-emd-plugins.pot file is for the components used in Campus Directory.
  • campusdir-pro.pot file is for the Campus Directory specific strings that need to be translated.

Follow the steps below to fully translate Campus Directory into the desired language:

  1. Copy campusdir-pro-emd-plugins.pot as language specific .po file such as campusdir-pro-emd-plugins-tr_TR.po.
  2. Copy campusdir-pro.pot as language specific .po file such as campusdir-pro-tr_TR.po.
  3. Use your favorite PO file editor and complete translation strings in the .po files you created.
  4. When translations are completed, create .mo file of each .po file.
  5. Create wp-content/languages/campusdir-pro directory
  6. Put translated .mo files and .po files in the directory above to protect them from getting deleted during plugin updates.
  7. Change the language to the translated language from Settings > General > Site Language.
  8. Repeat the process until you get all strings translated
  9. .
Last Updated: 2019-05-24

Screen Options

Screen Options is displayed as a hanging tab under the toolbar. Click on the Screen Options tab to expand the options available for a particular Screen, check (or uncheck) the desired options, then click the Screen Options hanging tab to collapse the Screen Options. Each screen may have a different set of Screen Options.

Edit page screen options allow the user to decide the edit boxes ,such as taxonomies, relationships or specific boxes such as authors, are presented in the edit area. You can turn on and off the ones that are not needed for a particular edit session.

List page screen options allow users to set the number of records displayed in the list table.

Creating Shortcodes

Shortcodes are small blocks of reusable code that can be inserted in a page to generate dynamic and often complex functionality. There is no limit in number of shortcodes that can be created and used. Multiple shortcodes can be used in the same page.

Examples

The following shortcode creates a People List page with people of Careers category.

[standard_people filter="tax::career::is::YOUR TAXONOMY VALUE;"]

The following shortcode creates a People List page with people of Careers category.

[standard_people filter="attr::emd_person_fname::is::YOUR ATTRIBUTE VALUE;"]

The following shortcode creates a People List page with people of Careers category where First Name is emd_person_fname .

[standard_people filter="attr::emd_person_fname::is::YOUR ATTRIBUTE VALUE;tax::career::is::YOUR TAXONOMY VALUE;"]

The following shortcode creates a People List page with the published people of Careers category where First Name is emd_person_fname in descending order by comment count, displaying 15 people with no pagination.

[standard_people filter="attr::emd_person_fname::is::YOUR ATTRIBUTE VALUE;tax::career::is::YOUR TAXONOMY VALUE;misc::post_status::is::publish;misc::order::is::DESC;misc::posts_per_page::is::15;misc::has_pages::is::false;misc::orderby::is::comment_count;"]

Note: Replace YOUR ATTRIBUTE VALUE with the value stored for that attribute and YOUR TAXONOMY VALUE with the slug of the corresponding taxonomy value.

Last Updated: 2019-05-24

Using Visual Shortcode Builder

Campus Directory Professional comes with Visual Shortcode Builder(VSB) module which allows creating advanced custom shortcodes without manually writing code. To use Visual Shortcode Builder:

  1. Create a new page
  2. Click on WPAS button right next to Add Media button
  3. Find and select the view or form you'd like to use a base from the drowdown list
  4. Modify the shortcode by adding filters from taxonomy, attribute, relationship or misc categories
    • Don't forget to click + icon every time you add a filter
    • You can create as many filters as you need in the same shortcode
  5. When you finished, click Insert Shortcode button. The shortcode will be inserted to the page
  6. Update or publish the page to see the shortcode result
  7. Repeat the same process for all your shortcodes
Last Updated: 2019-05-24

Customizations

Campus Directory offers extensive customization options from plugin settings, settings page. The following customizations can be done without changing your theme's template files:

  • Enable or disable all fields, taxonomies and relationships from backend and/or frontend
  • Set any entity and/or archive base slug
  • Set the page template of any entity, taxonomy and/or archive page to sidebar on left, sidebar on right or no sidebar (full width)
  • Hide the previous and next post links on the frontend for single posts
  • Hide the page navigation links on the frontend for archive posts
  • Display or hide any custom field
  • Display any side bar widget on plugin pages using EMD Widget Area
  • Set custom CSS rules for all plugin pages including plugin shortcodes

If your customization requirements are more complex and can not be resolved through the list of options provided above, you need to implement advanced customization techniques.

Advanced Customizations

Note:The following is a Developer level documentation. If you’re unfamiliar with code/templates/localization and resolving potential conflicts, we strongly suggest to hire us or a developer to complete the project for you. Please also note that our complimentary support team is unable to assist with customization per our Support Policy.

Campus Directory advanced customization can be done on 3 different areas;

  • Look & Feel - changing layout and overall presentation of content
  • Functionality - adding, deleting or modifying existing plugin functionality
  • Strings - changing the field names

Plugin customization can be implemented by using 4 different methods:

Customizing functionality

If you'd like to modify the functionality, you need to modify the plugin design (sold separately) using WP App Studio ProDev API access (sold separately and monthly development plans are available).

Customizing look & feel

If you like to customize how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen, you can add custom CSS rules with higher specificity to your theme's style.css file.

If you'd like to customize layouts of Campus Directory, Please follow the steps below:

  1. Create "emd_templates" directory under your theme's directory.
  2. Copy the layout files that you want to customize into "emd_templates" directory which you created in step 1 from PLUGIN-ROOT/layouts directory
  3. Modify the file based on your needs

The layout files you added in the "emd_templates" has always precedence over the plugin's layout files. If the customized files get deleted, the layouts which came with your plugin are displayed. We recommend that you create a child theme if you'd like to minimize the risk of accidental deleting of the "emd_templates" directory because of theme updates.

The following layout file types can be customized:

  • Single view page
  • Archive view page
  • Taxonomy view page
  • Search form result page
  • Standard list page
  • Integration page
  • Org chart record and tooltip layout page

Customizing strings

Campus Directory labels and messages can be customized to better match your needs through language files. The customization is very similar to localization but recommended for US English users only. If your language is different than US English, you should localize instead of customize. The customization can be done for the strings included in campusdir-pro-emd-plugins.pot and campusdir-pro.pot files.

The following steps cover the string customization of labels and messages.

  • campusdir-pro-emd-plugins.pot file is for the translatable strings of components used in Campus Directory.
  • campusdir-pro.pot file is for the Campus Directory specific strings that need to be translated.

Follow the steps below to fully customize Campus Directory labels and messages:

  1. Copy campusdir-pro-emd-plugins.pot as language specific .po file such as campusdir-pro-emd-plugins-en_US.po.
  2. Copy campusdir-pro.pot as language specific .po file such as campusdir-pro-en_US.po.
  3. Use your favorite PO file editor or plugin and complete customization of strings in the .po files you created.
  4. When customization are completed, create .mo file of each .po file.
  5. Create wp-content/languages/campusdir-pro directory.
  6. Put customized .mo files and .po files in the directory above to protect them from getting deleted during plugin updates.
  7. Repeat the process until you get all strings customized. If you do not need a string to be customizes, leave it as it is.

All customization can be done by yourself or emarketdesign.com. Open a support ticket, if you prefer us to do the customization for you.

Glossary

Below is the list of attribute and taxonomy definitions.

Last Updated: 2019-05-24

Globals

Global attributes can be set in the Settings page, Global tab under CD Settings menu.

Alphabetical List All text (text)
Set the text in alphabetical list navbar for the button displaying all academic people.
Alphabetical List No Match text (text)
Sets the text to be displayed when there is no employee to show.
Alphabetical List Initial Letter (text)
Set the letter to used for filtering initially
Alphabetical List Search By (select)
Set the list to be indexed with. Accepted values; Name, Academic Area, Academic Title
Last Updated: 2019-05-24

Person

Any person who is a faculty, graduate or undergraduate student, staff. A person may teach or attend courses or support other persons.

First Name
First Name is a required field. Being a unique identifier, it uniquely distinguishes each instance of Person entity. First Name is filterable in the admin area. First Name does not have a default value.
Last Name
Last Name is a required field. Being a unique identifier, it uniquely distinguishes each instance of Person entity. Last Name is filterable in the admin area. Last Name does not have a default value.
Person Type
Person Type is a required field. Person Type is filterable in the admin area. Person Type does not have a default value.
Photo
For best results choose a photo close to 150x150px dimensions with crop thumbnail to exact dimensions option selected in WordPress media settings Photo does not have a default value.
Hire Date
The date the faculty or staff began (or will begin) work. Hire Date is filterable in the admin area. Hire Date does not have a default value.
Bio
Bio does not have a default value.
Email
Email is filterable in the admin area. Email does not have a default value.
Phone
Phone is filterable in the admin area. Phone does not have a default value.
Website
Website does not have a default value.
Personal Website
Personal Website does not have a default value.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar does not have a default value.
Linkedin
Linkedin does not have a default value.
Twitter
Twitter does not have a default value.
Education
Education does not have a default value.
Academic Appointments
Academic Appointments does not have a default value.
Awards And Honors
Awards And Honors does not have a default value.
Curriculum Vitae
Curriculum Vitae does not have a default value.
Publications
Publications does not have a default value.
Office Hours
Office Hours does not have a default value.
Directory Tag
Generic taxonomy which binds people, courses and publications together. Directory Tag accepts multiple values like tags. Directory Tag does not have a default value.

There are no preset values for "Directory Tag":

Affiliation
An organization that a person is affiliated with. For example, a school/university, a club, or a team. Affiliation accepts multiple values like tags. Affiliation does not have a default value.

There are no preset values for "Affiliation":

Academic Area
Academic area of expertise Academic Area accepts multiple values like tags. Academic Area does not have a default value.

There are no preset values for "Academic Area":

Honorific Prefix
An honorific prefix preceding a Person's name such as Dr/Mrs/Mr. Honorific Prefix accepts multiple values like tags. Honorific Prefix does not have a default value.

There are no preset values for "Honorific Prefix":

Honorific Suffix
An honorific suffix preceding a Person's name such as M.D. /PhD/MSCSW. Honorific Suffix accepts multiple values like tags. Honorific Suffix does not have a default value.

There are no preset values for "Honorific Suffix":

Advisor
Allows to display and create connections with People. One instance of People can associated with many instances of People, and vice versa. The relationship can be set up in the edit area of People using Advisor relationship box.
Supported Faculty
Allows to display and create connections with People. One instance of People can associated with many instances of People, and vice versa. The relationship can be set up in the edit area of People using Support Staff relationship box.
Advisees
Allows to display and create connections with People. One instance of People can associated with many instances of People, and vice versa. The relationship can be set up in the edit area of People using Advisor relationship box.
Support Staff
Allows to display and create connections with People. One instance of People can associated with many instances of People, and vice versa. The relationship can be set up in the edit area of People using Support Staff relationship box.