Settings - Connections

General

Home Page

Connections requires very few settings to be applied in order to get it setup and running. This is one of them. You must create a “Public” WordPress page and set that page to be the directory home page. After you add this new page you should add the Connections shortcode to it. Please see Step 4 of the installation instructions for more.

Important

Many of the internal links Connections builds are based on the page selected to be its home page, which is why this setting is very important.

Require Login

If you want your directory to be private—only visible to logged in WordPress users—you will want to enable the “Require registered users to login before showing the directory.” option. When this option is enabled only your registered WordPress users will be able to view the directory. Your site visitor will instead see the “Please login to view the directory.” message. You can easily configure this message to better suit your needs by using the supplied rich text editor.

Tip

If you would like to add a login form so users can login right on the page, then you need our free Login extension.

Default Category

This is the category that will be assigned automatically to an entry if no categories are selected when adding the entry. When you first install Connections it will automatically add a default category name “Uncategorized“. Using this option, you can change the default to be any category of your choosing.

Base Country and Region

Presently these options are not being used anywhere within Connections but were added for future use. It is recommended that you choose your default country and state/province.

Shortcode Visibility Overrides

Before we discuss these shortcode override options we must first go over the entry visibility status options, their meaning and who can see entries assigned to which visibility status.

When adding an entry to Connections you can choose its visibility much like when you can do when adding a WordPress page or post. These options are Public, Private and Unlisted with the default being Public. This visibility status defines who can view an entry. The following are the basic rules:

If an entry is Public then all your site visitors can view the entry regardless if they are logged in or not.
If you require your users to login before they can view the directory by enabling the Require Login option then Public entries are only visible to all the WordPress user roles of Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor and Subscriber by default.
If an entry is Private then it only visible to the WordPress user roles of Administrator, Editor and Author by default regardless of the Require Login setting.

All that aside, these two option only enable the use of the public_override and private_override shortcode options.

Tip

If you you have enabled the Require Login option and enable either of these options your site visitors will not be shown the login required message when used in the shortcode.

Important

Even though these options are provided it is highly recommended that you leave these two above options disabled.

Display

General

Date Format

The dates added to the entry such as anniversary and birthday will be displayed using this format. You can use any valid date format as covered in the WordPress Date and Time Formatting Codex.

The default format is: F jS, Y

Results List

The results list or card view is the default view of the directory. What this looks like really depends on which one of the templates you are using but generally this is the view which lists all the entries you have entered in Connections.

Clear Search Message

All the templates sold on this site support searching by keyword and filtering by category. When users perform searches a message box will be displayed showing which keywords and categories that they are searching and that the results will be reflecting their search criteria.

This search message box also presents the user with a Clear Search button (or link, depending on the styling applied to it by the theme) to allow your users to quickly and easily clear their search criteria so they can start over.

This option is enabled by default. Disabling this option will prevent this search message box and clear search button from being displayed.

Category Description

When adding a category into Connections you have the option of adding a description. This description will be shown above the clear search results message on templates which support filtering by category. The description will be displayed by default. Disabling this option will prevent the description from being displayed.

Character Index

Character Index Options

This is the A–Z links shown at the top of the results list. This index allows your site visitors to click on a character to filter the result list by the character that was clicked. By default this option is enabled.

The character index is not a static A–Z list displaying all characters regardless if entries exists for each character or not; instead the character index is smart. It is generated dynamically to display only the characters for entries that actually exist in Connections. The characters that will be displayed are the first character of the last name of an Individual entry type and the first character of the Organization and Family entry types sorted alphabetically.

You can also choose to repeat this character index at the beginning of each character section; ie. before entries for “A”, “B”, “C” and so on. In addition to this you can also choose to display the current character section header before the start of each character section. For example, if enabled, the entries that are in the “A” character section will be preceded with an “A” header.

Important

Some templates do not support the character index and will disable it regardless of the options that are enabled in the settings.

Important

If you are using the order by shortcode option to apply a custom sort you should disable “Character Index Options” because they are only compatible with the default alphabetical sort.

Actions

These are the registered actions that are available. For example, by default, there is one list action available in the core Connections plugin. This is the View All permalink. The View All permalink will take you to an internal Connections page which lists all the entries you have entered into Connections alphabetically by name only. No other entry details are displayed in this view.

Tip

Other actions can be made available by addons or extensions for Connections. For examples, the Form extension will add a list action which are covered in its documentation and the Link extension will also add a list action which is also covered in its documentation.

Content Blocks

Content Blocks are the frontend output of custom fields for extensions that enable them such as the Business Hours, Education Level and Income Level extensions. Here you can enable which ones should be displayed and in what order by using drag and drop in the Result List View.

Tip

Both the Result List View and the Single Entry View support the display of Content Blocks but are configured separately. This is to allow you to decide which Content Block to display in which view.

Important

Some templates do not support the display of Content Boxes in the Result List View.

Single Entry

The single entry view is synonymous with profile view and detail view. You will often see these terms used interchangeably in the Support Forums but they all refer to the same thing, that is, viewing a single entry’s details. You can navigate to this page by either clicking the entry’s name on the site’s frontend when viewing the Result List or clicking the View action link under the entry name on the Connections : Manage admin page.

Important

Some templates such as Slim Plus do not support Single Entry view.

Important

The Directory Home Page must be set in order for the View action link on the Connections : Manage admin page to function. Without it set, you will likely receive a 404 not found error message.

Actions

The Entry Actions are much like the Result List Actions but the actions available here will be limited to actions limited specifically to viewing a single entry. Currently there are two Entry Actions included in the core Connections plugin. These are the Back to Directory link and the Add to Address Book link.

These Entry Actions can be enabled/disabled and reordered using drag drop drop just like the Result List Actions.

Tip

Other actions can be made available by addons or extensions for Connections. As an example, the Form extension will add an action which are covered in its documentation.

Template

Enabling this option will display a single entry using the active template based on entry type rather than the template activated for the All template type. For example, if the entry is an organization it will be displayed using the template that is activated for the Organization template type found on the Connections : Templates admin page.

This is an advanced feature which is generally best left disabled.

Content Blocks

Tip

Both the Result List View and the Single Entry View support the display of Content Blocks but are configured separately. This is to allow you to decide which Content Block to display in which view.

Field Configuration

The settings in this section allow you to configure the form fieldsets when adding/editing a directory entry on the Connections : Add Entry admin page. These settings will also effect the form fields for both the Form and Link extensions.

Publish Fieldset

Entry Type Options

Here you can choose which of the supported entry types is displayed to the user when adding their entry. By default all three types are displayed. You can learn more about the entry types here.

To disable the display of an entry type, uncheck it and then save the change.

The display order can also be changed by dragging and dropping the types in the desired order and then saving the changes.

If you choose to not display any of the entry type options, then when an entry is added it will set the type as the Default Entry Type.

Important

Disabling an entry type will not effect previously added entries. They will retain the type with which they were saved. When editing an entry of a type which has been disabled, it will default to the selected Default Entry Type.

Default Entry Type

You can choose which entry type should be the default selected type when adding a new entry. If all Entry Type Options have been disabled, the chosen type will be the type that the entry is saved as.

Default Publish Visibility

By default when adding new entries the published status is to make it “Public”. This option allows you to choose which publish status should be the default selected option. You can learn more the publish visibility status options here.

Address Fieldset

Repeatable

By default the Address metabox is repeatable, meaning you can add as many addresses you need to a single entry. To disable this feature, uncheck this option. If you opt to not use a repeatable field, you must set the minimum number of address fieldsets to at least 1.

Address Fieldset Repeatable Options

Whether or not you choose to have the address set as a repeatable field you can set the minimum number fieldsets to display. For example, if you set the minimum number to 1, one set of address fields will be displayed and if the field is set to be repeatable you will be able to enter additional addresses as needed. However, if the repeatable option is disabled, you will only be able to entry a single address.

Changing the minimum will not effect previously saved addresses. If an entry has 4 addresses and you change the minimum number to 2, all four addresses will still be displayed and will still be able to be edited.

Address Type Options

You can choose which address types to display and in what order when adding addresses to an entry. The top most active address type will be the default type. At least one address type must be active. If only a single address type is active, the option to choose the type when adding an address to entry will not be displayed.

To choose which address types are active, add a check next to the address type name.

To change the address type order, drag and drop them in the desired order.

You also have the ability to add custom address types such as “Receiving” and “Warehouse”. This can be done by clicking the “Add” button, giving the new type a new and then activating it for use. You can remove any custom address types you may have added by clicking the “Remove” button but only if no addresses are saved with that type. The “core” address types of “Home, School, Work and Other” can not be removed. A “Remove” button will display for address types which can be safely removed.

Preferred Address

Preferred Address Option

Enable this option to set a preferred address when adding addresses to an entry. When this option is disabled, it will not be displayed when adding an address to an entry.

A preferred address is used in many scenarios such as…

When exporting the entry as a vCard.
Displaying the entry location on a map.
Displaying the local time of an entry.

Disabling this option will not effect existing addresses which have been set as preferred. When editing an entry with a preferred address with this option disabled, the preferred setting of the address will be removed.

Per Address Visibility

Address Visibility Option

Enable this option to set per address visibility. When disabled, it will not be displayed when adding addresses to an entry and all addresses will default to public.

Disabling this option will not effect the visibility status of previously saved addresses.

Autofill Region

When this option is enabled, the default region (state) will be used to populate the State address field by default when adding a new address to an entry. It is useful to enable this option if you expect most of your entries to be with the default region.

Autofill Country

When this option is enabled, the default country will be used to populate the Country address field by default when adding a new address to an entry. It is useful to enable this option if you expect most of your entries to be with the default country.

Autocomplete Country

When this option is enabled it will turn the text input Country field into an autocomplete drop down field.

Phone Fieldset

Repeatable

By default the Phone Numbers metabox is repeatable, meaning you can add as many phone numbers as you need to a single entry. To disable this feature, uncheck this option. If you opt to not use a repeatable field, you must set the minimum number of phone fieldsets to at least 1.

Whether or not you choose to have the phone fieldset as a repeatable field you can set the minimum number fieldsets to display. For example, if you set the minimum number to 1, one set of phone number fields will be displayed and if the field is set to be repeatable you will be able to enter additional phone numbers as needed. However, if the repeatable option is disabled, you will only be able to entry a single phone number.

Changing the minimum will not effect previously saved phone numbers. If an entry has 4 phone numbers and you change the minimum number to 2, all four phone numbers will still be displayed and will still be able to be edited.

Phone Type Options

You can choose which phone number types to display and in what order when adding phone numbers to an entry. The top most active phone number type will be the default type. At least one phone type must be active. If only a single phone number type is active, the option to choose the type when adding a phone number to entry will not be displayed.

To choose which phone number types are active, add a check next to the phone number type name.

To change the phone number type order, drag and drop them in the desired order.

You also have the ability to add custom phone number types such as “Receiving” and “Warehouse”. This can be done by clicking the “Add” button, giving the new type a new and then activating it for use. You can remove any custom phone number types you may have added by clicking the “Remove” button but only if no phone numbers are saved with that type. The “core” phone number types of “Home Phone, Home Fax, Work Phone, Work Fax and Cell Phone” can not be removed. A “Remove” button will display for phone number types which can be safely removed.

Preferred Phone Numbers

Enable this option to set a preferred phone number when adding a phone number to an entry. When this option is disabled, it will not be displayed when adding an phone number to an entry.

A preferred phone number is used in many scenarios such as…

When exporting the entry as a vCard.

Disabling this option will not effect existing phone numbers which have been set as preferred. When editing an entry with a preferred phone numbers with this option disabled, the preferred setting of the phone number will be removed.

Per Phone Number Visibility

Enable this option to set per phone number visibility. When disabled, it will not be displayed when adding phone number to an entry and all phone numbers will default to public.

Disabling this option will not effect the visibility status of previously saved phone numbers.

Email Fieldset

Repeatable

By default the Email Address metabox is repeatable, meaning you can add as many email addresses as you need to a single entry. To disable this feature, uncheck this option. If you opt to not use a repeatable field, you must set the minimum number of email fieldsets to at least 1.

Whether or not you choose to have the email fieldset as a repeatable field you can set the minimum number fieldsets to display. For example, if you set the minimum number to 1, one set of email address fields will be displayed and if the field is set to be repeatable you will be able to enter additional email addresses as needed. However, if the repeatable option is disabled, you will only be able to entry a single email address.

Changing the minimum will not effect previously saved email addresses. If an entry has 4 email addresses and you change the minimum number to 2, all four email addresses will still be displayed and will still be able to be edited.

Email Type Options

You can choose which email address types to display and in what order when adding email addresses to an entry. The top most active email address type will be the default type. At least one email type must be active. If only a single email address type is active, the option to choose the type when adding an email address to entry will not be displayed.

To choose which email address types are active, add a check next to the email address type name.

To change the email address type order, drag and drop them in the desired order.

You also have the ability to add custom email address types such as “Receiving” and “Warehouse”. This can be done by clicking the “Add” button, giving the new type a name and then activating it for use. You can remove any custom email address types you may have added by clicking the “Remove” button but only if no email addresses are saved with that type. The “core” email address types of “Personal Email and Work Email” can not be removed. A “Remove” button will display for email address types which can be safely removed.

Preferred Email Address

Enable this option to set a preferred email address when adding an email address to an entry. When this option is disabled, it will not be displayed when adding an email address to an entry.

A preferred email address is used in many scenarios such as…

When exporting the entry as a vCard.

Disabling this option will not effect existing email addresses which have been set as preferred. When editing an entry with a preferred email address with this option disabled, the preferred setting of the email address will be removed.

Per Email Address Visibility

Enable this option to set per email address visibility. When disabled, it will not be displayed when adding an email address to an entry and all email addresses will default to public.

Disabling this option will not effect the visibility status of previously saved email addresses.

Images

When an image or logo is uploaded to an entry, various sizes are created and cached. This helps to reduce server load during the rendering of the directory.

Here you can control the default image sizes that the various templates use and the crop modes.

Important

The active template will determine which image(s) is used or may dynamically create a custom image size.

Search

Search on the frontend of the website is enabled in select premium templates only and does not integrate with the core WordPress search. None of the supplied templates include the search feature. These settings will affect the results of search on both the Connections : Manage admin page and the frontend of the website.

Fields

These are the fields to search when performing a search on either the Connections : Manage admin page or on the site’s frontend for templates that support search. By default most fields are search enabled. You can improve search results and speed by limiting the fields to be searched.

FULLTEXT

This option is enabled by default, however, it will only have an affect if your web host is running current versions of MySQL and is correctly configured to support FULLTEXT search queries.

Tip

When migrating a site from either a staging site or to a new web host you should disable this setting.

Keyword Search

This option is enabled by default, however, if your web host is running current versions of MySQL and is correctly configured, disabling this option can greatly improve the relevance of the search results. If you disable this option and searches do not yield results, this indicates that the server does not support FULLTEXT queries. If this is the case, re-enable this option and disable the FULLTEXT option.

Important

If the FULLTEXT option is disabled, this option must be enabled. Additionally, search terms with three characters or less will be ignored. This can not be changed as this is a database limitation.

SEO

The output of Connections for entries is search engine optimized (SEO) following the hCard microdata specification which all the major search engine providers support. A future update to Connections will change this to support the newer scheme.org structured data formats for individuals and organizations. In addition to this, Connections also adds additional page meta information to further enhance SEO of your directory. These are enabled by default and it is strongly recommended that these are left enabled.

Page Meta

Title

Connections will automatically change the page title in the browser window/tab to reflect the current location in the directory being viewed. For example, the current category name or the current entry name being viewed.

Description

Connections will also automatically add a page description created as an excerpt from either the current category description or the current entry biographical info field. Search engines may choose to use this page description when displayed in the search results.

Page Display

Title

The page title will be dynamically changed to display the entry name or category name before the page title separated by “»”. Of the options available on this page, this one is likely to be safe to disable without negatively affecting the SEO of the directory.

Licenses

The Licenses tab will only be displayed if you have installed and activated at least one of the addons for Connections such as extensions and templates which requires an active support license key in order to receive in admin updates.

Here you can activate/deactivate your support license key, check to see if you are receiving updates and when the license expires. If the license has expired a link will be displayed which can be used to easily renew your license and automatically receive your renewal discount.

Advanced

Permalink

Configure permalink support. Avoid using permalink structure names that will conflict with WordPress, such as category and tag. Also avoid using permalink structure names that conflict with any custom post type slugs and custom taxonomy slugs. It is highly recommended that you leave these set to their default values. Only change these if you fully understand how changing these will affect your site.

Links

Name – Enabling this option will turn the name of every entry into a link. Clicking the link will take you to the single entry view. This option is enabled by default.

Telephone Number – Enabling this option will turn every telephone number into a link that when clicked by the user on a mobile phone or computer with a telephone application installed will dial the number. This option is disabled by default.

Organization – Enabling this option will turn the name of each organization into a link. Clicking the link will filter the results list view by that organization. This option is disabled by default.

Department – Enabling this option will turn the name of every department into a link. Clicking the link will filter the results list view by that department. This option is disabled by default.

Locality – Enabling this option will turn the name of each locality (city) into a link. Clicking the link will filter the results list view by that locality. This option is disabled by default.

Region – Enabling this option will turn the name of every region (state/province) into a link. Clicking the link will filter the results list view by that region. This option is disabled by default.

Postal Code – Enabling this option will turn each postal code into a link. Clicking the link will filter the results list view by that postal code. This option is disabled by default.

Country – Enabling this option will turn the name of every country into a link. Clicking the link will filter the results list view by that country. This option is disabled by default.

Custom Post Type Support

By default Connections supports only the Pages post type. When Custom Post Type support is enabled, you should select at least one post type for which you wish to enable the support. This will ensure that the necessary permalink rewrite rules are added. Additionally, you will be able to select a Custom Post Type page as the Directory Home Page.

Enable? — To enable support for custom post types, enable this option.

Enable Support for? — Select the custom post types for which you wish to enable support.

Google Maps Geocoding API

Addresses are automatically geocoded when adding an entry using the Google Maps Geocoding API which is free but is limited to 2,500 queries per day at a rate of 10 queries per second. Under normal usage this is more than enough but if you are bulk importing using the CSV Import extension then you can easily exceed this limit.

When using the CSV Import extension for bulk import it is recommended to set up a Google Maps Geocoding API Server Key which has increased limits of 100,000 queries at a rate of 50 queries per second.

Please be aware that there are fees associated with using the Google Map Geocoding API at these increased limits. View the Pricing and Plans. The fees will be assessed and charged by Google and not by Connections.

To learn how to get these Google Maps API Keys, please read this tutorial.

Compatibility

Google Maps API v3 – If a template requires the Google Maps API to display a map it will enqueue the Google Maps API on the page. Themes and other plugins may also enqueue the Google Maps API which can create conflicts that cause the Google Maps API to function incorrectly. To prevent Connections from enqueuing the Google Maps API, instead relying on the theme or other plugin to enqueue it, uncheck this option. In order for this to have a positive effect, the theme or other plugin must be enqueuing the Google Maps API before it is needed by the template to render the map. If it not available, this could cause a fatal JavaScript error which could potentially cause other JavaScript from the theme or other plugins to stop running.

Important

It is highly recommended that this option to be enabled unless you know how to check if the Google Maps API was enqueued multiple times and you know how to check for and fix JavaScript errors.

JavaScript – When at all possible Connections will enqueue its JavaScript in the page footer to improve the page loading performance. Disabling this option will instead enqueue its JavaScript in the page header. It is recommended that the option remain enabled.

CSS – If you want to provide 100% of your own CSS to Connections, then disable this option so you do not need to write complex CSS selectors to override the core CSS styles. It is recommended that the option remain enabled.

jQuery – Themes and plugins sometimes load a version of jQuery that is not bundled with WordPress. This is generally considered bad practice which can result in breaking plugins. Enabling this option will attempt to fix this issue. You should only enable this option at the direction of support.

Templates – Themes can break plugin shortcodes that output content on the page causing the content to not render correctly. If the templates do not display as expected try enabling this option.