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Feature Guides

Directory and Employees

Employees can be set to be automatically ingested (e.g. imported) into a site or can also be manually created. Once employee pages exist, pages can be configured to display subsets of these employees on a site. This guide will explore how to ingest employees automatically, modify employees, and how to set up a page of employees.

Directory Ingestion

Directory Ingestion example

Each site has the ability to automatically "ingest" or import employees from the BYU Employee Database. This ingestion happens every 24-48 hours so the employees on a site will always have the most current information. Directory ingestion allows for an easy way to add employees to a site without having to manually create all of them by hand.

Directory ingestion requires the following:

  • Department ID or net IDs for the department employees and
  • an employee group that has already been created for the employees to be added to.

Once this information has been obtained, go to Sites and Settings and then scroll down on the Main tab until reaching the dropdown labeled Directory Ingestion.

To finish the setup, follow these steps:

A screenshot of the directory ingestion settings

1. Enable the ingestion on the top button.

2. Click on the Add Department Ingestion Settings.

3. Give it a name and then assign the Employee Group that you created earlier. If a group has not been created, click the Create New option in the dropdown menu, then fill out the Name field and click Save.

4. Enter either the Department ID or the list of netIDs (each on a separate line).

5. (Optional, but highly recommended) Fill out the Classification Codes, Status Codes, and Standing Codes according to which employees should be imported.

The current classification codes are listed on this document. Also, please keep in mind that once ingestion settings have been saved it will take 24-48 hours for the changes to be applied. If nothing happens after that time, please go back and check your settings to make sure that they are valid. If the settings are valid and you have waited at least 48 hours, please contact websites@byu.edu for assistance.

Employee Type

New Employee

If you want to manually create an employee, there is an Employee content type that can also be configured.

1. Click on the search bar, and then on the bottom left in the dropdown menu, select Employee and click on New.

2. Fill out the information accordingly.

Changing an Ingested Employee

Occasionally, the information listed in the BYU Records database is not consistent with the employee information listed in Brightspot.

If a field is blank in the BYU Records database and information is manually added in Brightspot, that data will not be overridden by the ingestion when the ingestion runs next. Similarly, if the Name, First Name, Last Name, Title, Phone Number, and Address fields are manually updated in Brightspot, the nightly ingestion will not override these fields.

The Image, Short Biography, Full Biography, Website, and Curriculum Vitae fields are not included in the ingestion and will not be overridden.

The Email field will be overridden with the ingestion. If an employee's email is listed incorrectly, they can update their listed email under the Update Email Addresses tab at this link.

Employee Groups can be added for ingested employees at Sites & Settings > Directory Ingestion. If you manually override this on an individual employee, it will be reset to the employee group set from Sites & Settings on the next ingestion.

If there are any discrepancies in an employee's profile due to ingestion, confirm that their information is correct in the BYU Records database. If no errors are found in the database, please contact the BYU Websites team at websites@byu.edu for further assistance.

Changing Display Order

It is currently not possible to change the display order of items on an employee's page at this time.

Sharing Employees

Screenshot of employee sharing

Once an employee is ingested into a site, that site then "owns" that employee and they will only be able to be modified on that site. However, you can still display employees on multiple sites if need be, even if a different site "owns" that employee. After selecting the employee, follow these steps:

1. On the right under Sites it will show the Owner and then Access: will be none.

2. Change None to Some others and choose the sites you wish you share with.

Once this is published and you are trying to add the employee to a list or other content on the other site, in the search bar, you will need to change the site that you are searching in.

Click on the search bar and then under Misc Filter, change the site from your current site, to the site that "owns" the employee. That employee should then be visible.

Person Settings

Screenshot of the employee info

When creating a list of employees to display on a page, there will be information that displays automatically about the employee that is pulled from the employee info. The default that it includes, is shown in the photo above, the info is obviously generic for this example. There is a way to change the default and to show either more or less information.

1. To change the default, go to Sites and Settings and then click on the Page Defaults tab at the top.

2. Scroll down until you hit the Person Settings. In the dropdown there will be an Employee promo description field. Change this from Inherit to Select and then click on the new tab and Create New.

3. Once it loads, you can choose from the options shown on the right, which information you want displayed on your page for each employee. If some employees don't have that information, it will simply display nothing to be displayed.

This change will apply to the entire site to all pages that include employees being shown, so please plan accordingly when making changes.

Employee Directories

Creating a Directory

List modules are perfect for displaying employee pages or contact information in a directory. Dynamic lists can automatically pull in tags or employee groups to auto generate directories, and the visible fields on employee promos can be set in Sites & Settings under the Person Settings tab. Although the list style depends entirely on your employee images and personal taste, popular options include the following modules:

  1. List, Vertical Image
  2. Image on Top, Circular
  3. Card, Image on Top
  4. Card, Image on Side

For more information on lists, consult the list feature guide.

Filtering a Directory

Employee pages can be organized using employee groups or tags. This allows dynamic lists to automatically pull and sort them. Employees can also be sorted alphabetically by their last name, the newest published, the oldest published, or page views (highest to lowest).