People Directory Plus is a SharePoint Framework (SPFx) web part that gives your organization a modern, fully searchable people directory. It reads from the SharePoint Search Index and enriches results with Microsoft Graph data for presence, photos, and org hierarchy.
Getting started
Prerequisites
- SharePoint Online (Modern or Classic pages)
- SharePoint Admin or App Catalog access to deploy the package
- Microsoft Graph API permissions for presence indicators and user enrichment (optional but recommended)
1. Deploy the package
- Download the
.sppkgfile from the product page. - Open your tenant App Catalog (SharePoint Admin Center → More features → Apps → App Catalog).
- Upload the
.sppkgfile to the Apps for SharePoint library. - In the trust dialog, check Make this solution available to all sites in the organization and click Deploy.
- If prompted, approve the Microsoft Graph API permission requests in the SharePoint Admin Center → API access page.
2. Add the web part to a page
- Navigate to the SharePoint page where you want the directory.
- Edit the page and click + to add a web part.
- Search for People Directory Plus and add it.
- The directory will load immediately with default settings, showing users from your organization.
3. Configure
Click the settings icon in the web part toolbar to open the configuration panel. The panel is organized into tabs:
| Tab | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Display | Default view (Cards / Table / Org Chart), card width, view toggle buttons |
| Search & Filters | Search box, filter dropdowns, A-Z tabs, custom tabs, sorting, CSV export |
| Theme | Primary / secondary / link colors, font family, SharePoint theme integration |
| Celebrations | Birthday and work anniversary badges and banners |
| Features | Presence indicators, skill tags, org chart root user, debug mode |
| Search Engine | SharePoint Search source, KQL filters, Graph API settings, photo URLs, system accounts |
| Templates | User card, table view, user details, and print template editors |
| Advanced | Raw JSON5 editor, custom JavaScript filters, custom CSS, translation overrides |
| Integration | URL parameters and deep linking reference |
| Licensing | License key input and validation |
See the full configuration reference for all available settings.
Views
Card view
The default view. Displays users as responsive cards in a grid. Each card shows the user's photo, name, job title, department, and quick action buttons (Teams chat, call, org chart). The card layout is fully customizable via HTML templates.
Table view
A tabular layout showing users in rows with sortable columns. Useful for large directories where density matters. Click a user's name to open their detail panel.
Org chart view
An interactive organizational chart powered by D3.js. Features include:
- Search — find people by name, title, or department with highlighted matching nodes
- Department color coding — nodes display a colored bar by department (up to 10 colors)
- Expand/collapse — click nodes to load and view direct reports
- Zoom and pan — navigate large hierarchies
- SVG export — download the chart for presentations or printing
Set the companyRootAccountName in Features → Org Chart to the email of your CEO or top-level user to define the chart root.
Search and filtering
The directory provides several ways to find people:
- Text search — type in the search box to search across configurable fields (name, email, department, etc.). Supports debounced input (300ms).
- A-Z tabs — click a letter to filter by last name (or any configured field). The letter set is customizable.
- Custom tabs — an alternative to A-Z tabs, allowing you to define custom categories (e.g. departments, offices).
- Filter dropdowns — add one or more dropdown filters for department, location, or any custom field. Options can be populated automatically from displayed users or defined manually.
- Sort dropdown — sort results by name, department, or any field. Supports multi-field sorting (e.g.
LastName;FirstName).
Microsoft Graph integration
People Directory Plus uses the Microsoft Graph API to enrich user profiles with data not available in the SharePoint Search Index:
| Feature | API permission | What it provides |
|---|---|---|
| Presence indicators | Presence.Read.All | Real-time Teams/Outlook online status (Available, Busy, Away, etc.) |
| User enrichment | User.Read.All | Photos, job titles, manager chain, direct reports, out-of-office status, timezone |
These permissions are requested during deployment. Approve them in the SharePoint Admin Center → API access page.
If Graph API calls are not needed or cause performance issues, disable them with disableGraphApi: true in the Search Engine settings.
URL parameters and deep linking
The directory supports URL parameters for pre-populating search and filters:
| Parameter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
searchFor | Pre-populate the search box with a term | ?searchFor=John |
additionalSearchTerms | Append a KQL filter to the query | ?additionalSearchTerms=Department:"Finance" |
The URL hash also updates as you browse profiles, so you can share direct links to specific users.
Localization
People Directory Plus supports 7 languages out of the box:
- English
- French
- German
- Spanish
- Italian
- Czech
- Danish
The language is detected automatically from the SharePoint site language. You can override any string in Advanced → Translations.
Teams integration
User cards and detail panels include Microsoft Teams quick actions:
- Chat — open a 1:1 chat in Teams
- Call — start an audio call
- Video call — start a video call
- Schedule meeting — open Outlook calendar to schedule a meeting
These actions appear automatically for all users with an email address. The web part also works as a Teams personal app or Teams tab.
Hosting and security
People Directory Plus is a client-side web part that runs entirely within your SharePoint tenant:
- No external servers — all data stays in your Microsoft 365 environment
- Permission-aware — respects SharePoint permissions and Microsoft 365 security policies
- GDPR compliant — no data leaves your tenant
- Source code available — Enterprise license includes full source code for security audits
