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)
- Microsoft Teams (optional, to use it as a channel tab or personal app)
- 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
Edit the page, select the web part and choose Open configuration in the property pane. The settings open on an Overview with health checks, a set-up checklist and everything changed from the defaults. Choose Live preview to dock the settings beside the directory and see each change straight away, or use Find a setting to jump to any setting by name. Pages are grouped by task:
| Group | Pages | What they control |
|---|---|---|
| What people see | Views & designs, Search & filters | Default view, card, profile and table designs, search box, sort options, A–Z bar, custom tabs, dropdown filters, export |
| Who’s included | People source, Profile fields | Which accounts appear (hidden accounts, mailboxes, guests, disabled accounts, system accounts, extra KQL), fields loaded from search |
| Features | Presence & skills, Celebrations, Org chart | Teams presence, skill tags, birthdays, anniversaries and new starters, the top of the org chart |
| Look & language | Appearance, Text & translations | Colours and font, each visitor’s language or one fixed language, every label with CSV export and import |
| Advanced | Developer tools, License & about | JSON5 configuration, custom CSS, JavaScript filter, translations JSON, URL parameters, search and Graph settings, licence key |
Select Save to store the settings, then publish the page so everyone sees them.
See the full configuration reference for all available settings.
Views
Card view
The default view. People appear as cards in a responsive grid. Choose a card design in Views & designs:
- Profile banner (the default for new web parts) — presence, title, department and office, the reporting line, up to three skills and a labelled Chat button.
- Photo tile — the photo fills the top of the card, with actions over the picture on hover, or in a bar under the card on touch screens.
- Modern, Classic, Minimal and Compact.
Any design can be customised further with HTML templates. Pointing at a name shows a hover card with contact details.
Table view
A tabular layout showing people in rows, useful for large directories where density matters. Click a name to open the profile panel. Select people to start a Teams group chat or meeting, copy their emails or export them.
Org chart view
An interactive organisational chart. Features include:
- Search — find people in the chart and press Enter for the next match
- Expand and collapse — open a team to load its direct reports
- Breadcrumb — the reporting line above the person in focus, with Go to top
- Zoom and minimap — zoom controls, fit to screen and a minimap for large organisations
- Export image — download the chart as a PNG, photos included
Choose the person at the top of the chart in Org chart in the settings. The people picker shows a preview of the chart before you save. Each person’s own chart also opens from their card or profile.
On phones
Below 640px the toolbar folds into a search box and a Filters button. The Filters sheet holds sorting, every dropdown filter and an A–Z grid, and profiles open full screen.
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.
Use it in Microsoft Teams
People Directory Plus also runs inside Teams, as a channel tab or a personal app:
- In your SharePoint App Catalog, select People Directory Plus and choose Sync to Teams.
- In Teams, open a channel, select + to add a tab and choose People Directory Plus. Or find it under Apps and add it for yourself.
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