Can I make a directory that lists by first letter of last name?

Question

I'm making a people directory index and would like A-Z links, where clicking on a letter produces all people whose last names begins in that letter.

I'm pulling from a People channel, which has a Last Name field, but it doesn't look like the exp:channel:entries search parameter can search on just the first character of a field?

Is there an easy way to do this? My next idea is running SQL WHERE last_name LIKE 'x%', but I'd prefer a more elegant solution if one exists.

Answer 1

You could try http://gotolow.com/addons/low-alphabet as that allows you to group entries by letters (and numbers if you need).

Answer 2

(Is this the same question Making a directory's A - B - C - D etc. links ?)

I had the same issue, and made a solution that might / might not suit your setup, and post it here. I use Profile:edit to connect Memberfields with a 'peoples channel' and dynamic parameters for searching.

1) New members get accepted by an admin who also fills in a Channel form for member_profiles (= 'the peoples channel'). This form does a few things, but this part extracts the first letter from their last name.

<input type="hidden" name="member_letter" value="{exp:trunchtml chars="1"}{member_last_name}{/exp:trunchtml}">

2) This field 'member_letter' is searchable.

3) On my search page I have this:

<form id="artists_lettersEmpty" class="float-right" method="post" action="{path='{segment_1}/{segment_2}/'}">
    <input id="symbol" class="button tiny callout LastButton" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="&#x21ba;">
</form>
<form id="artists_letters" class="float-right" method="post" action="{path='{segment_1}/{segment_2}/medlem'}">
    <input id="a" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="A"> <input id="b" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="B"> <input id="c" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="C"> <input id="d" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="D"> <input id="e" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="E"> <input id="f" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="F"> <input id="g" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="G"> <input id="h" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="H"> <input id="i" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="I"> <input id="j" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="J"> <input id="k" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="K"> <input id="l" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="L"> <input id="m" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="M"> <input id="n" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="N"> <input id="o" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="O"> <input id="p" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="P"> <input id="q" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="Q"> <input id="r" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="R"> <input id="s" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="S"> <input id="t" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="T"> <input id="u" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="U"> <input id="v" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="V"> <input id="w" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="W"> <input id="x" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="X"> <input id="y" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="Y"> <input id="z" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="Z"> <input id="å" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="Å"> <input id="ä" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="Ä"> <input id="ö" class="button tiny letter" name="search:member_letter" type="submit" value="Ö">
</form>

3) form id="artists_lettersEmpty" resets the form (by searching without letter)

4) form id="artists_letters" searches after the visitor clicks the button with that letter. As you see, we ae on a Swedish site.

5) Result shows up here:

    <h4>Resultat:</h4>
{exp:channel:entries
channel="member_profiles"
disable="pagination|category-fields|member-data|relations"
dynamic_parameters="search:member_letter"
orderby="member_last_name"
sort="asc"
dynamic="off"}
{member_first_name} {member_last_name}
{/exp:channel:entries}