Using Drupal for a Church Directory

Would it work to have the directory information be a separate node/content type from the User profile? Use node reference to connect the regular user profile to the directory info when applicable? -Brad

As bradwade suggested, I believe you'd be best suited with a custom content type. Not sure of all the how-to and all, but if you could have it setup like this, it would probably make it easier for your membership:

1. When someone creates a new user account, the custom content type (directory) or whatever is created for that person.... AND/OR when that person creates a new account, if there is an existing account that matches in any way, they would be asked to verify whether that was their information or not...

2. Then your users that don't have user accounts would still get on the list by you (or whomever enters the data) just creating a directory listing for that individual without a linking userID.

Here's another thought with this: Privacy concerns. Everyone may not want their information to be made available, password-security or not, in an online directory. I know this is something I thought about and at least mentioned the idea, but no one else was too keen on the idea in my small church.

I'd suggest first making sure that the leadership in your church signs onto the idea, and in all honesty, something like that ought to be left up to the individual. You could print out a simple form, where individuals would have to commit or either decline permission to be put in the online directory.

Besides just pure "want to", I can think of some job-types which may not want their details made available online - password protected or not. For instance, some roles in the armed forces and law enforcement would probably prefer to be left out of directories in some cases. That data can be VERY sensitive at times. :0)

Here's a tutorial that is sort of in line with what you're doing. May require a little tweaking to handle individuals who do not have email addresses.

https://webadmin.unt.edu/wiki/set-faculty-and-staff-profiles-page-drupal

We will be using that concept for a public staff page on our site, but we chose not to go with a full online directory for some of the reasons posted by kjv1611.