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Chamber Nation Member Directory self-updates

WordPress member directory for ChamberOrganizer / ECTownUSA chambers — server-rendered member pages, schema.org, sitemap and llms.txt for SEO and AI crawlers.

by Chamber Nation · github.com/iamseventhpro/chamber-nation-member-directory · website

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Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/iamseventhpro/chamber-nation-member-directory/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

Ships its own WordPress updater (built-in updater), so new versions show up under Dashboard → Updates.

Readme github.com/iamseventhpro/chamber-nation-member-directory ↗

A WordPress member directory for chambers of commerce on ChamberOrganizer or ECTownUSA. It's built on the server so search engines and AI assistants can read it. Each member gets its own page, with schema.org markup, an XML sitemap and llms.txt.

Install

  1. Download chamber-nation-member-directory.zip from the latest release. Use the release zip, not GitHub's green Code → Download ZIP button. That button creates a folder with the wrong name, and automatic updates won't work.

  2. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip, then click Install Now and Activate.

  3. Go to CN Directory in the dashboard and enter your chamber's Organization ID.

  4. Add the shortcode to a page, e.g. a page called "Directory":

    [cn_directory]

    The plugin detects this page, and member pages appear under it (/directory/business-name/).

Requires WordPress 6.2+ and PHP 7.4+. Updates appear on the Plugins screen once they're released here.

What you get
Directory Keyword, category and City/ZIP radius search, an A–Z bar, and pagination. Every view is a real URL, with no AJAX.
Member pages A short overview of each member, with a View Full Profile button to their external page, which remains the source of truth.
schema.org LocalBusiness / Organization JSON-LD on list and member pages, plus breadcrumbs. Hidden fields stay hidden in the structured data too.
Sitemap /cn-directory-sitemap.xml, listed in robots.txt and in the core, Yoast and Rank Math sitemap indexes.
llms.txt /llms.txt (overview and categories) and /llms-full.txt (every member, in Markdown). Shared with the Events Calendar plugin.
SEO hygiene Canonicals, titles and descriptions. Searches are noindex, removed members return 410 Gone, and page numbers past the end redirect.
Bootstrap Loaded only if your theme doesn't already include it (Auto / Always / Never).

How data stays fresh

The chamber API can't return one page at a time; it only returns the whole list, about 5 MB for a 2,000-member chamber. So:

  • The full list is re-downloaded in the background every 15 min, 1 hour or 6 hours (your choice). Browsing, A–Z, page numbers and member pages use this copy, and visitors never wait for the download.
  • Keyword, category and location searches always hit the live API, cached for 15 minutes.
  • CN Directory → Refresh now updates immediately. If a refresh fails, the previous copy stays in place.

Refreshes use WP-Cron. On low-traffic sites, add a server cron job that loads wp-cron.php every 15 minutes.

Shortcode options

Any setting can be overridden per page:

[cn_directory initial_view="categories" sorting="alphabetically" per_page="24"]
Attribute Values
org_id, server Organization code; org (ChamberOrganizer) or ectown (ECTownUSA)
initial_view list or categories
sorting random (reshuffled daily) or alphabetically
per_page 3–60
directory_type, single_cat_id all / single + a category ID
about_field yes (About Us), no (Profile), none
default_image Logo URL for members without one
bootstrap auto, always, never
hide_email, hide_phone_h, hide_address, hide_website, hide_primary_category, hide_name_position, hide_branches, hide_designations, hide_contact_form yes / no
disable_radius_filter, geolocate, hide_alpha_until_filtered yes / no
things_to_do, exclude Things-to-do filter; comma-separated member types to hide
landing_url, docuteam_cname mlp or docuteam; DocuTeam domain

Member pages, the sitemap and llms.txt use the saved settings of the main directory page.

Customizing

Copy any file from templates/ (directory.php, member-card.php, categories.php, member-page.php) into your-theme/cn-directory/. Developers can use these filters: cnmd_schema_business, cnmd_schema_item_list, cnmd_http_args, cnmd_servers, cnmd_template, cnmd_bootstrap_present, cn_llms_txt_sections.

External services

Member data comes from the Chamber Nation API (auth.chamberwidgets.com). Logos, badges and full profiles are on Chamber Nation / DocuTeam servers. "Use my location" uses OpenStreetMap Nominatim, and update checks go to GitHub. See readme.txt for details and the Chamber Nation privacy policy and terms.

Releasing a new version (maintainers)

  1. Update the version in chamber-nation-member-directory.php (the Version: header and CNMD_VERSION) and in readme.txt (Stable tag, plus a changelog entry).
  2. Commit, then run git tag v1.0.1 && git push origin main v1.0.1.
  3. The Release workflow checks the versions, lints the PHP on 7.4, builds the zip, and publishes the release.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.