All configuration happens inside the WordPress admin area, on the edit screen for each individual Member Directory. There are no global settings pages — each directory has its own independent facet configuration.
3.1 Opening the Configuration Panel
- In your WordPress admin, go to Ultimate Member → Member Directory.
- Click Add New to create a new directory, or click the name of an existing directory to edit it.
- Scroll down until you see the Faceted Search metabox (below the standard UM Directory settings).
3.2 Enabling Faceted Search
At the top of the Faceted Search metabox, you will see a toggle labelled Enable Faceted Search. Turn it on to reveal all the configuration options below. If this toggle is off, the sidebar will not appear on the frontend, regardless of any other settings.
3.3 Choosing a Layout
Choose where the filter panel appears relative to the member grid. Click one of the three visual layout thumbnails:
| Layout | Description |
| Sidebar Left | Filter panel appears to the left of the member cards. This is the default and the most common e-commerce-style layout. Works best for directories with several filter groups. |
| Sidebar Right | Filter panel appears to the right of the member cards. Use this if your theme’s left column is already occupied by navigation or widgets. |
| Top Bar | Filter panel appears above the member cards in a horizontal strip. Works well for directories with only 2–4 filter groups, and for themes with narrow content areas. |
3.4 Global Display Toggles
Below the layout selector, four ON/OFF toggles control global sidebar behaviour:
| Toggle | Description |
| Show Counts | Displays a count badge next to each filter option (e.g., “Thailand (24)”). Shows visitors how many members match that value, helping them decide which filters are worth applying. |
| Active Filter Chips | When a visitor selects a filter, a coloured chip appears above the member grid showing what is active (e.g., “Country: Thailand ×”). Clicking × removes that filter. Highly recommended for usability. |
| Collapsible on Mobile | On mobile screens, collapses the filter panel into a toggled panel. Prevents the filter panel from pushing member cards below the fold on small devices. |
| URL State Persistence | Encodes the active filters in the page URL (e.g., ?country=thailand&industry=tech). This means visitors can bookmark filtered results, share links with specific filters applied, and use the browser back button to return to a filtered state. |
3.5 Collapse After N Items
The Collapse after field (default: 8) controls how many options are shown inside each filter panel before a “Show more” toggle appears. For example, if your Country filter has 40 options, only the top 8 are shown initially, with a link to expand the rest. This keeps the sidebar compact and scannable.
3.6 Adding and Configuring Facets
A facet is one filter group in the sidebar — for example, a “Country” checkbox list, or a “Salary Range” slider. Click + Add Facet to add a new row to the facets table. Each row has two parts:
Primary Row (always visible)
| Setting | Description |
| Meta Key | The WordPress user meta key that stores the field’s value in the database. For Ultimate Member custom fields, this is the field’s key as defined in the form builder. You can start typing and the autocomplete will suggest keys from both your UM forms and your existing wp_usermeta table. Required. |
| Label | The display label shown above this filter group in the sidebar. If you leave it blank, it defaults to the Meta Key. For example, if the key is “country”, you might set the label to “Location” for a friendlier look. |
| UI Type | How the filter values are presented. See Section 3.7 for a full breakdown of all UI types. |
Advanced Row (click the ⚙ More button to expand)
| Setting | Description |
| Sort Order | Controls how the filter options are ordered within this panel. Options: By count descending (most members first — default), By count ascending, A → Z alphabetical, Z → A alphabetical. |
| Visible to Roles | Lets you restrict who can see this filter group. If no roles are selected, all visitors see the filter. If specific roles are selected, only logged-in members with those UM roles will see the filter — guests and other roles will not. Useful for Premium or private filter fields. |
Note: You can drag-and-drop the facet rows to reorder them. The order in the admin table is the order they appear in the sidebar on the frontend.
Note: Removing a facet row shows a brief “Undo” toast at the bottom of the screen. You have 4 seconds to undo the removal before it is committed. This prevents accidental deletion.
3.7 Filter UI Types — Full Reference
Choose the UI type that matches how the field data is structured and how you want visitors to interact with it:
| UI Type | Best For | UM Field Types | Example |
| Checkbox List | Fields with multiple values; multi-select filtering | Checkbox, Multi-select | Skills (PHP, CSS, React), Interests, Languages spoken |
| Radio List | Single-value fields where only one choice applies | Select, Radio, Text | Employment status (Full-time / Part-time / Freelance) |
| Dropdown | Long lists of mutually exclusive options | Select, Text | Country (200+ options), Department, Time zone |
| Tag Cloud | Tag-style filter values; works well for keyword fields | Text, Select | Skills (visual tags), Topics, Certifications |
| Numeric Range | Fields that store a number; filter by min/max range | Number, Rating | Years of experience, Salary, Age, Star rating |
| Date Range | Fields that store a date; filter by from/to date range | Date | Registration date, Last active date, Start date |
Note: Numeric Range you can set a fixed Min, Max, and Step in the Advanced row. For example, for a salary field: Min = 0, Max = 200000, Step = 5000. If left blank, the plugin uses the actual min and max values found in your user data.