Directory

Your agency's address book: every group, sub group, and contact in one searchable place.

The Directory is where you find the people and organizations connected to your agency. It opens as a list of labeled sections — your own agency first, then any mutual aid agencies, then the groups your agency has built. Tap a group to look inside it, tap a contact to see every way to reach them, or tap the chat button on a row to start a conversation without leaving the list.

Overview

What you see depends on whether you are browsing or searching.

Sections while browsing

Section	What it contains
Agency	A single row for your own organization. Always present.
Mutual Aid Agencies	One row per partner agency your agency coordinates with. The heading disappears when there are none.
Directory	The groups your agency has created. The heading disappears when there are none.

Sections while searching

Section	What it contains
Groups	Top-level groups whose name matches what you typed
Sub groups	Nested groups whose name matches
Contacts	People whose name matches, from anywhere in the Directory

What each row shows

Element	What it means
Initials badge	The first letter of the first two words of the name, in the group's or contact's color. A row with no color saved shows a red badge.
Name	The group name, or the contact's company name if there is one, otherwise their first and last name
Parent group name	Shown only in search results, under the name, so you know where the match lives
(My Profile)	Added after your own name so you can spot your own record
Chat button	Opens or starts a conversation. See the note below about when it appears.
Unread badge	A small counter on the row when that group or contact has unread chat activity

note

The chat button only appears on Contacts rows, and only for people who have their own REDENES sign-in. Groups, sub groups, agency rows and your own profile row never show it. Contacts that exist as phone-book records only — a station number, a vendor, a gate code holder — have no chat button because there is nobody to message.

Records that your administrator has retired are hidden from the list automatically, so a group or contact that has been deactivated will not appear even if you search for it by name.

Getting Here

1. Open the app and sign in to land on the Home screen.
2. Tap Directory.
3. The list loads from the copy stored on your device first, then refreshes in the background so you are never waiting on the network to look someone up.

You can also reach the Directory from other screens when you need to pick a person — for example when sharing a contact, attaching someone to a GPS record, or adding a person to a command assignment. In those cases the screen looks the same, but tapping a contact hands that person back to the screen you came from instead of opening their details.

Searching the Directory

The search field is hidden until you ask for it, which keeps the full list visible by default.

1. Tap the Add (+) button.
2. Choose Search. The search bar slides into view and the keyboard opens.
3. Begin typing. The list re-sorts into Groups, Sub groups and Contacts as you type.
4. Tap the Search button that appears beside the field to dismiss the keyboard and keep your results, or tap Add (+) → Search again to close the bar and clear what you typed.

Search looks at more than just the display name:

Search covers	Notes
Group names	Top-level groups
Sub group names	Including groups nested several levels deep
Company name	For contacts saved as an organization rather than a person
First name
Middle name
Last name

tip

Because search walks the whole tree, you never have to open a group first. Typing three or four letters of a last name is usually enough to pull someone out of a deeply nested sub group.

Matching is not case sensitive, and a name only appears once even if it matches in more than one way.

Opening a Group or Contact

1. Tap a row in Agency, Mutual Aid Agencies or Directory to open the Group Detail screen for that group.
2. In search results, tap a row under Groups or Sub groups to open that group, or a row under Contacts to open Contact Detail.
3. Tapping a row clears the search bar so the list is ready for browsing when you come back.

Starting a Chat From a Row

1. Find the contact you want to reach.
2. Tap the chat button on their row.
3. A conversation is created with you and that person and opens straight away, ready to type in. If a conversation with them already exists you land in it.

note

Starting a chat needs a connection. The conversation is created on the server first so that everyone in it sees the same thread, then saved to your device. Chats you start here behave exactly like the ones on the Messages screen.

Adding a Group

1. Tap the Add (+) button.
2. Choose Add New Group.
3. The Add to Directory popup opens. Enter a name, pick a color, and save. See Add to Directory for every field on that popup.
4. The new group appears in the Directory section, sorted alphabetically with the others.

note

The Add (+) button is only on screen when your role allows adding to the Directory. If you do not see it, your administrator has not granted that permission for your account.

Renaming or Deleting a Group

Editing a group is a press-and-hold action rather than a button, which keeps it out of the way during normal use.

1. Press and hold the group's row.
2. The popup opens titled Update Group, pre-filled with the current name and color.
3. Change what you need and save.

Situation	What happens
The group is editable and you have edit permission	The Update Group popup opens
The group is not editable, or you lack edit permission	Nothing happens on press-and-hold
The group is empty (no sub groups and no contacts)	A Delete button appears in the popup
The group still holds sub groups or contacts	No Delete button appears
The row is your own Agency or a Mutual Aid Agency	You can rename and recolor it, but it can never be deleted

Deleting asks "Are you sure you want to delete this group?" — confirm with Delete, or back out with Cancel.

caution

Move any contacts you still need out of a group before you empty it. Once a group is gone it cannot be restored from this screen.

Working Offline

The Directory is one of the screens built to keep working without a signal.

Action	Offline behavior
Browsing and searching	Works normally from the copy stored on your device
Opening a contact	Works normally
Creating a group	Saved on your device, shown in the list right away, and sent to the server the next time you are online
Renaming a group	Saved locally and queued the same way
Deleting a group	Queued and applied on the server once you reconnect
Starting a chat	Not available — a conversation has to be created on the server

If your device has never downloaded the Directory for the agency you are signed in to, the screen reports "That data is not saved for offline use." Reconnect once to build the local copy, and from then on it is available offline.

How This Connects

The Directory is the single list of people that the rest of the app draws on.

• Where the data comes from. Your administrator maintains the agency roster and the mutual aid links on the server. Groups, sub groups and contacts you create on this screen are added to that same record, so a colleague on another device sees them too. The list on your phone refreshes in the background each time you open the screen, and again whenever the app is told the roster has changed.
• Chat. The chat button here creates the same kind of conversation you would start from New Chat, and it shows up afterwards in Messages. The unread badges on Directory rows and the badges on the Messages list are counting the same unread activity.
• Phone. Phone numbers stored on a contact are what the Phone Dialer places calls to when you pick REDENES Phone on Contact Detail.
• Calendar. The same roster feeds the Invited Users picker, which is why invitees are grouped by agency there too.
• Command and GPS. Assigning a person to a unit on the command screens, or attaching someone to a location record, both open this screen as a picker.
• Offline and reconnect. Everything you change offline is stored on the device and pushed in order once the connection returns. Nothing is lost if the app closes in between.

Troubleshooting

If this happens	What to do
The list is empty and says "That data is not saved for offline use."	Connect to a network once and reopen the Directory. The local copy is built on the first successful load.
You cannot find someone you know is in the agency	Clear the search field and retype fewer letters. If they still do not appear, their record may have been retired by an administrator.
There is no Add (+) button	Your role does not include permission to add to the Directory. Ask your administrator.
Press-and-hold on a group does nothing	That group is not editable for your account, or your role does not include edit permission.
The Delete button is missing from the Update Group popup	The group still contains sub groups or contacts. Move or remove them first.
A contact has no chat button	That contact does not have their own REDENES sign-in, so there is nobody to message. Use their phone number or email instead.
A group you renamed offline still shows the old name elsewhere	The change is queued. Reconnect and reopen the Directory so the update reaches the server.
Unread badges do not clear	Open the conversation itself. The badge counts unread messages, not unopened contacts.

Related Pages

• Group Detail
• Contact Detail
• Add to Directory
• Add a Contact

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