Using location from Entra ID as a location refiner

[origami]

By default, the location drop-down in Origami People Directory will grab locations from SharePoint User Profile.

In your organization, you might not store the location in SharePoint and the locations drop-down won’t even show or will list only a handful of locations.

In this case, you’re likely storing locations in Entra ID.

To connect the locations drop-down to read from Entra ID, follow these steps:

Part 1: Configuring SharePoint search property

1. Navigate to SharePoint Admin Center in your Microsoft 365 tenant
2. In the left hand side navigation, click More features
   
3. Under Search click the Open button.
4. Click [Manage Search Schema]
5. Search for the [RefinableString] managed property that doesn’t have any other property associated with it yet.
6. Edit the property you selected by clicking Edit/Map Property as shown below

7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Add a Mapping button.
8. In the dialog, search for word “office”:

9. After a few seconds you will see a refined list, select the attribute “People:Office” as shown below and click OK:

10. Confirm that the attribute was added:
    
    

Part 2: Trigger re-crawl of SharePoint properties

Because we changed search schema, you’ll need to trigger search re-crawl to expedite new refiner being picked up.

1. Go to the site where your Origami People Directory is on
2. Click (*) → Site information → View all site settings → Search and offline availability
3. Click Reindex site
   For reason, select: “Site schema changes” or similar.

Part 3: Wait for 24 hours while SharePoint constructs refiners from the new property

Part 4: Connect refiner to Origami People Directory

1. Back in the People Directory web part properties, go to Filters & Refiners web part section
2. Set the refiner like this:
   
   

NOTE: Ensure that refinable string name is the same name you picked in step 6 earlier.