Building a searchable company directory

I have received requests from people wanting to add a searchable company directory to their systems. For this, let's create a plugin that will come in handy. This plugin will also introduce you to setting up applets.

Getting ready

The complete source code for this recipe can be found at Chapter10/Recipe2 in the source code for this book.

How to do it…

The following plugin is going to give us a searchable user directory. Perform the following steps to build the plugin:

1. Create a folder in your plugins folder, and name it directory.

2. Create a file named plugin.json and write in the following code:

   {
     "name" : "Directory",
     "description" : "Searchable directory of Users.",
   }

3. Inside the directory folder, create a folder named applets.

4. Upload a new file called directory.class.php and write in the following code:

   <?php
   
   class DirectorySearch{
     public function __construct(){
     }
   
     public function connect($response, $user){
       $name = $user->first_name . "...