If you are using this Staff Directory plug-in Version 1.0.2 you know that there is no way to control the order of the entries.  We have modified the file called classes\staff_directory_shortcode.php to add this feature.  You can download the file in a ZIP file from here.

I added to the shortcode to define a “meta_key” field.
Eg: [staff-directory cat=44 orderby=meta_value_num order=asc meta_key=order]
Then added a field called “order” (but it can be anything you want to call it, just change the definition of the meta-key.) The orderby field is then set to meta_value_num to order that field numerically.

In the “order” field enter a number for each person in the order you want them to display.  The values do not need to be consecutive.

The names will be displayed in that order and also, the first time they are displayed, if the “order” values do not start with 10 and increment by 10 they will be adjusted to be so.  The advantage of this is that it allows names to be inserted easily in the list.  So to insert a name between the names with “order” number 40 and 50, make the new one 45.  They’ll all get renumbered on the next public display.  This reordering only happens if they are not “normalized” already.

This only required changes to classes\staff_directory_shortcode.php, but I did change the version number in \staff-directory.php to prevent any update overriding by changes.

We hope you find this useful, but it is provided as-is, with no guarantee that it will do anything useful, or will not do anything bad.