Contact Directories

Learn how to import CSV files of contacts

Mira Connect’s directory integration makes it easy to import one or more comma-separated-value (CSV) files of contact names with video and/or telephone numbers, and optional bridge numbers, passcodes, and user extensions.

Once imported to an organization and assigned to a room in Mira Portal, Mira Connect presents an elegant directory of contacts, making it easy to dial meeting participants.

This article is a summary of how to add a directory to a room. For more detailed information, see the directories section in the Mira Connect Administrator’ Guide.

Follow These Steps to Add a Directory

1. Create a list of contacts in a CSV file

Contacts may be exported to a CSV file from your preferred contact manager, including GMail and Outlook/Office 365, or a CSV file can be manually created and imported into an organization using Mira Portal.

For more information about exporting contacts, supported CSV formats, and example CSV files see CSV File Formats for Contacts.

For this example, we’ll use a CSV file of contacts as shown below.

The file’s first row must have header fields identifying the type of data in the column.

Example CSV file.

Note that bridge numbers, passcodes, or user extensions are typically separated from phone numbers with commas. When exporting such numbers to a CSV file from Microsoft Excel or a contact manager, the export function will automatically generate a correct CSV file. However, if you are manually editing a CSV file in a text editor, phone numbers that contain commas must be within double quotation marks, for example: ”1 [phone],12345,5455”.

2. Import the CSV file to Mira Portal

Import the CSV file to an organization by navigating to the organization’s settings panel. Edit the settings and click ADD DIRECTORY.... Choose the desired CSV file to import.

Edit the organization's settings to add directories.

3. Customize the Column Headers

While importing the CSV data, Mira Portal shows the header column names and the first few rows of data. Mira Portal tries to automatically set the column types based on the value of the header field. For example, in the following figure Mira Portal set the column type to “Phone Number” for the column header “Work Phone” and labeled the phone number as “Work”.

Required column types include a contact’s first name, last name, at least one phone number or video number. If any required column types are not identified, manually select the column type from the pull down list to continue.

Customize the column headers to define the fields to import.

Edit the number label to specify the type of number this is, e.g., “Mobile”, “Work”, etc. This label is used in the directory to identify the type of number.

Click OK when done and then click SAVE to complete importing the directory.

Once imported, you can remove or updated the directory information.

Follow the prompts to automatically assign the directory to all the rooms in the organization. Alternatively, in the next step, manually assign directories to rooms.

To replace a contact directory without removing it from rooms, click the replace icon and the import process will restart. The rooms that use this directory will be updated with the latest contact information.

To delete a contact directory, click the trashcan icon. All rooms that were using this directory will have the directory removed.

4. Add the Directories to your Rooms

Once a directory has been imported, add the directory to rooms in Mira Portal (if not already done automatically as described previously) by navigating to the room and editing the room’s settings. Enable a directory by clicking the check box next to the desired directory name. Multiple directories can be used in each room.

Edit the room settings to select on or more directories.

Once a directory is enabled, Mira Connect’s user interface will update automatically, if it is connected to the WAN, and show the directory icon.

To dial a user, press the directory icon on the Mira Connect touch panel to show the contact directory. Next, select a contact and press a green call icon for the type of call to dial. Contact numbers that include bridge numbers, passcodes, or user extensions will be dialed automatically by Mira Connect as shown in the following figure.

Selecting an entry from the directory will call the selected number.

If a phone or video call icon in the directory contact is grayed-out, the equipment in the room doesn’t have an available conferencing resource that can dial that type of call as shown in the following figure. For example, you can only dial telephone numbers if the equipment in your room supports PSTN (analog telephony) or VoIP dialing and those resources aren’t already being used with other calls.

For more detailed instructions on configuring directories, see the directory section in the Mira Connect Administrator’ Guide.

If the room doesn't have the required equipment to dial a number, the number will be grayed out.

If the room has a directory from equipment in the room, such as a Zoom directory from a Zoom Rooms system, any imported CSV directories will appear as a PHONE tab as shown in the following figure.

Press the PHONE label on the directory to show the phone directory. From the phone directory, press ZOOM to navigate back to the Zoom directory.

If any contacts in the equipment directory and the imported directory have the same name, presence information from the equipment directory will appear on the imported directory.

One or more directories can be used with a Zoom directory.