The shared Grid / List / Map / Events view system that every directory surface (root, Cloud, NBMN) renders through.
One framework renders every directory surface in the network — roots, Clouds, NearByMeNow — in multiple views without each surface reimplementing them. includes/directory-views.php owns the registry and the JS contract; a view is toggled by an html[data-dir-view] attribute, and a surface opts into a view by rendering a data-dir-view="<id>" panel and flipping it ready.
?ajax=root_map_markers /cloud_map_markers; listings carry lat/lng.
businessUpcomingEventsBulk() (includes/business-events.php), fed by root_events / cloud_events ajax; vertical directories like Live Music Tonight render from marquee_events.
Root and Cloud both support distance sort (resolveRootDomainOrder / cloudFetchListings + a shared geo helper + ?e=geo), so "nearest first" works anywhere.
Adding a view once lights it up across every surface. The cost is the shared contract's discipline: a new card action must be registered where each host routes its actions (e.g. NBMN routes its own card actions in nearbymenow/index.php — a new action added only to the generic handler silently no-ops there). This is the directory analogue of the "one renderer, many surfaces" principle behind the business card and Muse system.