FW Real Estate – Documentation

Basic Configuration

Before publishing your first property, work through these five steps to get FW Real Estate ready for use.

1. Set Your Default Country and Localization

Go to FW Real Estate → Configuration → General. Under the Localization card, set your Currency sign and Currency position (before or after the price). These controls handle single-currency setups directly. If you later install the Multi Currency plugin, these two fields are hidden and currency management moves to that plugin — see the Currency & Measurement Units section for details.

Also set your preferred Date format and the measurement units for lot size, building size, living area, ceiling height, and room dimensions. Each unit field draws from the Measures dictionary.

2. Fill In Your Dictionaries

Go to FW Real Estate → Dictionaries. The core ships with ten value lists: Countries, Regions, Cities, Categories, Types, Measures, Interior, Exterior, Heating, and Garage type. Additional dictionaries appear when relevant plugins are enabled — for example, Statuses (with colours) comes from the Status Labels plugin.

You do not need to pre-fill every dictionary before creating properties. Values can be added on the fly directly from the property form, so empty dictionaries will not block you from getting started. The one exception worth doing upfront: set up Countries, Regions, and Cities before adding properties, because the address fields work as a three-level cascade — a city must have its region, and a region must have its country.

3. Create Joomla Menu Items

Front-end views are placed using standard Joomla menu items. Create a menu item and choose one of the four FW Real Estate types:

• Properties Listing — the main listing page. Page-level search filters are not built into this view; place the FWRE Search Module separately via a module position to add search functionality.
• Single Property — a direct link to one specific property.
• Agents Listing — the agent directory. Requires the Agents plugin to be installed and enabled.
• User Section — the frontend account area. The Layout dropdown in this menu item is populated dynamically: only plugins that are installed and active appear as options. Possible sections include Compare, Saved Search, Favorites, Property Manager, and Agent Profile.

The Options tab inside any menu item editor contains layout selection, pre-filter fields (scope by country, region, city, category, type, or status), and other listing settings. Fields that require a plugin will show Not available, need plugin until that plugin is installed.

4. Enable the Plugins You Need

Go to FW Real Estate → Add-ons. This screen lists all available plugins and modules in one place. Enable what you need here. When you disable a plugin, its fields disappear from the property form and its output is removed from the front end — you only carry what you use.

Module add-ons, once enabled, also install a real Joomla site module that you can place and configure under Content → Site Modules like any other Joomla module.

5. Currency Setup

For a single-currency site, the Currency sign and Currency position fields in Settings → General → Localization are all you need. If your site requires multiple currencies, install the Multi Currency plugin from the Add-ons screen — it replaces those two fields with full currency management. Full details are in the Currency & Measurement Units section.