FW Real Estate – Documentation
FWRE Search Module
The FWRE Search add-on places a property search form anywhere on your site — a band across the home page, a sidebar, or a dedicated landing page — rather than only on the listing page. It searches the same properties with the same filters as the listing page and sends results there, so visitors can start searching before they ever reach the listing page.
Common Use Cases
- Home page search band. Put location, type, and price above the fold so searching is the first thing a visitor can do.
- Persistent sidebar. Keep the form on every page so visitors can refine criteria at any point in their session.
- Scoped landing page. Point the form at a listing page already filtered to a city or property type — visitor searches narrow within that scope rather than escaping it.
Placement
Enabling the add-on inside FW Real Estate installs the FWRE Search site module. Place and configure an instance under Content → Site Modules, exactly like any other Joomla module.
Settings
Each module instance has the following settings.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Design (theme) | Site default | Which installed design renders the form. |
| Layout | Default | Default, Minimal, or Banner — see Layouts below. |
| Location Display | Separate Fields | Separate Fields — country, region, city, and street as individual selects. Smart String — one combined location box. Hide — no location fields. |
| Search Fields Display | All on | Which filters the form offers. Turning one off removes it from this form only; the listing page is unaffected. |
| Range Fields Display | Dropdowns | Whether price, bedrooms, bathrooms, and area use Sliders or Dropdowns. |
| Default Search Results Menu Item | — | Which menu item displays results. If unset, results go to the site's default listing page. |
| Background Image | — | A background image for the form; used by the Banner layout. |
Available filter fields under Search Fields Display: Price · Bedrooms · Bathrooms · Property type · Category · Status · Living area · Lot size · Amenities · Agent · MLS number · Property ID · Radius · Currency · Lease terms · Availability · Save Search button. Fields that depend on another add-on (Amenities, Agent, Currency, Lease terms, Availability, Status, Save Search button) simply do not appear if the relevant add-on is not active.
Layouts
| Layout | Description |
|---|---|
| Default | The full form. The only layout driven by the settings above. |
| Minimal | A short, fixed set of fields for tight spaces. |
| Banner | A wide band designed to sit across the top of a page, with the background image behind it. |
Only the Default layout responds to your settings. Minimal and Banner are fixed designs that render a curated set of fields with plain dropdowns. They deliberately ignore the field checkboxes, the slider/dropdown choice, and the location display option. If those settings need to take effect, use the Default layout.
Live Results
Results refresh in place as a visitor changes any filter — no page reload required. The listing and the total property count update immediately. Every option in each list shows how many properties it would match at that moment (Berlin (5), Villa (12)); after each change those counts are recalculated and options that would return nothing are removed. Selecting a city narrows the region, type, category, and status lists to what that city actually contains — the form never offers a combination that returns an empty page.
A list never narrows by its own selection: choosing one city keeps other cities available, so multiple can be combined. The running total updates as criteria change, which is especially useful when the module sits away from the listing — a home page search band tells visitors how many properties are waiting before they navigate away.
Applied filters appear as removable chips beneath the form. Clicking the × on a chip removes that filter and refreshes results immediately.
Additional Notes
- Radius search requires a starting point. The Radius field stays disabled until a street, ZIP code, city, or region has been entered.
- Filtered results are shareable. Active criteria are encoded in the URL, so a result can be bookmarked or sent to a client.
- The listing page already includes this form. Add a module only when you want the search form somewhere the listing page is not.
To install this addon, open the Add-ons panel inside FW Real Estate. See Getting Started → Add-ons for details on free addons, paid addons, and site verification.
