FW Real Estate – Documentation

The FWRE Saved Searches addon lets visitors save their active search filters and receive email notifications whenever new matching properties are published. This drives return traffic by alerting interested buyers or tenants automatically, without any manual follow-up.

How It Works

When a visitor applies filters on the property listing page, a Save Search button appears in the search area. Logged-in users save the search to their account. Guests are prompted to register or provide an email address. Once saved, the search runs silently in the background — when a new property is published that matches the criteria, the subscriber is queued for a notification email.

Subscribers can view and delete their saved searches from the frontend User Section.

Sending Notifications via Cron

Notification emails are not sent in real time. They are dispatched when the following URL is called:

https://your-site.com/index.php?option=com_fwrealestate&task=cron

Set up a server cron job to call this URL at your preferred interval. For example, to send notifications daily at 8 AM:

0 8 * * * curl -s "https://your-site.com/index.php?option=com_fwrealestate&task=cron" > /dev/null

The exact URL for your site is displayed in Settings → Addons for easy copying. This URL must be called externally via curl or wget — it is not triggered automatically by any built-in scheduler. If no new properties match a saved search since the last cron run, no email is sent for that subscriber.

Email Template Settings

All email settings are found under Settings → Addons. The following parameters control notification emails:

• Email subject — the subject line template used for all saved search notification emails sent to subscribers.
• Common email template — an HTML editor for the email body that wraps all matched property listings in a single notification message.
• Property listing template — an HTML template that defines how each individual property entry appears within the notification email.
• Send emails link — displays the cron URL for your site so you can copy it directly into your server cron configuration.

Use Cases

• Active buyer alerts — a visitor looking for a 3-bedroom apartment in a specific area saves the search and receives an email each time a matching property is listed.
• Rental market — tenants save criteria and get notified of new rental listings without repeatedly checking the site.
• Demand insight — administrators can see which searches are saved and how many subscribers each has, revealing which property types are most in demand.

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.