These FAQs are IProperty specific. For general product and service FAQs, please read the General FAQs.
Users with a valid IProperty subscription will have access to the support forums at The Thinkery Extensions. Please do not post support questions in the 'Questions about IProperty' forums - this forum is intended for pre-sales questions and support questions will not be answered.
Any user with a valid subscription will have access to downloads and support until their subscription expires.
You must be logged in with a valid subscription to access the downloads area. All downloads for IProperty and related languages and documentation can be found here.
If you would like to customize layouts for IProperty views, there are a several different ways you can do this. Depending on the level of customization, these can be accomplished with pure css, template overrides, or alternative layouts.
CSS
If you simply need to modify the look of an existing view without creating a whole new layout, you can normally accomplish this with css. IProperty includes a custom css file which can be edited via the IProperty admin panel or copied into a desired template directory to prevent customizations from being overwritten when updating IProperty. More information on this can be found in the CSS docs. Alternatively, you can add custom css in your template's css files.
Overrides
If you would like to customize the entire layout of a view, you can create template overrides. Template overrides will allow you to customize layouts as much as you'd like and these changes will not be overwritten when updating to newer versions of IProperty. Please note, however, that overrides may become outdated after updating to newer versions of IProperty/Joomla and cannot be supported. More information on template overrides can be found here. For creating overrides for IProperty layouts, this forum post should be helpful (you must have a subscription to view).
Alternate Layouts
Sometimes you just need to override a module, but not all instances of that module. In this case, you will want to create an alternate layout. Alternate layouts are optional custom layouts which can be applied to any or all module instances. More information on alternate layouts can be found here.
Yes! IProperty is able to accept feeds into its database from a variety of sources, including MLS RETS, csv, and XML. However, since the source data can be in almost any format, it takes some customization to the import routines to accomplish these tasks-- alternately, in the case of csv or XML, you can format the data yourself, then import into IP using IProperty's native csv import tools.
ARE YOU A FLEXMLS CUSTOMER?
Ask us about IProperty for FlexMLS -- no data import routines required, instant setup, and deep integration with the FlexMLS contacts and statistics features!
Please contact us for more information about MLS/IDX data imports.
Yes! When we built the Front End management functionality into IProperty we realized we had a choice-- to reinvent the wheel and create an entire subscription, payment and membership management mechanism into IProperty, which would either bloat the product or require splitting it into more than one product, or we could partner with existing Joomla subscription management tools.
We chose the latter -- we let the experts do what they know best, like handle account control, expirations, and payments, while we concentrate on adding features and functionality to the real estate product.
At this time Akeeba subscriptions and AEC (Account Expiration Control) both offer support for IProperty.
Within these products you can create various membership levels that include variables like "Max Agents", "Max Listings", "Max Featured", etc. When a subscription is purchased, the Joomla user who bought the subscription is automatically created as an IP Agent and given the appropriate access depending on his subscription level.
At the end of the subscription term, all agents and listings belonging to the account are unpublished, and the user no longer can view or access his listings.
Since IProperty 2.0 -- YES! In IProperty 2.0+ you can manage property listings, agents and companies from the front end of Joomla. IProperty 2.0+ versions also support subscription based listings using a 3rd party extension. See the related FAQ for more information.
If when you click a property link and it shows up on the home page, this is due to the site menu structure and the IP route helper. The IP router will attempt to find a menu item to:
- a) A direct link to the actual property (property view)
- b) The first category relating to the property (cat view)
- c) The IProperty 'all properties' view
- d) The IProperty 'home' view
Meaning, when you click a property link the IP router will try to find a menu item for that particular property. If a menu item to the property is not found, it will attempt to find a menu item to the first category related to the property. If a category menu item is not found for the first related category, it will attempt to default to the IP 'all properties' view, etc, etc
If no related menu items are found, no Itemid will be appended to the link, causing it to default to the current page.
Ideally, you will want to either have a link to the IProperty 'home' view or 'all properties' view in your menu structure. If you don't want the menu item to display on the site, you can create a hidden menu and the route helper will still be able to redirect to a clean page.
To create a hidden menu, use the Joomla menu manager to create a new menu called 'hidden'. Create your menu items, but simply do not create a module for that 'hidden' menu. This will allow the route helper to find related items, but not actually show them on the site!