FW Real Estate – Documentation

Search Not Working

If search features in FW Real Estate are not behaving as expected, the sections below cover the most common causes and how to fix them.

Search Form Not Redirecting to the Properties Page

The FWRE Search Module is designed to be placed anywhere on your site — a homepage hero section, a sidebar, or any module position. When a visitor submits the search form, the module redirects them to your Properties Listing page where the [fwre_list] shortcode (or equivalent component view) displays results.

If the redirect is not working correctly, check the Redirect to menu item parameter in the module settings. Open Extensions → Modules, edit your FWRE Search module, and confirm a Properties Listing menu item is selected. If this field is left blank, the module falls back to the default component router, which may not resolve to the correct page on all site configurations.

The module must be placed on a page other than the Properties Listing page itself. When the form is submitted, it automatically redirects the visitor to the Properties page where results are displayed — this is expected behaviour, not an error.

Filters Not Narrowing Results

If the search form appears but certain filters have no effect on results, the most likely cause is that those fields are not enabled in the module's Display fields settings.

Each filter — bedrooms, bathrooms, price, area, category, type, amenities, and others — must be individually enabled in the Display fields checkboxes within the module parameters. Fields that are not checked are hidden from the search form and are also excluded from filtering on the target listing page when accessed through that module. Enable only the fields relevant to your site and verify each one is ticked if you expect it to filter results.

Saved Searches Notifications Not Sending

The FWRE Saved Searches plugin allows visitors to save their search criteria and receive email alerts when matching properties are published.

Notification emails are not sent automatically in real time. They are dispatched only when the cron URL is called externally. If subscribers are not receiving emails, confirm the following:

• The cron URL is being called regularly. Navigate to FW Real Estate → Settings → Addons tab and copy the Send emails link shown there. It takes the form:
  https://your-site.com/index.php?option=com_fwrealestate&task=cron
• A server cron job is configured to call this URL at your chosen interval using curl or wget. Joomla's built-in scheduler does not trigger this URL automatically.
• The FW Real Estate - Saved Searches plugin is enabled in the Joomla Plugin Manager.
• The Save Search button is enabled under Display fields in the FWRE Search Module settings, so visitors can actually save a search.

If no new properties have matched a saved search since the last cron run, no email is sent for that subscriber — this is normal behaviour, not an error.