Watch a video walkthrough for how to enable Price Transparency in Spaces

Requirements

This document assumes that the following criteria have been met on the target site:

• The Spaces plugin has been successfully installed and configured
• Data for at least one Pricing & Availability process has been imported
• At least one SPACES Asset has been created, and its Floor Plan and Unit records have been imported.

If any of these three prerequisites have not been met, please follow the setup instructions in the Spaces Installation and Configuration Guide before proceeding.

Adding Custom Filter Classes

By default, Spaces does not treat Penthouse units differently from any other type of available unit. To allow Penthouse floor plans and units to be filterable, it is necessary to add classes to the relevant Floor Plan and Unit records. A custom filter class acts much like a CSS class, allowing Spaces to recognize floor plans and units to which the user wants to give special treatment.

Adding custom filter classes to a Floor Plan record will propagate the class to all Unit records of that particular floor plan type. Since Penthouse units almost always have unique floor plans which are not shared by non-Penthouse units, the most efficient method for adding custom filter classes to Penthouse units is to add a singe custom class to each Penthouse Floor Plan.

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Beware of Meddling with Unit Records

Adding custom filter classes can also be done through the individual Unit records, but as Penthouse and non-Penthouse Units do not generally belong to the same Floor Plan, it is usually not necessary to add custom filter classes to individual units, and considerably less efficient. It is strongly recommended not to edit Unit records directly unless compelled by absolute necessity.

Choosing a Unique Class

Before proceeding further, choose a unique Custom Filter class to use for filtering Penthouse plans & units. The class should not be used for any other custom data within Spaces, and should consist only of lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens/dashes. Some possible examples include:

• example
• example1
• example-class
• example-class-2

For most clients with penthouses, the class "penthouse" is a simple, but effective choice; however, the most optimal class name may vary depending upon the terminology used by a particular property.

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In the following sections, and the video tutorial linked at the beginning of this document, the class name "penthouse" will be used for demonstration purposes.

Adding the Custom Filter Class to Floor Plan Records

To add a Custom Filter Class to a Floor Plan record, execute the following steps:

1. Log into your Wordpress CMS, if you have not done so already
2. Navigate to [SPACES > Floor Plans].
3. Locate the relevant floor plan in the list, and click on its name in the "Title" column. (Alternatively, click "Edit" in the row of links that appears under the Title on hover.) This will open the Floor Plan record's settings.
4. In the "Custom Floor Plan Data" panel, locate the "Advanced" tab on the lefthand side, and click on it. This will open the list of all Custom Filter Classes currently in use. (If none have been set up thus far, this list will be empty.)
5. Click the "Add Row" button on the righthand of the panel at the bottom of the list. This will add an empty row with a text field for the new class.
6. Enter the new class chosen for the Penthouse units (such as "penthouse" without quotes). Do not add a leading dot/full stop character ("."); this may cause errors when attempting to use custom filters on the front end.
7. Click the "Update" button in the upper right section of the page to preserve the changes.

Repeat the steps above for all Floor Plans that contain penthouse units. As stated above, this will propagate the new Custom Filter Class to all units belonging to said floor plans automatically.

Adding a Custom Filter Option on the Front End

Once the Custom Filter Class has been added to all Floor Plans (and thus propagated to all constituent Units), next step is to create the Custom Filter Option for filtering the Penthouses on the front end.

While it is possible to create an entire custom filter for this purpose, it is not usually not necessary to do so. Instead, it is considered best practice to add a new custom option to the default Bedrooms filter already present in Spaces. The sections below outline the procedures to do just that.

The Custom Filter Option can be added in one of two places: under Global Settings, or under the settings for the particular SPACES Asset to which the Penthouse units belong. Customers with only a single property may safely configure the new option in Global Settings, as only one property will ever be affected by any changes. However, customers with multiple properties are strongly advised to configure the new option at the SPACES Asset level. Unless all properties in the client's portfolio have Penthouse units, adding the new option via Global Settings will cause it to appear in the Bedrooms filter for all properties, including those with no Penthouse units at all. Therefore, it is cleaner for sites with multiple properties to add the new Option individually to each SPACES Asset with Penthouse units.

Adding Globally - For Customers with a Single Property

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As stated above, it is not recommended to add Custom Filter Options globally, unless either the site only has one property, or the new option definitely applies to all SPACES Assets in the site's portfolio.

Execute the following steps to add a “Penthouse” filter option to Spaces via the Global Settings:

1. Log into your Wordpress CMS, if you have not done so already.
2. Navigate to [SPACES > Global Settings].
3. In the "SPACES Global Option Overrides" panel, locate the "Filters" tab, and click on it to open the settings for Spaces filters.
4. Locate the "Room Filters" accordion section. Click on it to expand its contents, if they are not already expanded. This will display a list of all Custom Filter Options currently configured at the global level. (If no such options have been configured previously, the list will be empty.)
5. Click on the "Add Row" button on the righthand side of the Room Filters section, at the bottom of the list. This will add a row with three fields necessary to configure the new Custom Filter Option.
6. Populate the three fields in the new row as follows:
   1. Room Filter Label: Enter the desired text for the filter option label on the front end, such as "Penthouse."
   2. Room Filter Value: Enter the custom filter class chosen for penthouse units with a leading dot/full stop character ("."); ".penthouse" without the quotes, for example.

      1. 📘

         Chaining Classes

         The Penthouse custom filter class can be chained with other desired filter classes to make the new Option's search results more specific. For example, if one wished to filter only two bedroom penthouses, one could supply ".2bed.penthouse" to this field (without the quotes). However, it is advisable to indicate any additional specificity to the user via the Room Filter Label text.

   3. Room Filter Count: Enter a numerical value to determine the new Option's placement in the list.
      1. Spaces sorts the default filter options by number of rooms, in order of lowest to highest: 0 for studio plans, 1 for one bedroom, 2, for 2 bedrooms, etc.
      2. Negative and decimal numbers are permitted, allowing precise control of the option's appearance in the list; for example, entering -1 would make the option appear before all other standard options, and entering 2.5 would make it appear between the Two Bedroom and Three Bedroom options.
      3. To make the new option appear last in the list, enter a value greater than or equal to the highest available Bedroom count option. For example, if a property has 1, 2, and 3 Bedroom plans, enter either 3, or any larger number.
         1. When a custom option has a Room Filter Count equal to that of one of the existing room filter options, Spaces will always display the custom option(s) second, even if the label text and filter class text would both normally come first in ASCII sort order.
7. Click the "Update" button in the upper right section of the page to preserve the new settings. Wait for the page to refresh.
8. Once the page reloads, locate the "Update Spaces Data" panel in the righthand section of the page, and click the "Refresh Content" button to ensure the changes take effect in a timely fashion. Allow for up to 10 minutes for the refresh to complete.

The new custom filter option will now be present on all instances of Spaces content on the front end of the website.

Adding by Asset - For Customers with Multiple Properties

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As stated above, adding Custom Filter Options to individual SPACES Assets is strongly recommended for customers with multiple properties, unless all properties in the client's portfolio have units that would be filtered by the new option. For customers with only one property present on the site, the new Option may be added either globally or at the Asset level, according to the user's preference.

Execute the following steps to add a “Penthouse” filter option to Spaces via the Global Settings:

1. Log into your Wordpress CMS, if you have not done so already.
2. Navigate to [SPACES > Assets].
3. Locate the SPACES Asset to which you wish to add the new option, and click on its name to open its settings. (Alternatively, click the "Edit" link that appears under the Asset's name on hover.)
4. In the "SPACES Asset Options" panel, locate the "Filters" tab, and click on it to open the settings for Spaces filters.
5. Locate the "Room Filters" accordion section. Click on it to expand its contents, if they are not already expanded. This will display a list of all Custom Filter Options currently configured for this SPACES Asset. (If no such options have been configured previously, the list will be empty.)
6. Click on the "Add Row" button on the righthand side of the Room Filters section, at the bottom of the list. This will add a row with three fields necessary to configure the new Custom Filter Option.
7. Populate the three fields in the new row as follows:
   1. Room Filter Label: Enter the desired text for the filter option label on the front end, such as "Penthouse."
   2. Room Filter Value: Enter the custom filter class chosen for penthouse units with a leading dot/full stop character ("."); ".penthouse" without the quotes, for example.

      1. 📘

         Chaining Classes

         The Penthouse custom filter class can be chained with other desired filter classes to make the new Option's search results more specific. For example, if one wished to filter only two bedroom penthouses, one could supply ".2bed.penthouse" to this field (without the quotes). However, it is advisable to indicate any additional specificity to the user via the Room Filter Label text.

   3. Room Filter Count: Enter a numerical value to determine the new Option's placement in the list.
      1. Spaces sorts the default filter options by number of rooms, in order of lowest to highest: 0 for studio plans, 1 for one bedroom, 2, for 2 bedrooms, etc.
      2. Negative and decimal numbers are permitted, allowing precise control of the option's appearance in the list; for example, entering -1 would make the option appear before all other standard options, and entering 2.5 would make it appear between the Two Bedroom and Three Bedroom options.
      3. To make the new option appear last in the list, enter a value greater than or equal to the highest available Bedroom count option. For example, if a property has 1, 2, and 3 Bedroom plans, enter either 3, or any larger number.
         1. When a custom option has a Room Filter Count equal to that of one of the existing room filter options, Spaces will always display the custom option(s) second, even if the label text and filter class text would both normally come first in ASCII sort order.
8. Click the "Update" button in the upper right section of the page to preserve the new settings. Wait for the page to refresh.
9. Once the page reloads, locate the "SPACES Data" panel in the righthand section of the page, and click the "Rebuild SPACES Data Cache" button to ensure the changes take effect in a timely fashion. Allow for up to 10 minutes for the cache rebuild to complete.

The new custom filter option will now be present in the Bedroom filter for this Asset's Spaces content on the front end.

Testing on the Front End

To verify that the new Penthouse option has been added, and is working as intended, execute the following test procedure:

1. On the front end of the website, navigate to any page on which Spaces content has been embedded, for any SPACES Asset with Penthouse units.
2. Open the Plan view, if it is not already displayed, and execute the following steps:
   1. Ensure that no filter options have been selected on the page. If necessary, click the "Reset" button to clear them.
   2. From the list of floor plans displayed (usually just the currently available plans), make note of all Penthouse floor plans displayed by default.
      1. If there are none, the most likely explanation is that no Penthouse units are currently available. Either try another SPACES Asset with Penthouse units; or, if there is only one SPACES Asset on the site, enable the "Display Unavailable Plans" option under the Asset settings via the following steps:
         1. Navigate to the SPACES Asset settings in the CMS.
         2. Locate the "SPACES Asset Options" panel, and click on the "Availability" tab on the lefthand side.
         3. Click on the "Display Unavailable Plans" option to switch it from "No" to "Yes."
         4. Click the Update button in the upper right section of the page to preserve the change. Wait for the page to refresh.
         5. Click the "Rebuild SPACES Data Cache" button to ensure the changes take effect promptly.
         6. Return to the Spaces content on the front end, and refresh the page.
      2. Following these steps will cause any Penthouse floor plans to appear regardless of whether they have any available units. Make note of all such plans displayed.
   3. Click on the Bedrooms filter to open the dropdown menu, and locate the new Penthouse option. Some scrolling through the available menu options may be necessary to bring it into view. Once found, click on it to filter the search results.
      1. Ensure that the new Penthouse option is the only filter option selected; otherwise, it will skew the results of the test.
   4. Compare the plans displayed after selecting the Penthouse option to the Penthouse floor plans seen in the results before any filters were selected. If there were any discrepancies, check the following to troubleshoot:
      1. If any plans were missing after selecting the Penthouse filter option, recheck whether the missing plans had the penthouse filter class added to them.
      2. For any missing plans, ensure that the penthouse filter class added to the corresponding Floor Plan records exactly match the "Room Filter Value" added to the "Filters > Room Filters" settings wherever the Custom Filter Option was configured, except for the leading dot/full stop character ("."), which should not be present in the Floor Plan records' custom data.
      3. Ensure that the Custom Filter Option's "Room Filter Value" does have the leading dot/full stop character. Ensure that any other filter classes present also have such a dot, and that there are no spaces between any classes present (if more than one).
      4. If the Custom Filter Option chains multiple filter classes, check that the other classes besides the Penthouse class actually correspond to valid results on the site; for example, if the option matches specifically to three-bedroom penthouses, .3bed.penthouse might be valid, but .3bedrooms.penthouse might not be.
      5. If the Custom Filter Option chains multiple filter classes, check whether any floor plans or units actually match all classes being filtered. For example, .2bed.penthouse might have correct classes for both two bedroom plans and penthouses, but if the only penthouses in the property are all three bedroom plans, then the filter will not return any results.
3. Switch to the Units tab, and repeat steps 2i-2iv, with the exception of 2ii-a & 2ii-b.

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      Displaying unavailable units in Spaces is not possible, so if no Penthouse units are currently available, testing this option on Unit data will not be possible either.

At this point, assuming no anomalies were detected in testing, the new Penthouse filter option will have been successfully added to the site.