This article describes how to use your IMPress for IDX Broker WordPress Plugin. If you haven’t already installed the plugin, you can find plugin installation instructions here.
Add IDX Widgets to your site
IDX Widgets give you a way to promote your Featured Listings, Agents, and any Custom Links. In addition, you have access to Quick Search forms and several more powerful widgets. Just visit Appearance -> Widgets in WordPress to drag-and-drop IDX Widgets into your theme widget areas.
Using Shortcodes
If you’d like to place IDX Broker widget in other places on your site you can also use shortcodes.
Navigate to the page or post where you would like to place your widget and (in visual mode) select the IDX logo to add a widget.
Choose IDX page links to add to your site
You may create a Custom Menu in WordPress using these pages, or re-order the display of these links under the Pages tab in WordPress.
NOTE: We cannot confirm that more than 500 links will work properly in your WordPress installation, as this may be dependent upon the setup and hosting of your WordPress account.
Considerations
If you received an error when attempting to save your WordPress settings, please verify that you have entered the correct API Key before contacting technical support.
For security reasons, we recommend updating to the latest stable version of PHP your web host provides (a minimum of 5.6). Please contact your host to upgrade your web server if you are using an earlier version. For more information on which versions of PHP receive security updates, see this page from the PHP website.
You can also check these links for some popular hosting services.
If you are using the IMPress for IDX Broker WordPress Plugin, you have the options of using shortcodes to add IDX Broker content on any of your pages or posts. If you don’t yet have it, follow these instructions to install the IMPress for IDX plugin.
In a page or post select the IDX Shortcode button.
A dialog pops up for you to select the content that you would like to add to your post.
While this dialog is up you can select the following IDX content to add to your post.
Links
Add IDX Broker external links to this post.
Widgets
Embed widget content directly into your post.
You can create new widgets in IDX Broker to add to your site via this plugin.
Add an easy property search bar to any page on your site.
Widget – WordPress Omnibar Search
The IMPress for IDX Broker WordPress Plugin includes a popular omnibar search. It can be placed anywhere on your website and allows for a simple search bar to automatically search for properties in your MLS with a single query.
If you don’t yet have it, follow these instructions to install the IMPress for IDX plugin.
The omnibar can be added as a shortcode (via the IDX Button when editing posts or pages) or as a widget to a widget area. Make sure you are using the latest version of the IDX Broker WordPress plugin (2.0+) and hit Refresh Plugin Options button under IMPress -> Initial Settings tab. This will pull in data from your specific account.
Omnibar Settings
There are additional settings to be adjusted by visiting IMPress -> Omnibar Settings in your WordPress Dashboard.
Here you will find the following settings:
City, County, and Postal Code Lists
If you have custom city, county, or postal code lists created in IDX Broker, you can apply those lists to your omnibar by choosing them from the drop downs. If you have yet to create these lists, you can create custom city, county, and postal code lists here.
Property Type
If you want to direct your visitors to a specific property type, say Residential, or Condos, you can set a default property type for your omnibar in this section.
Custom Fields
You no longer need to settle for the core fields like price or city in the omnibar search. Now you can add any additional fields that are available from your MLS. Don’t forget to note what fields are available in the Placeholder text below.
Custom Placeholder
Here is the text that shows up before a visitor starts typing in the box. Tell them what to expect in this field. This is especially helpful if you choose to add additional search criteria.
Add to Your Site
Once you have the settings correct for your Omnibar, you need to add it to your page.
Navigate to the page that you would like to add the Omnibar and add via shortcode by selecting the IMPress for IDX Broker icon or by navigating in WordPress to Appearance -> Widgets and dragging your Omnibar widget to the location you would have it appear.
Omnibar FAQ
Why do Address and Listing ID not display in the autocomplete dropdown?
There is currently no way to check for street names or listing IDs on the fly, but it will still pull a proper search if the query is correct.
What about other fields such as Price, Bedroom, Bathroom, etc?
There is a second Omnibar widget available in WordPress called Omnibar With Extra Fields. This has Max Price, Beds, and Baths fields.
How does the omnibar work?
It pulls Cities, Counties, and Postal Codes via the API when the “Refresh Plugin Options” button is hit. It then writes these to a file. The omnibar on the front end checks if the input matches city, county, or postal code, then checks for spaces. If there are no spaces, it runs a listingID search. If there are spaces, it checks for numbers. If there are numbers, it runs an address search with number and street name. No numbers, runs a search for street name.
Can I add this to my non-WordPress website?
Not at this time, but we have developer partners who may be interested in creating a custom search for you. Find a developer, or send a request to developers@idxbroker.com.
Considerations
My cities, counties, and postal codes are not updating when I hit the Refresh Plugin Options button. How do I get them to update?
Cities, Counties, and Postal codes are stored in a JSON file after hitting Refresh Plugin Options. Confirm that your web server has permissions to write to JSON files. Your website host should be able to confirm this.
When I click search, the page refreshes instead of a search being performed.
This can happen if you’ve added custom fields that are already defaults for the OmniBar.
Login to your WordPress admin
Go to IDX IMPress -> Omnibar Settings
If you see any of the fields (City, County, Postal Code, Address, or Listing ID) in the Custom Fields section, remove those items and save changes.
For more information about the IMPress for IDX Broker plugin, read this article.
Dynamic Wrappers
Automatically Create WordPress Dynamic Wrapper
The IMPress for IDX Broker WordPress plugin has the ability to automatically create a dynamic wrapper for you. To create a dynamic wrapper, make sure you have the latest version of the IMPress plugin installed.
If you don’t yet have it, follow these instructions to install the IMPress for IDX plugin.
Step 1 – Settings
On your WordPress Dashboard go to IMPress and select Initial Settings to view the plugin options.
Step 2 – Create Your Dynamic Wrapper
Under the API key entry you will find the dynamic wrapper creation setting field.
Here you can specify a name for dynamic wrapper. Please keep in mind the name of your dynamic wrapper may be used in the title tag on your wrapped IDX Broker pages. After entering a name and clicking the create button you will see the space populate with your dynamic wrapper URL.
Step 3 – Assign the Wrapper
Once the wrapper is made, it goes into the IMPress Wrappers section of your Dashboard. Here you can see all of the dynamic wrappers that you have created. To use one, edit the post and select upon what page you would like to apply this wrapper.
Posts, not Pages
We use a custom post type to automatically create wrappers within WordPress.
The Wrapper custom post type has many advantages such as:
Keeping wrappers separate from regular pages, thus preventing them from getting accidentally deleted.
Including No Index, No Follow tags so the IDX Pages are indexed, not the wrappers.
Can be applied directly to a specific IDX page from within WP without having to visit Middleware.
Has several default styles applied such as removing the post title, timestamp, and pagination for many popular themes.
The default wrapper simply requires a name and to hit the create button on the Initial Settings page.
To modify the name of this post simply return to the settings tab in the IMPress plugin options and choose the Settings tab. Edit the existing name and click update.
To make an existing page or post a wrapper, you can add a shortcode from the plugin. Just select the IDX wrapper tags to insert.
You are still able to create Dynamic Wrapper pages outside of the IMPress plugin by pasting in our start and stop HTML tags into a WordPress page or by using the [idx-wrapper-tags] shortcode.
Should you experience any issues with your Dynamic Wrapper pages please follow the wrapper troubleshooting tips before contacting support.
Note: The source page for your Dynamic Wrapper must be published and live in order for our system to recognize it and use this to wrap your IDX pages.
Dynamic Wrapper Setup
The Dynamic Wrapper will eliminate the need to regularly update your IDX wrapper whenever you make a change to your website. The Dynamic Wrapper keeps your IDX pages up-to-date so that they always match the rest of your website design. This is especially useful if you make frequent changes your site, or if you have a “Recent Posts” widget in the sidebar, or a date on the website that needs to always reflect today’s date.
If you are using WordPress and wish to have a dynamic wrapper, please read this article.
NOTE: Any CMS that uses absolute links in the source code and includes header and footer content dynamically can use the Dynamic Wrapper.
Your wrapper settings are stored in your IDX account under Designs in the main menu, and Wrappers in the submenu.
Step 1 – Create the template
Create a new Page in your website. Title the page with something that will be appropriate for all your IDX pages. Do NOT add this new page to your navigation menu.
Step 2 – Add the Start/Stop tags
Paste the following code into the body of this new page (make sure you’re using the “Text” (HTML) view and not “Visual” view):
If your site is built using Squarespace, you may use code-blocks in which to place the Start/Stop tags. Follow their instructions to use the Squarespace code-blocks.
Save and publish your changes. View your new page in a browser. If no changes are needed, copy the URL of your new page from the address bar.
Step 3 – Save in the Control Panel
In the IDX control panel navigate to Designs -> Wrappers. Choose which wrapper you would like to edit (Global, Categories, Pages, or Saved Links), and choose Dynamic as the type of wrapper.
