Property Photos & Floor Plans
Photos, floor plans and video tours are what make a property sell and let. In REDA you manage them through REDA CMS — the content library built into the property record — and the clever part is that the right tag does the work for you: tag a photo as the thumbnail and it appears on search tiles and booking cards automatically, no field-copying by hand. This article shows how to upload media on a property's Marketing tab, how to tag each file with the correct Document Type, which two tags feed the property's image fields, and how to publish an image to the web safely — including the one caveat you must keep in mind about public links. No prior REDA experience is assumed.
Access you'll need. Uploading and managing media files requires the REDA - Content Plus - User add-on permission set. You also need edit access to the property itself, because tagging a file writes to the property's image fields.
What REDA CMS does for property media
REDA CMS is the property's content library — the place its photos, floor plans and videos live, each stored as a file with a little descriptive information attached. What sets it apart from just dropping files onto a record is that REDA reads the label you give a file and acts on it. Tag a photo as the Thumbnail and REDA copies it into the property's thumbnail image, so it shows up on leasing search tiles and booking cards without you touching another field. Tag a drawing as a Floor Plan and it feeds the property's floor-plan image the same way. The tag is the instruction; REDA does the wiring.
The rest of this article is really about two things: choosing the right tag for each file, and — when you want an image on your public website — publishing it safely.
Document Types you can tag
Every file you upload to a property gets a Document Type — the tag that says what the file is. There are nine to choose from:
| Document Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Thumbnail | The lead image — feeds the property's thumbnail on tiles, cards and search. (A "magic" tag — see below.) |
| Floor Plan | The layout drawing — feeds the property's floor-plan image. (The other "magic" tag.) |
| Property External | Exterior shots of the building or unit. |
| Property Internal | Interior shots not covered by a room-specific type. |
| Kitchen | Kitchen photos. |
| Bed | Bedroom photos. |
| Bath | Bathroom photos. |
| Property 360 | 360-degree / panoramic imagery. |
| Video Tour | A walkthrough video of the property. |
Alongside the type, each file can carry a Content Label, a Content Description, and a Sort Order number — display details that let you caption files and control the order they appear in.
Uploading and tagging media
The property upload experience is set up and ready — you don't configure anything first. On the property's Marketing tab:
The two magic tags: Thumbnail and Floor Plan
Two of the nine types do more than label a file — they wire it straight onto the property. Tag a file as Thumbnail and REDA copies that file into the property's thumbnail image, the one used on leasing tiles, booking cards and search results. Tag a file as Floor Plan and it does the same for the property's floor-plan image. And once the file is published to the web (next section), REDA also copies its public link into the matching URL field — Thumbnail Image URL or Floor Plan Image URL.
The wiring runs both ways. Remove the file — delete it, or change its tag away from Thumbnail or Floor Plan — and REDA clears the property field it had filled. So the property's thumbnail always reflects the file currently tagged as the thumbnail; there's nothing stale to clean up.
Publishing to the web
By default your files live inside REDA. To put an image on a public website, you publish it. Each file has a Publish to Web checkbox, and ticking it does three things at once:
Unticking Publish to Web reverses all of it: the public link is withdrawn and the copied URL field on the property is cleared. That's the clean way to take an image off the web.
Worked example: media on Meridian Court #101
On Meridian Court #101, the marketing team uploads three files on the Marketing tab: kitchen.jpg tagged Kitchen, plan-a.png tagged Floor Plan, and hero.jpg tagged Thumbnail. Straight away the property's thumbnail image and floor-plan image pick up hero.jpg and plan-a.png.
To get the hero image onto the public listing, they tick Publish to Web on hero.jpg. REDA generates its public link, opens its sharing, and fills the property's Thumbnail Image URL — the unit's tile now shows the hero photo in leasing search. Later, when the photo is being replaced, they untick Publish to Web; the public link is withdrawn and Thumbnail Image URL clears itself.
Reference: what lands where
Which tag feeds which property field, and when:
| Tag a file as… | On tagging | Once published to web |
|---|---|---|
| Thumbnail | Feeds the property's thumbnail image (tiles, cards, search) | Public link copied to Thumbnail Image URL |
| Floor Plan | Feeds the property's floor-plan image | Public link copied to Floor Plan Image URL |
| Any other type | Held in the property's content library and summary | Public link generated on the file (no property URL field) |
| Untag / delete / unpublish | The matching property field is cleared automatically | |
One more thing worth knowing: the two URL fields are ordinary display URLs, so if you already host an image on your own website you can paste its link straight into Thumbnail Image URL or Floor Plan Image URL instead of uploading and publishing through REDA CMS. Tagging and publishing is simply the built-in path to filling them.
Where to go next
- Finding Properties — where the thumbnail you tag actually shows up.
- Making a Property Available for Leasing — get the unit into leasing search in the first place.
- Making a Property Bookable — booking cards that use the property thumbnail.
- Understanding Properties — the Marketing tab in the context of the whole record.
Frequently asked questions
Only a file tagged Thumbnail populates the tile image. Uploading a photo isn't enough — set its Document Type to Thumbnail, and the property's thumbnail image picks it up.
The URL fields are copied from a published file. If you unpublish that file, delete it, or change its tag away from Thumbnail or Floor Plan, REDA clears the copied URL from the property automatically.
Yes. Publish to Web creates a link that anyone with the URL can open, and it opens the file's sharing to all users. Only publish media you're happy to show the world — never a document with private or sensitive content.
Yes. Thumbnail Image URL and Floor Plan Image URL are ordinary display URLs — you can paste in a link to an image hosted elsewhere and the tiles and cards will use it. Tagging and publishing a file in REDA CMS is just the built-in way to fill those fields.
The property holds a single thumbnail reference, so it shows one image at a time. If you tag and publish another file as Thumbnail, the property's thumbnail follows that file. Think of the tag as choosing which image is the property's face right now.
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