Different form for each category
If your classifieds directory allows listing many types (cars, houses, pets and etc.) of items it is possible you will want to have different fields in the [adverts_add] form (and also maybe in [adverts_list] to allow more accurate search), depending in which category the user intends to post an Ad in.
Create Various Form Schemes
The first thing you need to do is go to wp-admin / Classifieds / Options / Custom Fields panel and create either [adverts_add] or [adverts_list] (or both) forms for a selected category and customize the forms how you see fit.
Repeat this step for each category you would like to have a custom form.
Important note for editing the [adverts_add] forms. The form needs to have the default Category field you cannot trash it. To avoid users changing the category after pre-selecting it, you would need to:
- edit the Category field.
- in the “Fill Method” dropdown select “I will enter options myself“.
- check the “use values” checkbox.
- add an option, in the “text” field enter a title of the category to which this form will be assigned and in the “value” field enter the category ID.
Assign Forms to Categories
The next step is to go to wp-admin / Classifieds / Categories panel edit a category and assign to it previously created forms.
When editing a category you should see two fields
“Form Scheme” you can assign the [adverts_add] form scheme to it by selecting it from the dropdown.
“Form Scheme Search” you can select here a [adverts_list] form scheme, when a user will go to a category page the [adverts_list] shortcode search form will use the assigned search form instead of the default one.
Cascading Form Schemes
The subcategories by default will inherit a form scheme from a parent category, so if your category scheme looks like this
Cars + Audi + A3 + A4 + Ford + ... Boats + ...
and you want the A3 and A4 categories to use the form scheme assigned to the Cars category, then you only need to assign it to the Cars category and the Audi, Ford, A3 and A4 categories will inherit a form scheme from Cars.
Using Form Schemes
To take advantage of the form schemes assigned to categories you can use the [adverts_add] shortcode with the “preselect_category” param like this
[adverts_add preselect_category="1"]
This will force the users visiting the page with [adverts_add] shortcode to first select a category and only then a proper form (assigned to the selected category will load).
An alternative approach is to go to wp-admin / Pages panel and create a new page with [adverts_add] shortcode for each form scheme and then use the shortcode with form_scheme param like this
[adverts_add form_scheme="cars"]
This will load the [adverts_add] with the “cars” form scheme assuming you have a form scheme named “cars” created.