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Creating and Managing Advert Types

This guide covers how you can create and manage your Advert Types. You will need to create different Advert Types for the various categories of adverts that you want to allow your members to create.

Your members will need to select an Advert Type within the Student Dashboard, and this will dictate what information they need to submit in order to create their advert, such as images, dates and prices.

Creating an Advert Type

Navigate to the Adverts module within SUMS and click ‘Create Advert Type’. You will need to enter the following information to build your new Advert Type:

  1. Name your Advert Type, e.g. 'Rent a Room'
  2. Select an icon - this icon will appear if you pin an Advert Type to your dashboard
  3. Allow Images - select if you want to allow images to be uploaded for adverts of this type
  4. Require Images - select if you require at least 1 image to be uploaded when an advert of this type is submitted (if this is ticked, ‘Allow Images’ must also be selected)
  5. Auto Approve – tick this if you would like any adverts of this type to be automatically approved and advertised when submitted (if this is not ticket, all advert submitted under this type will require review and approval before they are activated)
  6. Pinned – pin this advert type to show its stats at the top of the Adverts dashboard (this will show the number of new adverts awaiting review and the total number of adverts under this type, at any stage)
  7. Policy – add a URL for a policy or notice that members must agree to before submitting an advert under this type. This will then display similar to the below on the Student Dashboard when a student creates an advert:

Once you are happy with your Advert Type, click 'Submit' to save. You can modify an Advert Type at any point, for example if you wish to enable auto-approval or want to pin a type to your dashboard.

Please note: If you pin a new Advert Type to the dashboard, you will need to select the green refresh icon, or refresh your page, for that type to appear.

Once you have created a new advert type, you will need to add the relevant fields that you would like students to complete when submitting an advert of this type.

Adding fields to an Advert Type

You will now need to add the relevant fields for the content of adverts under this type. These fields will need to be completed when a student submits an advert and this information will be displayed when an advert is live on your website.

Please note: For each Advert Type created, a default ‘Title’ text field will be created that cannot be modified or removed.

  1. Click the blue 'Manage Fields' option alongside the relevant Advert Type
  2. Click ‘Create Advert Field’ and enter/select the following information:
    1. Label - this will be the name of the field
    2. Help Text – add help text if you wish to provide guidance to the user submitting the form
    3. Type – select the type of field you want to create, such as text, checkbox, dropdown etc...
    4. Order – enter an order number for the field (this order number must be unique and will determine the order the fields are displayed to a student when they create their advert)
    5. Required – select if the field needs to be mandatory in order to complete the form
    6. Options – if you are creating a dropdown field type, enter the options for the dropdown here. Simply type the option you wish to add and click the enter key on your keyboard to add it to the list
    7. Minimum and Maximum – if you have selected numeric or currency field types, you can add minimum and maximum values here. For example, if you are asking for the price of a room and you do not allow students to advertise rooms over a certain price, you can add a maximum value members cannot add prices that exceed this value

Click 'Submit' once you are happy with the field you have created.

You can modify or remove a field at any time. However, if you modify a field in any way whilst an advert is live, that field will be removed from the page. For example if you change the name of a field, or a field type.

Modified fields will be displayed correctly to those who create new adverts, but these fields will no longer be displayed on live adverts.

If you remove a field, this will be removed from all live adverts, as well as those pending review, and the information added to that field during creation will no longer be displayed.

Activating an Advert Type

Once you have created your new Advert Type and added all of the relevant fields, you will need to activate the type to allow members to start creating adverts.

Click the green 'Activate' button alongside the relevant type to enable your members to submit adverts under this type.

Deactivating an Advert Type

If needed, you can deactivate an Advert Type down the line if you no longer wish to allow members to submit adverts of this type.

If you deactivate an Advert Type, this will:

  • Deactivate all active adverts under this type, which will no longer show on your website/SU App
  • Hide all adverts under this type from the Student Dashboard
  • Prevent members from submitting any new adverts under this type via the Student Dashboard

You can activate or deactivate an Advert Type as many times as you need, so you don't need to worry about creating a brand new type if you have it deactivated for a period of time and wish to enable it again.

If you reactivate an Advert Type, any adverts that were live at the time of deactivation will still be available, but will not be live. You will need to activate these adverts again if you wish to show them on your website/SU App.

These adverts will reappear to the owners on the Student Dashboard again, so they can reactivate these themselves if they wish.

Reviewing and approving new advert submissions

Once you have created your types, members will be able to submit their proposed adverts via the Student Dashboard.

Take a look at our guidance on reviewing and managing adverts for further information on how to review and approve advert submissions.

Archiving an Advert Type

You can archive an Advert Type if needed.

Simply select the 'Archive' option against the relevant type to archive it. Archiving an advert type will:

  • Deactivate any active adverts under that type from your website/SU App
  • Remove all adverts under that type from the Student Dashboard
  • Remove the type for selection on the Student Dashboard

You will still be able to view all adverts previously submitted under that type within SUMS, but neither the type nor any adverts under that type, will be displayed on the Student Dashboard or your website/ SU App.

You will be unable to unarchive an Advert Type if you archive it.

Updated on 29th May 2025