Photos

Flag a unit for a shoot, upload the gallery, and let archived sets keep history clean.

Last updated: 2026-05-10

Photos in Urbero are tied to a unit. Each unit has a gallery on its detail page, a cover photo, and an optional "needs photos" flag that drops it into the photographer's queue.

What "flagged for photos" means

A unit shows up in a photographer's queue only when someone has toggled the needs_photos flag on it. The toggle is intentional: an admin or agent flags a unit when they want a professional shoot. It is not how you record routine agent snapshots — agents who edit photos themselves just upload, no flag needed.

Treat the flag as a request for the photographer to come on-site and the queue stays meaningful.

Photographer queue

Photographers see a queue of flagged units as their home page. Each card shows:

• The building name and address.
• The unit label (apartment number).
• The shoot type the requester asked for (if specified).
• A direct link into the unit's upload area.

Cards drop off the queue automatically once the needs_photos flag is cleared.

Why this matters

Photographers should look at one screen and know exactly where to be, what to shoot, and what's done. No spreadsheet, no group chat archaeology.

Uploading photos

Same flow whether you're a photographer working the queue or an agent attaching a quick shot.

1. Open the unit detail page (or click a queue card).
2. Scroll to the Photos section.
3. Drag photos in or click Upload and pick files.
4. Tag each photo with a shoot type: listing (the marketing set), appraisal, inspection, or other (escape hatch).
5. Reorder by dragging. The first photo is the cover — what shows up in hover previews, lists, and exports.
6. Add a caption on any photo (optional).

After upload, a thumbnail is generated in the background so previews stay fast — the original is available immediately.

Where photos surface beyond the gallery

A unit's cover photo appears in several other places automatically:

• The Inventory table (/inventory): hover the camera icon to see the first three photos.
• The units list (/units): a hover preview shows the cover.
• Comp reports and exports use the cover for any unit they reference.

Uploading a photo and giving it order 1 is enough — no extra setup.

Marking a shoot done

When the photographer has finished:

1. Open the unit detail page.
2. Find the needs_photos toggle (near the photo section header).
3. Switch it off.

The unit drops off the photographer queue immediately. The photos themselves stay on the unit — clearing the flag only retires the shoot request.

Re-vacate auto-archive

When a unit re-vacates — status flips back to vacant because the tenancy ended — the photos for the prior tenancy archive automatically.

• Photos are not deleted. The records stay, the files stay.
• They're hidden by default so the next tenancy starts visually clean.
• A Show archived toggle on the photos card brings the old set back whenever you need them — for example, to reuse a good interior shot.

Why this matters

Without archiving, a re-let unit's gallery accumulates years of mixed-era photos. Archiving keeps the active set tight without forcing anyone to delete history.

Permissions at a glance

Photographers can't edit anything else — rent, status, leases, comments are all off-limits. The role exists so a photo contractor can be added without giving them the rest of the CRM.

Related

• Photographer role — the day-in-the-life view.
• Units — where the photos section lives.