RETS --> mySQL or Query RETS directly? (if so, how?)

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RETS --> mySQL or Query RETS directly? (if so, how?)

Posted by Michael Evangelista on 17 November 2007 at 1:12am in CF Real Estate Apps

Perfect timing on this site, and this group... hopeful someone here can help me get headed in the righ direction with a new project.

I have done a number of real estate related sites and built several automated mls-import applications, but have not had experience with RETS... until now. A client in another part of the state wants me to add the full local MLS to their site - their MLS belongs to a national service of some kind that offers RETS data for free, or a txt version of the same data for a yearly fee.

I have done a number of sites using csv text files and cfftp , reading the txt data into a mysql database once every night, then running my site from there, and I'm pretty sure this one would be just as straightforward. However, the client would like to save the setup fee and I'd like to know more about RETS. So...

I'm asking for suggestions - should I be looking to read the RETS data into a database just like I do with the txt-based apps, or would be more worthwhile to query the RETS server directly (leaving me at the mercy of that host/server's limits, uptime, etc) ? If the latter, what is the best first step? This site is on a windows host, and the backbone / client can be php or CF - however the display pages and the rest of the client site is all CF.

Beyond the basic understanding that RETS is some type of XML format, I am pretty much clueless... can CF 'speak' to RETS directly?

I have a login account for the RETS server - I checked it out quickly, looks like it takes me to an XML transaction page - not actual XML listing data, obviously something intended to be parsed by the RETS client. (... yeah... then what?... )

side note: the CFcommunity page with Tom's post about starting this group came up #2 in google for "RETS Coldfusion" ... does that mean CFC.org is intensely spidered, or just that there isn't much else out there on the subject?!?

Thanks for reading this long post..

Tags: cf, estate, listings, mls, real, realty, rets

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom Butler on 19 November 2007 at 8:59pm: Hey Michael,

I would definitely import the data into your database rather than trying to query the RETS server in real-time. The first RETS server i've dealt with has been very tempermental and we've had to build very robust error handling into our app to make sure the server is awake, returns valid data, etc. I would implement your RETS client similar as your text file parser, you're just accessing the data in a different way and receiving it in a different format.

Depending on the version of RETS the server uses, you should be able to pull either XML or compact delimited data. We had problems trying to pull large datasets in XML (malformed XML) so we ended up using the compact format which seems to work fine. We did build our client as a .NET application, but Coldfusion should be able to eat it for lunch. There are a bunch of RETS clients & libraries that have been developed in a variety of languages, you might check those out before rolling your own.

http://wiki.rets.org/wiki/Client_Applications_or_Libraries

I'm still a RETS newb myself, but I hope this helps some.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Evangelista on 20 November 2007 at 8:15am: Hi Tom - thanks for the reply.
I am much more comfortable with the 'get it in the database quick' route - your experience with the moody rets server confirms that path.
And if you are a RETS newb, I am not even born yet ;-)

Can you point me to a reliable source, CF or otherwise, for getting the 'compact delimited' data format you mention?
All but one of my current MLS-connected websites uses data in CSV format from the MLS company, which then gets read into a mysql database with CF. It'd be great if I could get the same from RETS.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Seth Johnson on 4 February 2008 at 4:52pm: I found a function on Experts Exchange that attempts to login to a RETS server, but it did not work for me. Did you get any further? http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/Web_Server...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Evangelista on 4 February 2008 at 5:27pm: That's funny... did you notice that was me asking the question on EE?
I didn't end up with a simple solution, client opted to pay for a tab-delimited text file rather than pay me to sort out RETS
(the company offers it, but isn't very helpful ... and in my experience, every other MLS I have dealt with offers that txt data feed for free... but whatever... it'll work!)

Overall... I think we (meaning a few of us savvy CF-biz folks) could kick some a$$ on the MLS world. So many of these little local systems are horribly designed, sloppily maintained, and almost entirely unsupported by the 'support staff' in charge.
I would be seriously interested in venturing down that path if anybody cares to discuss the idea further.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Seth Johnson on 4 February 2008 at 6:16pm: I actually had not noticed that was you, how ironic . . . We currently have a text feed, but it is only updated daily. It would be nice to update the info throughout the day. I think you are right about the state of the MLS, most of them seem to be 10-15 years behind everyone else.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Evangelista on 27 March 2008 at 2:29pm: so in the end, i decided to go with the txt file rather than RETS.
The company was short on support and the reading of delimited data into the database is familiar territory... now working great at www.river-realty.net

ps - I learned something new along the way. Rather than using a csv-to-query function, I call the txt file directly with cfhttp , which, to my amazement, turns the csv file into a query object - and fast!; ▶ Reply to This