Troy Davisson: January 2008 Archives
First video. Brief introduction into communicating with a RETS server. Includes a basic overview of HTTP and XML, and an example RETS session.
If you have any feedback for future audio or video pieces you'd like to see made, please let me know. I'm always looking for new ideas.
If you have any feedback for future audio or video pieces you'd like to see made, please let me know. I'm always looking for new ideas.
Back about 2 months ago, I mentioned that we were looking at migrating some of our heavy email users over to Google Apps. So far, we've moved 2 large domains over to Google's service (a client with a lot of forwarders and our own company domain). Last week, we met with another company that we hope to get migrated soon. With this last domain changed over, I think we'll finally be back to "normal" when it comes to email operations. Eventually, it'd probably be ideal to have everyone using Google's hosted email service but for now, just having these 3 accounts over will be a huge improvement.
During that meeting last week, I was struck by a question that was asked.
"What all would change for our users in order for them to check their email?"
Because we've answered dozens of calls and emails from this company about email troubleshooting, we're very aware that everyone in the office checks email via Outlook (either Express or 2003).
The answer: "Nothing. We host our email in a standard format the same way that Google does. All we need to do is change a few fields one time within Outlook to point Outlook to Google instead of us and they're set. Everything functions the same from that point on."
It seemed so simple. It's something that I've often lost sight of. Running a POP3 server for email makes it so users can use Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird, Blackberry, Opera Mail, etc. since they all work with POP3. You don't even question anymore if your email client (or email service) supports POP3. You just assume they do.
RETS, the Real Estate Transaction Standard, is the standard method used for clients and servers to talk to each other to exchange real estate data. If you have a RETS program, you access a RETS server and get what you need. That's what RETS does.
Right now, the interchangeability of RETS isn't totally there yet. Various implementations of RETS can cause issues from client to client. Various RETS workgroups are working on solidifying standards so that everyone plays by the same rules. It's hard to believe that a 150 page PDF document can have holes and remaining questions, but it does. They aren't major ones and are often easily identifiable and fixable to make it work but its hard to get something to work on the first try right out of the box.
To anyone using RETS or thinking about using RETS, follow the standard. It doesn't do any good for you to implement a POP3 server for email that requires special, unique authentication from a client because, chances are, programs won't be able to do it and people can't get their email. The advantage of investing time in implementing a standard is that it can be used as a standard and not just another crazy upgrade.
If you're an MLS with an IDX feed upgrading from FTP to RETS, I encourage you to follow the standard and implement what the standard defines. If you have extra business needs or requirements, please share those with the RETS community so those types of things can be implemented in the standard. If you decide that you aren't going to use DMQL for your queries, there won't be any RETS-compliant clients that can use your system out-of-the-box, so what's the point? Your custom server would require someone to write a custom client which involves huge time and cost investments and would require a LOT more support from your technical staff.
Compare it to email. In the near future, an agent will be able to access the MLS's data using a front-end program of their choice that gives them the features they're interested in. I like the features of Outlook. Maybe you like the features of Thunderbird more. Why should you be forced to use Outlook and why should I be forced to use Thunderbird? Maybe you're looking for a complete solution with a lot of features and I just want a simple way to search for property data for my clients.
It's an exciting time to be involved during a big change in this industry. NAR's sponsorship of RETS along with the support and services already offered by most of the major MLS vendor companies shows that it's only a matter of time.
The RETS meeting in Chicago last month opened my eyes even more to the overall picture of RETS and it's potential. Even weeks later, I'm still trying to digest a lot of the information shared and discussed. As time goes on, I'll post more and more of my thoughts of the trip.
One thing I do know is that the train ride was an experience. First time on a train (the train from Indianapolis to Chicago was changed to a bus ride so a train was only involved on the return trip) was interesting. About 5 and a half hours of Indiana countryside.
During that meeting last week, I was struck by a question that was asked.
"What all would change for our users in order for them to check their email?"
Because we've answered dozens of calls and emails from this company about email troubleshooting, we're very aware that everyone in the office checks email via Outlook (either Express or 2003).
The answer: "Nothing. We host our email in a standard format the same way that Google does. All we need to do is change a few fields one time within Outlook to point Outlook to Google instead of us and they're set. Everything functions the same from that point on."
It seemed so simple. It's something that I've often lost sight of. Running a POP3 server for email makes it so users can use Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird, Blackberry, Opera Mail, etc. since they all work with POP3. You don't even question anymore if your email client (or email service) supports POP3. You just assume they do.
RETS, the Real Estate Transaction Standard, is the standard method used for clients and servers to talk to each other to exchange real estate data. If you have a RETS program, you access a RETS server and get what you need. That's what RETS does.
Right now, the interchangeability of RETS isn't totally there yet. Various implementations of RETS can cause issues from client to client. Various RETS workgroups are working on solidifying standards so that everyone plays by the same rules. It's hard to believe that a 150 page PDF document can have holes and remaining questions, but it does. They aren't major ones and are often easily identifiable and fixable to make it work but its hard to get something to work on the first try right out of the box.
To anyone using RETS or thinking about using RETS, follow the standard. It doesn't do any good for you to implement a POP3 server for email that requires special, unique authentication from a client because, chances are, programs won't be able to do it and people can't get their email. The advantage of investing time in implementing a standard is that it can be used as a standard and not just another crazy upgrade.
If you're an MLS with an IDX feed upgrading from FTP to RETS, I encourage you to follow the standard and implement what the standard defines. If you have extra business needs or requirements, please share those with the RETS community so those types of things can be implemented in the standard. If you decide that you aren't going to use DMQL for your queries, there won't be any RETS-compliant clients that can use your system out-of-the-box, so what's the point? Your custom server would require someone to write a custom client which involves huge time and cost investments and would require a LOT more support from your technical staff.
Compare it to email. In the near future, an agent will be able to access the MLS's data using a front-end program of their choice that gives them the features they're interested in. I like the features of Outlook. Maybe you like the features of Thunderbird more. Why should you be forced to use Outlook and why should I be forced to use Thunderbird? Maybe you're looking for a complete solution with a lot of features and I just want a simple way to search for property data for my clients.
It's an exciting time to be involved during a big change in this industry. NAR's sponsorship of RETS along with the support and services already offered by most of the major MLS vendor companies shows that it's only a matter of time.
The RETS meeting in Chicago last month opened my eyes even more to the overall picture of RETS and it's potential. Even weeks later, I'm still trying to digest a lot of the information shared and discussed. As time goes on, I'll post more and more of my thoughts of the trip.
One thing I do know is that the train ride was an experience. First time on a train (the train from Indianapolis to Chicago was changed to a bus ride so a train was only involved on the return trip) was interesting. About 5 and a half hours of Indiana countryside.
Brief overview of the business cases for RETS and what advantages it offers from an IDX services perspective.
If you can think of other advantages that I missed, please post it in the comments for others to see.
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If you can think of other advantages that I missed, please post it in the comments for others to see.
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First audio piece of the series. Ignore the mention of video towards the beginning. I haven't gotten that far yet. Please post any comments or feedback.
Technical Introduction to RETS (my perspective)
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Technical Introduction to RETS (my perspective)
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I hope these are found to be useful. They don't take long to make but I think they're good information pieces for people interested in the topics. I'll keep adding these as they're created. The first 2 I've done are simply audio pieces (the first one mentions a video but I haven't gotten that far yet) but some of the future ones will probably be videos to help visualize what I'm talking about.
Hope you enjoy. If you have any comments or feedback, please post.
Hope you enjoy. If you have any comments or feedback, please post.
