Hello,

Looking to do a Drupal based Real Estate that searches and displays MLS real estate listings from an IDX database from the local board of realtors. There seems to be only slim interest and community in doing this via Drupal but there are few brave souls who have ventured down this path.

Has this worked for you who have tried this? How well is it working? What are the pitfalls or shortcomings?

Comments

jerry’s picture

jerry commented

Things are pretty quiet here in the PIRETS issue queue. I have it mostly working with a Rapattoni RETS server, but setup was tricky and I'm having continuing problems with updating/purging the database via cron. (And yes, I'm running cron via drush.)

Does your local board of Realtors provide a RETS interface? If they're just offering an IDX feed, PIRETS (and its fork, dRealty) won't work for you. There's an older D5 MLS module that has IDX feed parsing capabilities, but it hasn't been ported to D6/D7 and likely won't be.

Garrett Albright’s picture

Garrett Albright commented

The project is effectively in limbo. I don't currently work for Precision Intermedia (the PI in PIRETS) anymore, and am really not interested enough in the joy of RETS to work on the project on my own.

I've occasionally had people asking me how much it would cost for me to write a D7 port of PIRETS, but I wouldn't want to do a straight port; I'd want to fix some lingering issues in the process (like allowing the module to subscribe to and combine listings from more than one RETS feed). Generally, after I give them an estimate number, I never hear from them again.

So nobody wants to pay for PIRETS work, and I don't want to do it for free, and nobody else seems to want to co-develop this. Limbo.

windtrader’s picture

windtrader commented

Thanks for the replies and sorry for the delayed response. I did not see your replies.

I am still in the active research phase of this project so I am trilled to see a few responses. I did call PI a couple weeks back and they were very helpful, also mentioning and maybe even recommended dReality as it was more or less PIRETS reborn, to which you seem to confirm here.

Unfortunately, there is very little activity, like zero, response from dReality thread, reinforcing the relative lack of interest or use of Drupal for realty sites which just seems very odd. And your comment that nobody has been willing to invest cash to the cause makes me wonder again why this solution seems to not have gained much traction.

So, are there other ways to get MLS data accessible to Drupal that work better overall?

Fortunately, both sources support RETS so both PIRETS and dReality are viable bases. Initially, we really just need to be able to pull the listings from the board's MLS system via RETS, load into Drupal and have Drupal be able to search and display the data.

We do need listings from different MLS systems, so the capability to grab from multiple listings would be great but not essential in the first release.

Russell Mann’s picture

Russell Mann commented

Jerry, I've done some non-drupal coding with the Rapattoni data set. It was a few years ago, and pre-RETS. What a nightmare :) I like how they'd just add on fields to the end of the db at will.

Soon I'm going to be working in this space in Drupal-land, let's keep in touch.

jerry’s picture

jerry commented

Good to hear. I hope that you can use PIRETS or dRealty as a basis for the work, and help push one of them forward.

Garrett Albright’s picture

Garrett Albright commented

windtracker, you seem to be disappointed there's not more interest in Drupal and RETS integration, but how do you think that interest manifests? Or interest in having Drupal do anything, for that matter? Often it's altruism, yes, or some coders somewhere are just having fun, since Drupal can be fun. However. RETS is not fun. RETS is a pain in the ass. So really, the only way that you can expect stuff to be done in this regard is for some motivation to be manifested in the form of mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmoney.

Sorry if this makes me sound like a capitalist pig… Well, actually, not sorry at all, since I am a capitalist pig. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you expect improved Drupal/RETS integration to happen when nobody anywhere is willing to pay for it, you're going to be waiting for a long, long time.

Russell Mann’s picture

Russell Mann commented

Nice one Garrett. I figure my end will be funded by projects that I book :)

Garrett, you're probably the best person to answer this, what are the threads of RETS development in play right now? I'd like to bring them together and put some horsepower behind it from my end. I'm fairly new to the Drupal community so I'm looking for guidance on the best way to move something forward, best starting point, etc.

webavant’s picture

webavant commented

Garrett,

I was hoping you would set up a Kickstarter project, or something. If you can't find a single sponsor to fun something may end up being widely used for free, why not open up the funding to the community?

Russell Mann’s picture

Russell Mann commented

Kickstarter isn't a bad idea!

Garrett Albright’s picture

Garrett Albright commented

Russell, I'm not sure what you mean by "threads of RETS development." Do you mean, "who's working on RETS/Drupal integration right now?" If so, I don't know of anything in particular, but I suggest you join the Real Estate group on g.d.o if you want to see what others are working on in this space.

As for Kickstarter, I'm not sure what I'd do in terms of the donation levels and such.

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
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Issue summary: View changes
Status: Active » Fixed

I am closing this issue, as it got an answer.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed - issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.