WordPress 2.5 Real Estate Listings Plugin

Posted on February 19, 2008
Filed Under Products | Leave a Comment

WordPress 2.5 Release Date Is Fast Approaching

With WordPress 2.5 being released just weeks from now, we installed an SVN version to examine compatibility with this plug-in required only a single change. But having the release of 2.5 so close, why not just brand this for 2.5?

Since WordPress 2.5 is not likely to require modification to templates, we feel people will likely upgrade anyway. Because of this we know based on todays testing that the plug-in will be released for 2.5 and should have no problems working as far back as 2.2 even though we are going to publish it as being required that you have version 2.5 Just a branding thing to make it look brand new and in pace with the latest release of WP 2.5

VieleRets IDX RETS MLS WordPress Real Estate Listings

Oh yeah, did I mention that if you have a site that uses vieleRets or any number of RETS IDX solutions with Open Realty that those listings can go right into your WordPress blog? Yep! We tested today with the demo RETS data from Realtor.org using vieleRETS 1.5 (not 1.6 as of yet) and it works flawlessly.

If you are using any flavor of the current MLS import tools into your Open Realty site then as long as you have agents who are active, listings with City, State, and Classes then this plug-in works fine. Yes the listings still need to be "Featured" in order to work correctly.

Open Realty Products Announced

Posted on February 17, 2008
Filed Under Code Snippets, Products | Leave a Comment

FREE Plug-ins - Add-ons for Open Realty

Google Maps, CSV loader and Flash Slide-Show for Open Realty are going to be included in the upcoming release of the new templates. After the release of version 2.5 of Open Realty, all the designs I have harbored will be released free of charge. On the horizon is also the Open Realty Add-On for custom forms which will feature an authentication method called "Session Token". This FREE Add-On will work on any page published in Open Realty and will be fully customizable in similar fashion to the custom fields feature in Open Realty.

Available now commercially is the Dynamic FLASH Slide Show for listing details pages that replaces the java-script method. The price is $24.95 and can display listings photos by a multitude of different transition effects. Fades, wipes, scrolls, and more.

Also currently available is the google maps feature for listings details pages. This is currently a commercial item for $19.95 and will eventually be included in any commercial template being offered. A scaled down drop in version as mentioned above will be made available for free.

Open Realty WordPress Registration Bridge

Posted on February 17, 2008
Filed Under Products | 1 Comment

Simultaneously Add Registrations to WordPress and Open Realty

After completing the Listings Plugin, I decided to take a look at the option of having user registrations in WordPress simultaneously add user registrations to Open Realty by creating a new registration module that can be published internally in either a post or page or even sidebar.

The idea is to have people register to your WordPress blog as the primary location for interaction with your Real Estate site and then have that registration be added to the Open Realty DB via a simple bridge so registrants can save searches and take advantage of other registration benefits you present in your listings manager.

Currently this is a drop in snippet and must be configured by hand but after I get enough feedback on the other FREE WP Plugins, this one will be added to the list of FREEBIES. You can see this plugin in action later in the week and naturally you can still request to be a beta tester for the Listings Plugin.

Open Realty WP Plugin Complete!

Posted on February 15, 2008
Filed Under Products | Leave a Comment

WordPress Real Estate Listings - MLS - IDX - RETS

The real estate listings plugin is now complete and is being beta tested on my other domain. I’m going to wrap it up next week and then package it with two or three templates I have in inventory for those interested in using it. I’m testing it at this point with the imported MLS IDX and RETS for the Portland area.

The plugin was first introduced HERE! as a replacement for the previous attempt by creating a mini application inside of WordPress which proved to be just a daunting and pointless task. But after we talked to dozens of people who beta tested the first version many things were discovered. Of those Realtors we spoke with, the majority said they only want to put listings in WordPress so they can use it for SEO purposes for their agency opens and or their MLS listings from their office. Given WordPress is used by so many Realtors to optimize their sites, the ability to add real estate listings enhances the potential of WordPress as a search engine friendly CMS or blog.

WordPress Real Estate Plug-in is 100% FREE!

Whats next in this tool is to provide a way for custom forms to be applied to the listings and to provide a way to add a PDF file and possibly video slide show. After talking with many Realtors we realize that the way they are marketing properties in recent months is by providing pre-defined search forms embedded within the their content. So we have added on my demo a manual way to add search forms by creating a simple JavaScript form generator for Open Realty that is literally as easy as point and click. Now we will soon have a way to provide a Realtor with the ability to write on a community development or a local employer and provide a predefined search form for listings specifically geared to those criteria INSIDE WORDPRESS.

Open Realty Featured Listings Offsite Anywhere

Posted on February 12, 2008
Filed Under Products | Leave a Comment

Featured Listings Anywhere v2.0

Version 2.0 of this snippet was updated to provide end users an easy to configure solution for adding featured listings to applications like WordPress, Joomla, vBulletin or other applications by using a pair of simple php inclusions to display the listings.

The framework for this code snippet was designed as part of our FREE WordPress Real Estate Listings Plug-in do out by months end. What I did was have my coder remove the primary set of functions used to display the custom featured listings in WordPress and create a simple solution for displaying Open Realty featured listings on external locations. Some of the basic features include the display of featured listings based on Class, AgentID (perfect for sites that have agent blogs as well as open realty) City, State and soon by zip code among other things.

I like the word framework because it implies that it can be built upon which is exactly why it was carefully planned for so we could easily adapt it for use in four subsequent tools pending release that will use this framework to achieve different things. My concern very early on was this; If I’m spending the money to pay Mark to code these FREE snippets, I need to maximize their potential and avoid running into a mishap of subsequent releases of Open Realty breaking the addons. The solution to prevent this was simple in my eyes. Don’t depend on Open Realty, just the data in the data base and step outside of the Open Realty addon system, so, he did just that. These tools do not require Open Realty to maintain backwards compliant for addon support and at current version, we have tested with various versions of Open Realty as far back as version 2.1 with a clean bill of health. Naturally older versions did not have the CLASS feature, so modifications using listing type also worked well.

The Framework basically gives us the ability to make our WordPress plugin ( A FREEBIE ) and other snippet additions to work without a great deal of change needed to the code. This means that the code thats rendering the featured listings on external sites is the same code (for the most part) that makes The Flash Image Rotator, The Page Flip, our PDF Brochure Generator, Our Google Maps, and the future Flash Virtual Tour to work efficiently OUTSIDE of the addon system. I have long wanted to scrap the use of the JAVA tour feature in Open Realty largely because no one uses JAVA in their browsers and with our new FLASH VIRTUAL TOUR that addon achieves better and cleaner cross compliant control for everyone in hopes that it will encourage tours to become the norm.

Although those items that are currently setup as addons will be sold at $5, most of these snippets will be freeware like the much needed PDF Brochure Generator in Open Realty. The sale of the addons is a sort of forced donation-ware to help me offset the costs associated with paying Mark to do these.

A developer package is also available NOW and includes an unlimited site license among other things for many of the addons mentioned above.

To order the V2.0 of Open Realty Featured Anywhere visit the products page.

Open Realty WordPress Listings Plugin

Posted on February 11, 2008
Filed Under Products, Real Estate Websites | 7 Comments

Real Estate Listings Plugin - WordPress - ReEvaluated

10 months ago I commissioned a programmer to complete a plugin for use in WordPress that would offer some basic listing management features for Realtors that use WordPress as their primary CMS. Successfully, yet unfortunately more expensive than I had wanted to spend, we were able to get the plugin to work pretty effectively. After several beta versions and much discussion among Realtors that financed the plugin, it became painfully obvious that the list of features could continue to grow to a point that the burden and performance concerns related to WordPress would prove counter productive. Mind you, WordPress is fully capable of handling an insane amount of usage and traffic, but the heavier you make the application by packing it with plugins and hacks the slower it becomes. I needed to avoid this at all costs knowing what I know about servers, as I own several for Realtor hosting. So what next? Well first lets go off track and off subject then lets come back to the subject to better articulate why this change in the WordPress listings manager has taken place.

Joomla 1.5 Finally Released

Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under Products | Leave a Comment

Joomla 1.5 stable enough to call a full release!

Joomla announces that the release of the much anticipated full stable version 1.5 is now available for download. Although planned for by literally tens of thousands of developers and designers, many professionals, including myself have held off on our developments with great anticipation and a little apprehension before forging forward. This release although greatly anticipated as the cutting edge solution for professional web design and development, many experts believe that Joomla 1.5 will take considerable time to propagate throughout the web when compared to previous releases. This is mostly due to two primary factors; The very lofty plug-in component inventory for Joomla 1.0+ which may take time to see transitions to 1.5 and the current level of available documentation and member interaction about Joomla 1.5 in the forums. Although Joomla 1.5 is a hot topic, the general attitude throughout has been “lets see what happens with the stable release first”.

Here in our own camp; comprised mostly of those who use CMS in commerce and Real Estate solutions, have been watching the progress of Joomla very patiently. The much anticipated release now provides us with a viable product in which to examine in depth as we compare it to a long list of promised changes and the even longer list of speculated changes for a more accurate assessment of Joomla. Thats of course great news, and now that this release is finally available we can move forward with the release of the Joomla 1.5 Rapid Template Design Series scheduled for sale February 20th as mentioned in dozens of places throughout the web.

Joomla 1.5 Templates and Joomla Template Design

This release of Joomla will likely set the standard for all other CMS solutions to follow considering the global appeal and adoption of CMS solutions in recent years.Â Joomla has been on the forefront of CMS solutions chosen by professionals who depend on a reliable code base for mission critical websites on a global scale.Â Since the beginning of the CMS trend, Joomla (and its predecessor Mambo)Â have been the #1 choice for designers and developers in part because of the management and publishing structure used by Joomla along with the exhaustive amount of resources produced by third party vendors around the world.

With templates being easily built and readily available, free in most cases, Joomla 1.5 in my professional opinion will experience a higher rate of growth in the area of templateÂ design above all else.Â Although it appears that there is exhaustive mention of updating plugin components to work with 1.5 natively, the time frame in which these enhancement products become available may prove to be slow at first as I mentioned the anticipation of a final product has held off many from completing their updates.Â Because of the initial anticipated rapid growth of templates and template design tools, I have put my own product into high gear for an early release.Â The Rapid Template Design Series will benefit professional as well as students of design greatly in providing solutions for building truly impressive designs in a market that appears to have no end.

Contact me directly for information on early release versions of the Joomla RTDS.

Open Realty and Joomla RTDS Available

Posted on November 24, 2007
Filed Under Products, Real Estate News, Template Design Kit | 3 Comments

Joomla Template Design Kit Now Available

I finished the final edits to the Dreamweaver Extension for Joomla template building. Granted this is a bit late considering that version 1.5 is on our heels but this product has sat in limbo for the better part of three years now. My original Mambo Dreamweaver Extension which I released back in 2003 was downloaded about 3,500 times and since that time I’ve seen several variants spring up here and there I’ve been asked to customize for clients. Naturally my template design tools branded under the RTDS simply because that was my intended objective. However today while doing a Google search I was surprised to find that there are in fact two or three other Dreamweaver Extensions on the market for Joomla template building. I’m just surprised I’d never noticed them before. That prompted me to be a bit more motivated in wrapping up version 1.0.12+ so I could quickly update and finalize the 1.5+ version.

Initially, the idea is to release this version which you can download in the Downloads section today, and then release the enhanced version that includes parts and sections of the full blown RTDS which will be available on TemplateDesignKit.com after the first of the year. I’m not going to disclose what is available in the kit at this time. None the less go ahead and download the free version today and tell me what you think

Open Realty Template Design Kit Now Available

I’ve completed the final tests on the Open Realty template design extension, having tested it in Version 9 and CS3 of Dreamweaver. This extension simply wont work in older versions such as DWMX or prior. This extension features all the necessary coding generators “Wizards” necessary to build a standards compliant XHTML / CSS design and was specifically updated to accommodate version 2.4.3 and 2.5 of Open Realty.

As with the other Dreamweaver Extensions, this one had originally been intended for the RTDS as a package item when I came to the conclusion that delays in the project are such that these tools could outlive their usefulness if I don’t make them available. Download this extension as well from the download section and tell me if you encounter any issues.

Itronix Rugged Laptop Driver Software

Posted on November 22, 2007
Filed Under Products | 23 Comments

General Dynamics Itronix Rugged Computers - eBay - Sofware

Itronix Rugged Laptop Some time ago I purchased a handful of Itronix computers through ebay in hopes that I would have affordable entry level computer durable enough to give to my youngest daughters. Each computer was sure to suffer some battle scars as the machines get hauled around which had me concerned. After a great deal of searching I was glad to discover that eBay had several rugged laptops from Itronix listed and all reviews for the item were quite positive. Retailing originally at or about $3,500 it became clear that I had found the ideal solution. A great buy considering other options, after upgrading memory and hard drives the total investment proved to cost less even combined than a well put together desktop system. My girls are happy with their new found mobility and rugged features of the laptops so I’m happy.

I ended up winning the bids on three IX-250 models and a single IX-260 all in relatively flawless condition as each was a corporate lease return item. The only issue I discovered was the absolute lack of support software and system drivers necessary to load an Operating System on each as these machines are on average, 3 - 5 years old. However, after spending many days of searching downloading and installing software, I decided to package each of the driver packages up in case someone else finds the need for the software. Below is a basic outline and download link should you consider similar options.

Itronix Go Book IX 250 - Software Drivers

The Go Book IX-250 is a great entry level machine for children and of all those I’ve stumbled upon, I’m glad I found several with CD-ROM’s as not all are equally equipped.

Each has a P4 CPU running at 850 MHz and CD-ROM and a touch screen with stylus. Naturally with the plummeting cost of memory and storage devises, I quickly upgraded to 512 meg of RAM and a 60GB shock resistant IBM hard drive. An affordable WiFi card and new stylus for each put three of my girls in command like never before. No fighting over the computer anymore and each machine is capable of running several learning game software programs they love and plenty of MSN and chat features keeps em busy for many hours a day.

IX 250 Software Download For Additional downloads for the Itronix Computers is available in the Downloads Area

Itronix Go Book IX 260 - Software Drivers

Itronix Rugged Laptop This single machine I purchased for myself after having my Dell crash on me only to discover that tech support with Dell was vastly lacking. Not only was the Dell computer tech support call forwarded to India, the language barrier proved so difficult I still haven’t been able to resolve the problems related to hardware to this day. So Dell is OUT and an affordable travel worthy bullet proof tough book is in. Costing about $500 and change the IX 260’s feature an 1.7ghz CPU that can be upgraded along with the RAM and HD to compete with similarly older machines but still providing the forgiving design characteristics of a rugged laptop should a coffee cup spill over onto the keyboard.

After my brother examined the machine, he set out to purchase several off of ebay for his construction company for off site estimators and project appraisers. His wife, a professional real estate insurance agent often finds the need to photograph properties and would love to have a solution that could survive traveling woes and the Rugged Itronix seems to be a sure win as computing power is not as essential as durability in both their occupations.

Should you end up with the Itronix IX-260 please find the software drivers here.

IX 260 Software Download
For Additional downloads for the Itronix Computers is available in the Downloads Area

Military and Law Enforcement Grade Computing

Itronix Rugged Laptop Military Use A few final notes on the computers is that not all of them come equipped for you to install an Operating System via a CD-ROM or DVD. Since many of those on eBay are either Law Enforcement turn-ins, these Military grade computers very rarely have the kinds of common peripherals that normally come in your average laptop. Ideal for contractors, construction related businesses or just a person that wants to toss the computer in the back seat of his H2 before he heads out fishing as I do; then these are ideal computers. I figured if the Military and Police Departments find them rugged enough to use than my three youngest daughters will find them difficult to destroy. Weaning kids on computers is not really avoidable. The idea is to get them started on computers that can survive spilled juice, a drop down the stairs, bumps and bangs getting in and out of a car among all the other potential hazards was my goal. These computers, each less than $300 was WiFi capable, touch screen and multi media capable, have proven to be great first computers for children.

Open Realty announces version jump to 2.5

Posted on November 16, 2007
Filed Under Products, Real Estate News | 1 Comment

Open Realty® - Major Upgrade Release

Open Realty®, the ever changing ever evolving application for real estate listings management is scheduled for a milestone release jump from version 2.4.3 to 2.5 as a result of many reworked elements of the applications core.

Unknown at this time regarding backwards compatibility with previous addon developments, this release is one of the most anticipated in the 2.0 series of Open Realty®.

Open Realty®- Compliance XHTML CSS Template Structure

Announced by Transparent Technologies earlier in the month;

2.5 will be a substantial upgrade over previous versions and that is why we have made the decision to move to the Minor version from .4 to .5. There are the usual small bug fixes however here are some of the features we are working on for 2.5:

File Attachments - Open Realty® - PDF - Video - YouTube

The most anticipated of all the new features in version 2.5 has got to be the addition of the long awaited and much discussed “file attachment” feature. Ryan states that they decided on the implementation of the file attachment system for property listings after taking into account the market demands for such features. Agents and Real Estate Agencies will benefit greatly by the feature as listings can now be accompanied by support material and other documents such as pre-qualification loan applications and other related materials right in the listing details pages.

Previously such a feature was largely made possible via a custom listing detail field with a link to an uploaded item via FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

File formats are likely to include PDF, RTF, MS Word DOC, ZIP, RAR, and an assortment of various video and audio file formats. The items attached will be made available for download from either a direct link or a drop down list for multiple items. Given the available integration possibilities its likely developers and designers will find a way to integrate video from YouTube as we see this trend on runaway status with Real Estate sites today.

Ryan Bonham - Transparent Technologies - Open Realty® Templates

Ryan states in his blog and throughout their forums that being conscious of the markets demand on compliance with CSS and XHTML, Open Realty® is moving more and more toward fully qualified code output. These features sound off with a loud encouraging voice as one of the most important features in choosing Open Realty® by designers.

Its with great pleasure to see and post this announcement given the new release of Open Realty® and its LONG AWAITED compliance features making it a truly web standard application when compared to previous releases.

Open Realty® is the product of Transparent Technologies owned and operated by Ryan Bonham, all rights reserved. All this designer can conclude in saying is “Congratulations and Thank You Sincerely” to Ryan Bonham and his team in the successful maintenance and updating of his signature product, Open Realty®

« go back — keep looking »