Open Realty IDX RETS MLS Joomla WordPress

Posted on November 23, 2007
Filed Under Design, Real Estate News | 2 Comments

Multiple Listing Services with Open Realty

It seems I get a lot of questions regarding IDX and RETS with Open Realty even though I post all over the web clear answers to how this can be achieved. Apparently confusing and sometimes conflicting information is encountered by people that read what others have written on the subject and end up avoiding the venture all together as a result.

To me that is a tragic conclusion to come by considering that most integrations with standards compliant RETS or IDX providers offer. I’m going to just very briefly write about the summary technique we use and later expand on this with some instruction on how to do this yourself with PHP. Lets begin with the most common formula we use.

Open Realty MLS IDX or RETS Import

Open Realty as the listing manager is one of the more common tools Realtors are using given the lofty inventory of features the developers at Transparent Technologies have included.

When using Open Realty, most people discover that in situations where RETS is available, the tool more often than not chosen is vieleRETS (see support list here) developed by Mark Lesswing, this application comes with provisions for importing data directly into your Open Realty site out of box. Coupled with a little PHP scripting the process can be automated and designed to run outside of the domain root for optimal results.

IDX and Open Realty are a bit different all together and although there are many options available the method we most often employ is straight PHP and extraction of the listing data into the Open Realty database which is configured to run daily via CRON. Somewhat complex for the non programmer this method is likely the better choice when compared to applications that attempt to convert the listing data to a CVS text file format first. More on this later.

Joomla MLS IDX or RETS Import

Using Joomla for real estate sites is actually so dramatically on the rise that my coders developed 4 proprietary code tools specific to the real estate industry that allow the easy integration of MLS listings into your Joomla site. Requiring either Open Realty or ezRealty to work effectively our snippets will be bundled when the release of Open Realty 2.5 becomes available as a turnkey solution.

WordPress MLS IDX or RETS Import

Once the venture I had financed heavily was the development of a listing manager that integrates with WordPress. Still on the project task list for completion, I’ve been more often asked to simply integrate Open Realty with WordPress using our MLS IDX and RETS methods. Again dependent on an external application to bring in the listings from the MLS, this method is actually the ideal as we often suggest people do not use their Open Realty install for all their text content exclusively as a blog may be better served.

This technique again does require the use of some proprietary code soon to be bundled but is none the less available upon request now. Pricing depends largely on the MLS system you need code for.

I’ll write on this extensively in future posts.

Open Realty Featured Listings - Anywhere

Posted on November 16, 2007
Filed Under Portfolio, Real Estate News | Leave a Comment

How to put Open Realty® Featured Listings Anywhere!

Previously we had released a small code snippet that worked independently of Open Realty® that provided site designers to place featured listings rotators on external sites or even external pages outside of the application. Given the rework of some of my other code snippets I found that this one has proved very valuable to the 70+ people who purchased the basic version and decided on an update.

The new version is in part motivated with the anticipation of Open Realty® 2.5 and features many features above and beyond our basic $5 version. Here is a short list of what currently works in this next release.

Display Featured Listings by Agent
Display Featured Listings by Listing Office
Display Featured Listings by State or City
Display Featured Listings by Neighborhood
Display Featured Listings by Listing Office
Integrates well with our Multi Site feature
Templates can be placed in one of three optional animated features (more on the way)
Click Stat Tracking
Display Featured Listings with document attachments
Display Featured Listings throughout your site each with independent and different templates

MORE FEATURES TO BE ANNOUNCED……

To purchase the snippets please visit the Featured Listings Anywhere Product Page

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®

Morgan Carey - REW PREN Hacking - Timely Apology

Posted on November 2, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate News | 6 Comments

Well articulated apology given by Morgan Carey

Morgan Carey, the owner and co founder of Real Estate Webmasters provided a rather lengthy and well articulated apology today regarding the disparaging events that victimized the PREN forums earlier this week.

Informative, clear, and certainly well presented, Morgan Carey stated that upon careful examination of the evidence being presented by PREN administrators and technical staff, he was able to successfully ascertain that the hacking could very well have been a rogue employee. After Morgan Carey conducted his own exhaustive internal investigation, Carey appears confident in his findings as he expressed his apology directly to PREN by stating;

“… PREN although I will never agree with your practices of allowing anonymous users to post defamatory statements regarding REW, I do think this staff member crossed the line.”

Mr. Carey continues on with the apology by stating his concerns regarding the apparent rivalry between his forums at Real Estate Webmasters and the forums for the Pro Real Estate Network. The 1,000+ word post went into lengthy detail regarding what Morgan believes to be the true nature of the unfortunate disruption regarding the PREN forums and states that similar although unrelated attacks on his own forums have taken place over the span of Real Estate Webmasters lofty presence on the internet. Webmasters and forum administrators would certainly agree that sites that are on the top in stature and presence do in fact become targets of malicious attacks and defamation which is simply a painful reality we all face.

Morgan Carey, more apologetic than sympathetic in his post made several references to the rivalry between his forum and forum(s) in a less than direct way which could leave some to conclude that the motive was entirely predatory. Predatory attacks do take place as we see headlines of such behavior between rivals all the time. Morgan Carey was careful to disclaim such motives outwardly but the voice of his message leaves an impression that such a motive may have been the case. When one considers that no fewer than 7 (seven) forums did surface as a result of rivalry or differences in authority and opinion by former long standing members and co-founders of REW; rivalry seems to be an appropriate conclusion in the hidden suggestion of such.

Rogue REW Employee Hacks PREN forums?

As it appears, the most informative and important facet of this event is the revealing of Morgan Carey’s internal investigation. The investigation apparently netted REW staff the conclusion that it may likely be the fact that REW’s own employee perpetrated the malice against the PREN forums. Interestingly enough, each of the forums, REW and PREN, do in fact use the popular vBulletin forum software to power their growing communities. An employee with knowledge and familiarity of vBulletin could in fact compromise passwords.

However, a question sits on the tongues of the curious; Was this event by direct command or was it fully without express knowledge of Morgan Carey that the compromised password and act of violating the PREN’s forums was ensue (ensue not always clear). Either way, from a legal stand point we discover that REW could very well be fully liable for the acts of its employees rendering express knowledge moot in the eyes of the law.

Since Morgan Carey is not known for his technical ability but rather his SEO prowess, does lend a level of credibility regarding his denial of involvement. The mining of vBulletin passwords is a lofty task for the non technical as the software does not divvy up such information easily. Compromised passwords take the kind of knowledge only the very skilled would possess.

Alternatively, a plugin could have been installed allowing vBulletin administrators (or assigned powers to be) to see and or edit passwords on a whim. Morgan states that such an ability is not in their means and not part of their administrative practices. It is known however that vBulletin third party developers have made available many expanding additions to the software that give more control and power over their forums. Some are less than ethical in my biased opinion. Some of these plugins provides forum owners casual access to information perceived to be private as in private messaging between members as well as monitoring of other member interactions. Interestingly, such features would not likely be installed without the express knowledge of a forums owner.

Bench warmers on the sidelines still express opinion regarding these events as clearly drawn lines of bias or should I say indifference riddle the forums and blogs around the web. One thing is for certain, should the investigation conducted by the US Justice Department net contradicting evidence to this latest explanation, many may conclude the outer most extremes of webmaster ethics in ways that could harm the entire industry. Webmasters have been coming under increasing fire in recent months as an apparent trend in forum moderation seems to also include censorship, deception and outright policing of member interaction in what is perceived to be a community or publicly accessible forums. Fallout and swift changes in pledge of allegiance may surface.

PREN administrators oppose the notion in Morgan’s apology that they participate in the practices of allowing anonymous or guest users to make posts. PREN policy is “policy” not “police” and albeit more open to the freedoms not afforded elsewhere with opinions, guests and the anonymous are not permitted persons to make posts.

Morgan Carey’s apology, although clearly sided and albeit carefully written with disclaimer verbiage, does seem genuine rather than damage control motivated on the surface. Conclusions I’m sure will meet with disagreement, Morgan’s timely apology presents some logical answers that will be the subject of many forums and blogs today I’m sure. The rogue employee findings does answer some very interesting questions which will be discussed abroad. Such a finding would not be impossible or even out of the question as you may very well agree.

Regardless of differences between those pro or contra, Morgan Carey’s apology was timely and appropriate as was foreseen just 24hours prior. We eagerly await the feedback we are sure to see across the web. As an active member of Real Estate Webmasters forums myself I’ve been hesitant to visit and make posts because of perceived rivalry between the forums even though I’ve found interaction with REW members rewarding in the past. As the Administrator or Moderator of many forums across the web, situations like this leave me in a state of empathy and concern for those determined to undermine one another. Lets hope this isn’t the case!

PREN Recovered Hacked Posts

Posted on November 1, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate News | 2 Comments

Hacked posts in PREN potentially recovered

Alleged hacking by Real Estate Webmasters - Morgan Carey - May have done little damage.

After careful examination of the backup inventory it was discovered today that it may be possible to recover many of the deleted posts perpetrated by the user of the compromised moderator account.

Today, after being notified that the FBI will be looking at the server logs, I was expressly instructed to stand down on any updates, repairs and modifications in my attempts to recover the missing posts in Pro Real Estate Network Forums. Luckily, the vBulletin software features many essential characteristics beneficial to commercial forums that forever secure it in my preference as the ideal commercial tool for building large well managed communities. Had it not been for some of the applications features for backup and recovery the data that had PREN owners so very concerned, could have been lost forever. Essential to the government during its investigation into the allegations of Morgan Carey’s alleged intrusion, PREN owners and administrators vowed to cooperate with the investigation by providing critical historical data archived as a procedural practice since the forums inception.

PREN administrators, eager to assist in the investigation, express appreciation and gratitude for the absolutely stellar cooperation received by RackSpace, the company that manages the many servers used for PRENs business ventures. Gladly we can adequately defend and boldly protest that vBulletin itself was not compromised by a flaw or security threat present in the application as once considered.

Jared Ritchey Blog - Gets a Facelift!

Posted on October 31, 2007
Filed Under Design, Real Estate News | Leave a Comment

New Integrated Joomla - Open Realty - WordPress 2.3.1 Template

Yep design is done, ported, integrated and applied this week. I wrapped up projects outstanding and I’m in full preparation to complete a long overdue and greatly demanded set of WordPress and Joomla tools for Real Estate professionals.

Having worked round the clock since my 4 week absence, I’ve managed to take all the many notes, code snippets and features and build a design that will likely be here for a long time. Coining on WordPress’s new Tag Cloud feature among others the new blog will include a feature I’ve wanted since the day I decided to go online. Recognition as an online publication. Now that I’ve been granted an actual ISBN # from the government, I’m more motivated than ever to revamp my writing procedure and publish blog posts in a way that compliments and informs in the areas of my true passions, design and teaching.

This site will go offline for about 10 hours this weekend and periodically may toss a JavaScript error now and again but I’m looking forward to the blogs new interface and the MOOTOOLS features I’ve added.

Morgan Carey - Real Estate Webmasters Accused of Hacking

Posted on October 31, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate News | 5 Comments

The self titled master of real estate marketing accused of hacking competitor

According to a post on the Pro Real Estate Network Forums, Morgan Carey the owner and chief administrator of Real Estate Webmasters has employed unethical and potentially criminal actions by hacking the PREN forum.

Apparently a simple compromise in the password used by a PREN forum moderator after it was concluded that the same identical password had once been used by the would be victim in the REW forums. The moderator, banned from REW for reasons unknown, appears to be specifically targeted when once considers that the PREN forum membership consists of many would be refugee’s from Morgan Carey’s militant banning rampage he is commonly known for. Carey, who is no stranger to allegations of unethical practices in his business ventures, was apparently tracked down through the use of the PREN forum IP trace feature indicating that the compromised account did in fact indicate numerous edits to the moderators posts all of which were designed to flatter and praise Real Estate Webmasters. It was then later discovered that not only were the moderators posts edited but moderator powers were abused to possibly remove back links and other unfavorable content to REW.

Morgan Carey - Illegal Hacking and Deception?

Call me always late, call me always slow, even call me ugly, but never call me presumptuous. This latest bout with Morgan Carey really comes as no surprise as prior encounters with his unethical webmaster practices have netted him a grand total 7 competing forums and services that seek to demonstrate ethics in a business many feel are tainted by the likes of Morgan Carey. It is not by presumption that Morgan Carey or his affiliations were singled out for the allegations when one considers a long checkered history of alleged deceptive and downright unethical practices in the design and marketing of real estate websites. Pro Real Estate Network founders discovered the offense by tracking a series of logins among other things via known IP’s associated with Morgans and his associates who were once active members in PREN. Very interesting!

It should be noted that Morgan has been the target of allegations in the past by members of PREN in yet another lengthy heated debate over his ethics, practices and almost Teflon ability to escape unscathed when fault appears to be his own.

Carey, a residence in beautiful Nanaimo, BC has escaped multiple attempts to sue largely because of his geographical location and the mounting difficulties that would be presented with any attempts to collect debts. This time however its not civil its potentially criminal and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has allegedly been notified but not verified at the time of this post.

After witnessing the unethical practices of Morgan Carey of Real Estate Webmasters over the past 3 years I’m surprised that so few have caught on to the devises used after being so widely published across the internet in public forums. As far back as 2004 Morgan Carey had altered the flash header files of Wyoming Realtor Jim Messengers main site stemming largely from claims that Jim’s well documented ownership of his impressive design was being laid claim to in the portfolio of Real Estate Webmasters. Apparently Morgan was not about to let go of Jim as a client and felt it necessary to give him a going away present by altering his flash header by the inclusion of bogus information and an altered contact phone number. To this day in DVD archive I still possess the offended original file provided by Morgan Carey as I had been ultimately hired to migrate and finish the transfer of Jim Messenger’s site to his new server. Had it not been pointed out to me by Jim Messenger, who is NOT a flash programmer, I would have overlooked the alteration and continued as normal working on the Jackson Hole Real Estate Website Project. Benefit of the doubt is my first conclusion I consider had confirmation not been presented so quickly after the discovery of yet another vindictive modification to Jim Messengers core files.

Shortly thereafter while working on yet another site once hosted with Real Estate Webmasters, PHP programmer Mike Morris had discovered during the repair and migration of Jim’s source code that a small hidden php snippets was inserted to literally send a CC or carbon copy of every contact form submission to a person named Aaron, a known employee of Real Estate Webmasters at the time. Shocking as it may be, I can’t even imagine why a person would want to have a carbon copy of someone else’s email submissions, but then it hit me like a hammer; Many pointed out, “some speculating” that one may easily conclude that Morgans objective was to fulfill in part his obligation to provide leads to other clients having been contracted to do so. Clever technique really but none the less just as unethical as a webmaster can be.

In defense however of Morgan Carey one could argue that Morgan is simply the target of vindictive behavior having risen in stature and status in the Real Estate Webmaster community as to foster such strife. All webmasters during their careers (especially freelance) will experience forum posts, angry emails, and bold yet offensive outright lies in blogs about them. Its par for the course and should be of little deterrence to a steady professional in this business. Quite honestly, its those that don’t suffer some objection that have me concerned more often than not. No press is bad press, right? Maybe!

Rather than continue to rant on this very shocking issue involving a person many consider colleague, associate and even friend, I conclude that to follow the events its best to just visit the Pro Real Estate Network forums today at the following URL.

Open Realty - Joomla - ezRealty Solution

Posted on October 30, 2007
Filed Under Design, Real Estate News | 11 Comments

Joomla with Open Realty vs ezRealty! (an email response)

NOT a formal comparison!
This is a modified version of a response I gave to an email regarding some confusing information the person was receiving about selecting between ezRealty and Open Realty. Its important to keep in mind that this is not a comparison based on exhaustive research but a comparison based on extensive use of both applications and years of experience. So, here it is quick and a bit hasty as I’m sure I’ve made an error that someone will graciously correct me where I’m wrong and you can review the Realtors Use Open Realty with Joomla article as well..

Word Press - Open Realty Integration

Posted on October 26, 2007
Filed Under Design, Portfolio, Products, Real Estate News | 6 Comments

Open Realty and WordPress Integrated Script

Realtors know that a blog can make or break a website and more often than not blogs are being used to break the plateau and barrier with greater ease as a result of blogs.

Realtors would love to have a blog that also featured listings from their featured listings section of their site, many of which use Open Realty. Well now thats possible with the use of some of our proprietary methods for integration that gives Realtors true power in having featured listings displayed within tier blogs via a truly integrated method in design and function.

WordPress to Open Realty - Open Realty to WordPress - Starting at $49.95

The RTDS (Rapid Template Design Series) has been my personal pet project for more than two years and after hearing all the rhetoric, the back talk and other na sayer attitudes I’m happy to say that this very lofty project of mine is nearing its long overdue completion. I’m a Photoshop instructor almost full time during the week now and one of the most rewarding aspects of the RTDS is the speed in which fundamental elements of design can be applied.

Because of the near completion of the RTDS I’m eager to test some of the fundamental characteristics in a production level environment like never before by doing custom conversions for WordPress and Open Realty templates at turnkey prices.

WordPress Real Estate Listings Manager - Open Realty

8 months ago I hired tasked my PHP Coder to complete the WordPress Real Estate Listing Manager to be a free WordPress plugin for Realtors. Happily, and after completion I released exactly 17 copies for beta testing, which puzzling as it was, I NEVER heard a single peep back regarding the functionality and features. Still installed on my LiveDemoSite.com site, I feared the worse for the plugins success combined with a busy work schedule I put the plugin on the back burner. However as things change and schedules get shuffled so to does my priorities and after completing literally dozens and dozens of site design integrations with Open Realty, Joomla and WordPress its time to divvy up an alternative solution. The RTDS gave me motive to provide a way for Realtor and Real Estate blog owners to have featured listings and listing details displayed effectively with their blogs.

Although the WordPress Real Estate plugin isn’t dead in my project inventory, it does need some serious rethinking to figure why I received no feedback from beta testers. Maybe they were just curiosity seekers or even competitors! ? But, the project will be re-examined in the coming weeks for repositioning. Not intended to replace the Open Realty WordPress method I’m so fond of, the plugin was really designed for an individual that may feature their own listings.

So on we go, Real Estate WordPress options exist in the form of a clever set of code snippets and integration methods I’ve used on dozens and dozens of sites with great success. If the objective is to have a blog while maintaining an assortment of featured listings to be displayed then send me an email for a fast quote. As I said, this service will start out at $49.95 which is a drop in the bucket when considering alternative options.

Template Monster Open Realty Conversion

Posted on October 26, 2007
Filed Under Design, Portfolio, Real Estate News | 2 Comments

Template Monster - Boxed Art - Joomla - to Open Realty Conversion

Looking through my client archives today I discovered that I’ve converted no fewer than 50+ template from an assortment of template clubs for various clients to work with Open Realty.

Open Realty like many CMS type applications uses a template engine that generates the rendering of the final site based on predefined template tags to display content dynamically. Because of this the process can be confusing to some people on how exactly they should or could convert a design they admire to function with Open Realty.

Conversion of Templates to Open Realty starting at $39.95

After completing the Open Realty Adobe Dreamweaver Extension, it had been my initial plan to not only release the Adobe Dreamweaver Extension as a free tool but to use it to convert existing designs submitted to me by clients rapidly to work with Open Realty keeping prices competitive and affordable.

Now you can have a template converted to function with Open Realty 2.4.3+ starting under $40 bucks. Designs and layout options may vary extensively so quoting on an individual basis will still be par for the course. General conversions usually take a few hours on the outside depending on how closely a design is to be adhered to and could exceed the day rate for some more complex designs.

Photoshop and Tables to CSS XHTML compliant conversions - Starts at $49.95

Expanding on this as a service now that the final stages of the Rapid Template Design Series nears its 5th beta assembly, I’ve decided to extend a short run service of converting photoshop and non compliant design concepts to fully validating and functioning CSS XHTML compliant designs.

The general process is to have a client submit a design (Photoshop or otherwise) to be converted and coded CSS XHTML compliant. Naturally since this type of service is in relative high demand the minimum price for commercial concerns (template clubs, resellers, turnkeys and so on) will be $100+

Should you need either Tables to CSS XHTML conversion or entire ground up coding of your concepts please do not hesitate to request a quote. For conversion of Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Template Monster or other types of templates to Open Realty, submit your request with either a link to the design or as a ZIP attachment for a rapid and accurate estimate.

$40 - $100 is a trivial expense when compared to other options for these types of conversion. Using the Rapid Template Design Series gives me the chance to stretch the legs of the process and run it through its paces yet again. Doing so gives you a super good cost effective and affordable option for getting compliant and functional designs fast. As a commercial reseller of templates and or XHTML templates for template clubs this price is certainly going to change in the future so getting on the project schedule is most important.

« go back — keep looking »