Open Realty - Joomla - CMS Realty

Posted on June 22, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate News |

Three simple things to consider in using CMS Realty

CMS Realty is a clever product designed to marry Open Realty with the Joomla CMS thereby providing a quasi integrated solution. But before you jump right into the idea of bringing them together, evaluate these three things.

Open Realty and Joomla user sharing

CMS Realty has a nice feature which bridges the necessity for users to register on two separate applications. The integrated feature provides a clean method for sharing users providing the installation of Joomla and Open Realty reside in the same database. Unless you need this type of user registration integration its best to keep them separate if for no other reason than keeping each application in its own database. I wont go into the exhaustive inventory of examples of why this is important.

Are SEF URL’s Important?

A truly unfortunate characteristic of using CMS Realty is the long session string URL’s that the component requires in order to maintain cross application functionality. Although a great contribution, CMS Realty suffers greatly when considered for serious or professional real estate website development. CMS Realty is an ideal tool for bringing Open Realty into Joomla (or Mambo) by providing the administrator with a nice clean means of managing both applications in one location. But this as well as other reasons fall painfully short of serious consideration based on URL’s alone.

Danger in double indexing and duplicate content

I get hired now and again to convert sites using CMS Realty to our method of integration which doesn’t rely on the bridge technique used by CMS Realty. Its not my position or objective to condemn the application by any means, but political correctness has almost nothing to do with the size and measure of your success and if bent on ranking both effectively and properly then alternatives should be considered.

One of the most dangerous facets of using CMS Realty for a professional web site is the ever present risk of duplicate content. As one site owner recently discovered, duplicate content forced his rank and status to all but fade from the search engines in just a few short weeks as a result of a small and otherwise harmless mistake that will take many months to rectify. The method by which this happens is fully innocent on the surface but avoidable if due diligence is applied. Simply by the addition of additional links in his site and the use of a site map addon for Open Realty, this site owner later discovered that not only were some listings being indexed via Joomla but the actual Open Realty install path with identical listings were also being indexed with different URL’s. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happens next.

If you have a site that uses integrated characteristics like this then maybe considering an alternative method wherein you can still keep your user registration bridge would be advisable. The methods I’ve used on many CMS Realty conversions provides seamless integration and functionality with none of the potentially dangerous side effects of session length URL’s or risks of duplicate content and database bloat.

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1 Comment so far
  1. Andy Collins August 23, 2007 9:30 am

    Hi Jared - are you able to tell me the best process of installing Open Realty / CMS Realty / Feature Listings / Search bot / CMS Realty Classes modules?

    Is it something you would / could charge me a fee for? Have you got an idiots guide available?

    Thanks Andy


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