Web fronted XML real estate website

They have: 121 posts

Joined: Aug 2008

Hi guys,

Most of the web development i do involves web fronted MySQL db interfaced through PHP scripts.

I've recently taken on a new project for a real estate company. They have an inhouse local system which generates an XML feed of each property information and uploads it along with images to a web server; also where a DTD file is stored.

I just wanted some advice on how best to approach applying a web front to this data.

Has anyone had any experience with this kind of technology?

Should we look at building somekind of parser that shoots the data into a DB or would i be better building an interface script.

Are there any "off the shelf" products which could save me time?

Thanks!

serpico

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,502 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

Yeah, putting all that data into a database is your best option. The last real estate website I did included parsing 30,000+ listings from some massive CSV files. I wrote an importer script that feeds the data into a database every night, and then the website pulls from the database as needed.

I was not able to find a solution already available, but writing one wasn't a problem.

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,956 posts

Joined: Jun 2002

Agreed with pr0gr4mm3r, parsing into a database is the best way of doing this.

There is an MLS listing module for Drupal, but it needs some love by the looks of things. It might provide you with some initial ideas on how to go about creating a solution to your problem though. Smiling

a Padded Cell our articles site!

They have: 121 posts

Joined: Aug 2008

Thanks guys. Going down this route will raise the issue of live data. At the moment when staff update details on their local system, they hit 'publish' which updates the XML feed on the server.

Should this then force an update of the DB or should this be done via a cron say every 24hrs as pr0gr4mm3r suggests.

pr0gr4mm3r, did you code that in php? If so, I'd be interested in taking a look at your code if that's ok?

serpico

They have: 5 posts

Joined: Oct 2017

I know this thread is old, but I want to share my experience as I've just finished building a real estate website. I used one of the website builders among those on http://www.webbuildersguide.com/website-builder-categories/real-estate-website-builders/ for this purpose. As they are created specially for this kind of sites and don't require any coding knowledge, it is easy to work with them. Also it should be mentioned, they are available for free. I hope this information will be useful for someone!

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.