Convert Region 25 (MIBOR / Indy) to new updater

[Battler45]

George,

The first project on which you'll be working will be to convert an existing MLS data feed to the new updater system.

Vihar will be able to provide you with the technical details for installing GitHub and downloading a local copy of the current code base.

Vihar, will you also please provide George with whatever server and / or database access he needs for this initial project? Please share with him any necessary logins and create any new users as necessary. Also, I think that converting region 25 will be a good place to start because it shares the same MLS data provider (Marketlinx) as the one you have already converted (SoCal MLS). You can find my existing code in:

C:\Inetpub\mls4.sierrainteractivemls.com\admin\mibor

on DEDQ61

The login credentials to the RETS server are:

• UserID: 31041rets

• Password: BENJ1001

• UserAgent: sierrainteract

• Password: h1ghplateau

RETS URL: http://inr.rets.interealty.com/Login.asmx/Login

As you'll see when you examine my existing code, I was using the sysid name for the database fields rather than the long names for the fields (which were being used for SoCal MLS). I did this because I had a lot of difficulty with the RETS Connector software that I was using to download the daily data files. To help translate between the two, I've attached a spreadsheet provided to me by MIBOR (which stands for Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors) that cross-references the long field names with their numeric IDs.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks.

Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

George,

Forgot to add - you can check the database schema by remoting to the following machine:

IP: 75.103.119.195

User Name: vshah

Password: ViharShah$123

Pls note that this is development DB, and, has almost identical schema to the live DB. There are total five DBs on this server: sierrainteractive-1 to 4, and sierrainteractive-updater. Pls note that currently sierrainteractive-3 is being used by the live sites so pls make sure that you don't change anything in that database. Ideally, you would only be needing to refer to the sierrainteractive-4 and sierrainteractive-updater DBs.

Pls let me know in case of any issues.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Ben, Vihar,

I completed test of MIBOR updater on development server. Update process was executed without errors. I don't understand how to test results using of comparison of live (www.hometoindy.com) and development (hometoindy.sierrainteractivedev.com) sites. I see that some record is added into database - I can find this record by its MLS number in database sierrainteractive-1. But when I'm trying to find this records on sites (with using of search by MLS number) I could not get any results. Does development site use database sierrainteractive-1 on sql4.sierrainteractivemls.com indeed? Anyway I'm not sure that visual checking will give an opportunity to find out all issues (if these exist, I hope new updater is working without issues). Perhaps it will be more useful to make a small application intended to compare databases?

Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

Would you mind taking a look at the data on the development server, including the photos and geocodes, and testing to make sure it matches the live region 25 data?

If so, then I suppose we don't need to re-download all photos and geocodes for all Indy listings -- could we just use the new updater system to pick up from where the old updater system leaves off -- perhaps we could schedule that for Thursday morning this week if everything looks good?

Thanks

Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

Yes, I agree that it makes sense to add a new field, photo-server, to be used in conjunction with the MLSPhotos table for situations such as this.

As far as the best way to copy images, I believe the fastest and easiest way would be to use an FTP program to copy the photos manually to a location on the new (cloud) server from which they could be processed by the new updater into their appropriate folder locations. I'm not able to set up an FTP account right now to connect to the appropriate folder on DEDQ61 to allow this file download due to operations currently taking place on that server, but I will do that tomorrow and forward you the FTP credentials.

If you or George could begin writing the application that will move / process these photos once they are downloaded, that would be great.

Thannks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben,

Re. #68 - old and new updaters call the same stored-procedure, spUpdateMLSPhoto for updating a photo-record. So perhaps that sp can be updated to set changed-date in the DateAdded field. Pls let me know if this sound fine. I'll update the sp.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Vihang & George,

I am currently running the old MIBOR / Region 25 updater and it should be finished by the time you are ready to begin working (it should be done by 1am EST). In order to keep from having to change the stored procedure, I've populated the SysID value from the MIBOR region into the ListingHashValue field of the MLS table in our database. It is now configured to update this every day when the rest of the listing data is updated, so you should be able to use this in creating the script to remove old listings as we transition over to the new updater system.

Please let me know if you run into any problems with that.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben, Vihar,

I've also tested MIBOR updater one more time (locally) and I found that all is fine.

Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Ben,

I've tested the MIBOR updater on the development server. It worked fine. I guess we can now transition the MIBOR updater to the new updater. However, we'll first need to migrate existing photos to the cloud server. Pls let me know your inputs on comment#93.

Thanks Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Ben,

I've made changes in the new CAA and new updater systems to use the PhotoServer value in building photo urls (not published yet). I'm now working on making similar changes in the front-end sites programming. I'm looking into updating the dev. version of search-tools / content pages for the same. I'll update the live sites tomorrow (during your overnight period).

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

Yes, I believe the issue is caused by several new sites having been added since the development db was last updated. Because adding new sites involves addition of records into multiple tables, it might be best to restore sierrainteractive-1 on the development DB. However, would this impact the work that George is doing and / or has already done? (Erasing test data that he has imported.)

I have created a backup of sierrainteractive-1 called sierrainteractive-1_2011-08-29.bak and downloaded that onto DEDN173 in C:\DB Backups. Please let me know if you have any trouble with that.

Your approach for assisting George to test the updater for region 25 sounds good.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Vihar, Thanks for your help. I will check this listing. Regarding composite fields for Residental Property. Now I'm able to fill next composite fields with same headers as for SoCal:

• FeaturesEnergy
• FeaturesInterior (only data for "Eating Areas" and "Interior")
• FeaturesLot (only data for "Lot Description" and "Lot Size Dimension Description")
• FeaturesFinancial
• FeaturesFoundation

For other composite fields (FeaturesCommunity, FeaturesCondo, FeaturesConstruction, FeaturesDocuments, FeaturesExterior, FeaturesFencing, FeaturesHOA, FeaturesParking, FeaturesRoof, FeaturesUtilities) I can not find MIBOR fields which could be assigned to SoCal headers. Probably some composite fields can be filled with MIBOR data with other headers (for example MIBOR contains "Garage description" field which can be placed into composite field FeaturesParking). But I'm not sure is it legal or not and who should make such decisions. Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Ben,

I believe George hasn't yet run the MIBOR updater on the dev DB so it should be fine. I'll confirm with George and restore the back up based on his response.

George - can you pls confirm if it would be alright to go ahead with the restore of sierrainteractive-1 DB?

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

George,

Ben would be able to provide more details about exact mappings for the above mentioned fields.

Ben, could you pls check the mapping file attached in comment-17 and let us know the mappings for the remaining Features fields?

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

George,

Yes, the specified RETS servers are live. I think it should be ok to connect to those servers for testing purpose.

I understand that you want to test the new updater system - the SoCal updater system to be specific. To do so, you can run the WindowsServiceTest console application. The UpdateProcessor.cs file in this project contains the entry-point function, PerformUpdatesForRegion. This function will execute appropriate updater steps (depending on the steps supported for a region - as defined in the Updater_MLSRegionUpdateSteps table). If you want to test a specific step, pls comment out appropriate code in the PerformUpdatesForRegion function.

Also, you would need to change certain configuration parameters defined in the app.config file. Some of these parameters are:

• Connection-Strings: updaterConnString & connString1 - pls set these to point to your local db server.
• PhotoRootFolder: this is the path where photos would be downloaded from the MLS server
• LogEmails: true / false. If set to true, alert-emails would not be sent to actual email addresses; they would instead be logged in the log file
• TestEmailAddress: if the LogEmails parameter is set to true and this parameter's value is set then emails would be sent to this test email address as well.

Pls let me know if you need additional info.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Ben,

I've checked MIBOR's RETS metadata and below is list of available classes:

• Residential Lease (is not used in updater)

• ResidentialProperty (data is importing as Residential type)

• Commercial Retail (is not used in updater)

• LotsAndLand (data is importing as LotsAndLand type)

• Commercial/Industrial (is not used in updater)

• Commercial Office (is not used in updater)

• Commercial Multi-Family (is not used in updater)

• Farms & Agricultural Land (is not used in updater)

• MultiFamily (data is importing as MultiFamily type)

• Commercial Land (is not used in updater)

Also I found field "Sold Trigger" which probably can be used in data query. But I don't know if it is correct and how to use it. In data feed this field is unavailable and I don't know which values are acceptable. I've tried to use Y, N, 1 and 0 and everytime I got the same set of listings.

Thanks

Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Ben, Vihar,

I have some questions regarding outstanding issues (geocodes and open houses details).

1. Geocodes. It looks like old updater doesn't get latitude and longtitude from MIBOR response. Isn't? I found in meta data some fields which probably can be used for this - DrivingLatitude and DrivingLongitude but I'm not sure. Anyway in my tests all MIBOR records don't return values for these fields. Also I've added functionality of geocode processing (similar to SoCal functionality) and it works.

2. Open-house updating. Can it be that MIBOR's user doesn't have some rights to get open house data? I've tried to get such data and I received error "User does not have access to Resource named OpenHouse".

Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Vihang,

Since we need to test content for the sites in development and we'll be entering that content in the live DB, could you restore the development sites to pull content from the live DB rather than the development DB?

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

RETS meta-data Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Status of task: I'm able to get response from RETS server and going to parse it.

Ben, I have question about query for request: which date should be used in query to select only outstanding records? For example table "RES" has several date fields - "List Date", "Entry Date" and "Change Date". Do you know which is correct? Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

George,

Through Librets, there is a way to pull the system meta-data, which is an outline of the table structures of all tables -- kind of like the database schema. So, it gives you all of the available fields for the Residential property type, what data type each field is, the length, etc. And it does this for each table in the RETS database.

I'm not sure how you pull the meta-data using librets, but if you search the librets documentation for "metadata" or "meta-data" I am sure there is an easy way to do it.

This is similar to the spreadsheet I attached in the first email, but a bit different in that it is more complete and more up-to-date, and so it would probably be preferable to use this as opposed to the spreadsheet.

RE: #11 above:

1 - These are good questions. Each data feed is, unfortunately, different. In the case of the MIBOR feed, they only use one field for the full agent name ("Listing Agent Name"), rather than separate fields for the first and last name, so you will need to use string functions to parse the full name into a first and last name.

2 - Yes, it will usually be the case that not all available fields in the data feed will be mapped. This is the most difficult part of setting up a new data feed -- determining which fields should be mapped, and which should not. Often there will be multiple fields with similar names, and we will need to determine which one contains the data we are actually looking for.

There are certain fields which all feeds will contain (using different field names) and that we will always want to use, such as agent name, listing price, and MLS #. I will try to prepare a list of these to send over to you.

Then, there are fields available in some feeds but not others, such as different types of interior and exterior features, etc. The difficult part is determining which of these fields need to be included. I will help you with this now, and over time you will get a better sense of this.

3 - Some of our fields (mainly those beginning with "Feature" such as "FeaturesExterior") do contain composites of multiple fields from the data feed. There are no fixed rules here, and so while FeaturesExterior might combine 4 different data fields in SoCal MLS, it might combine 5 different fields in MIBOR. This needs to be worked out on a case-by-case basis, following common-sense guidelines which will become more clear as you gain experience working with these systems.

To help you start, I will try to prepare a list of which fields in the data feed should be mapped to which fields in our database and will send that over to you later today, along with a general explanation of the type of data each composite field should include.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Vihar, What do you mean by MIBOR meta-data? I'm using T5_field_info_RETS__Updated01-17-09.xls document attached in first post. Or you want to see how I perform this mapping (so I can give my code of "Parse.." function). Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

George,

To further clarify, the existing updater for mibor code will probably be confusing to you. It references the sys IDs of each database field, rather than the long field names, which is what you will be using when you query the RETS server using libRETS (I believe). You can use the T5 Field Info RETS Updated spreadsheet attached to the first comment in this thread to help you see which sys IDs match to which long field names.

In bringing any new data feed in line with the new updater system, the most difficult part will always be to determine how the fields from the host RETS database should be mapped into the fields of our own database.

In certain cases, such as when dealing with City, State, and Zip Code, these are straightforward.

However, in dealing with other types of listing data, such as interior and exterior features, lot features, etc., this can be more complicated. So, in working this out, referring to the existing SoCal MLS updater mappings (region 10) may also be quite helpful for you, because that region will (I believe) contain many of the same field names and will share many similar mappings.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben, Vihar I added code to photos downloading. As I understand ASP system we have not an opportunity to update photos (like in SoCal importer) - we have to delete all photos for property and download again. Is it correct? Thanks P.S. I will work with remote testing tomorrow Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

George,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you on this -- I am working on it now and will have it for you by the end of the evening (my time). In the meantime, if you have more time to work on the project, perhaps you could begin looking into the photo downloads for this region? That (hopefully) should be very similar to the way it is currently being done for SoCal MLS / Region 10.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

On the RealEstat3000.com site, the home page carousel does reference /res/includes/listings-carousel-2.asp, but within that file is contained a reference to /property-search/widgets/carousel.asp and /property-search/widgets/carousel-close.asp. So, as long as the carousel on RealEstate3000.com home page works, I think we should be fine.

And I am fairly certain that carousel-listings.asp is not used. I had added that file originally, but at a later point realized that the display portion of each carousel is site specific, and so that is when I created the carousel.asp file, but I must have forgotten to remove the carousel-listings.asp file.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Vihar, I got RETS meta-data with using of libRETS code samples. Attached are archive with meta-data in text and xml format. In my opinion spreadsheet T5field_info_RETS_Updated01-17-09.xls looks more complete. For example ResidentialProperty object: Field #3: in spreadsheet it has name "Acres", in meta-data isn't any standard name for this field ([] - it means standard name is missed). I thought I can use this value to fill field Acreage of Property object. Is my assumption wrong? Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

I've committed code of photo-migration tool. You can find two new projects Sierra.Updater.PhotoMigrating (classes to perform migrating actions) and Sierra.Updater.PhotoMigratingApp (console application).

Now there is implemented simple writer of images into file system (new folders' structure). It can be easily replaced with any other writer (for example with uploader to some cloud system).

I have two questions

1. What should be behaviour of application when some photo can not be processed? Should we remove such record from database completely or we have to mark it as problem (it means we need one more field in database)?

2. How I have to commit database changes? My changes are

• script to add PhotoServer field in table MLSPhoto;

• two stored procedures in database with table MLSPhoto.

Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

Can you explain to me how you are able to delete listings from SoCal? Since the same company provides the data feed service for both SoCal and MIBOR, hopefully we can use the same method. If we do not have access to a needed resource, let me know and I will contact the MIBOR representative and Marketlinx to see if we can get access as needed.

Thanks Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben,

Yes, in moving to new updater for MIBOR region, it would need to pick up from where the old updater leaves off. I believe except for the photo processing / storing, rest of the processing would be pretty much unaffected. That is, the new updater system will not delete any existing listings records so the leads' associations with the current listings will remain unchanged.

As for photo processing, I believe it would be good if we can make use of the existing photos; thus eliminating the need to migrate (re-download) photos for existing listings. One possible approach would be to introduce a new field in the MLSPhotos table say, PhotoServer (tinyint). This field will indicate the server where the photo would be stored. The existing code that builds path for listing images already handles two different paths (i.e. for SoCal regions and for the rest of the regions) so we would just need to change that programming to take into account the PhotoServer value.

Per this approach, the PhotoServer value for existing photo-records would be say 1 for region-10 records and 0 for the rest of the records. Any new photos processed through the new updater system will have the PhotoServer value set to 1. So the front-end site programming will use the PhotoServer value to build listing photo url. It currently makes distinction between SoCal region and other regions, which can be changed to make distinction based on the PhotoServer value.

The only issue with the above approach would be to handle removal of photos on old server through the new updater system. When an existing listing record is removed, its associated photos are also removed. When the "Purging" step is executed for MIBOR region (in the new updater system), it may be possible that all or some of the photos of the listings to be purged are present on the old update server. My thought is that this would need to be handled through FTP interface.

We can go one step further and implement programming, which would be flexible enough to handle additional photo servers. I haven't given this much thought but I realize that we would have to think about this sooner as the SoCal images are already occupying about 30GB of hard-disk space on the Crystaltech cloud server, and MIBOR images will only add to this size. I guess it would be possible to increase the size so we can continue with the above mentioned approach.

I also wanted to discuss possibility about hosting photos on 3rd-party services e.g. combination Amazon S3 (for hosting photos) & Amazon CloudFront (for CDN) / Azure Storage & Azure CDN. If this is viable then we could change the new updater system to store photos on such service. This will eliminate the need to ramp-up resources on updater servers. And, in the long run (after we have moved to new updater system completely) all photos would be hosted on such CDN service, which would definitely reduce traffic / load on the servers.

Pls let me know your thoughts. George - pls let me know if you have any suggestions / recommendations for the same.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Hi Vihar, Could you please explain more detailed how I can test the application? As I understand the specified RETS servers are live not "sandbox"? Is it ok to connect to servers for testing purposes? Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Ben,

I've modified the connection-string on the dev. version of search-tools to connect to dev. DB. The dev. hometoindy site now pulls data from the dev. DB.

Pls note that the contents are still pulled from the live DB as Vihang is working on setting up content-pages for new sites. He is however not able to work with property-search pages. Could you pls let me know if synchronizing the Sites table will fix such issues? Or, it would be good idea to restore the latest sierrainteractive-1 live DB on the dev. DB server.

As for data comparison - the live and dev. DB are accessible from the DEDN173 server so it can be used to perform side-by-side comparisons. I've set up a new user on this machine. When George has completed local testing and is ready to test the new updater on the dev. DB, I'll provide him the details for the same (and discuss possible approach to test the new updater). Pls let me know if this sounds good.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

I've fixed issues with ListType and SourceUniqueID.

Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

Ben,

Assuming we will be continuing with the current setup of hosting images on the Crystaltech cloud server, there are a couple of approaches for moving MIBOR images:

1 -- to re-download all photos through the new updater system. This will require minimum change in that we would need to update the photo-url generation to take into account active photo-server value (as described in comment #52). This will however be fairly time-consuming process as all photos would have to be re-downloaded from the RETS server and re-processed.

2 -- to write a small application, which will copy processed images from the old photo-server and update the database records with new path value. This should be faster compared to the 1st approach in that we'll be using FTP interface for downloading photos from another Crystaltech machine.

Alternatively, all images can be copied manually from the old server to the Crystaltech cloud server, and, then the new application should be run to update db records. This processing would be fairly quick in that the processing would be done locally. However, the time to FTP all images to new server might be high assuming large number of images would need to be transferred.

In either case, the new application will be useful in moving photos of other regions as and when we convert them to new updater system.

My thought is that regardless of the approach followed, we should add a new field, PhotoServer (comment #52), and update the photo-url generation logic. This will ensure that photos are continued to be served correctly until all photos have been moved to the Crystaltech cloud server.

Pls let me know your thoughts / suggestions.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

George & Vihar,

Vihar, would you be able to modify the connection strings on the dev version of the search tools to pull from the development DB for sierrainteractive-1 sites?

Then, George, you will be able to test your work using the http://hometoindy.sierrainteractivedev.com site -- what you see there will need to match what you see on http://www.hometoindy.com when viewing details for the same listing.

This should allow you to test your implementation until the data in the development database (using your updater) matches exactly with the data in the live database (currently running on the old updater).

Vihar, I don't know if there is a way to allow George to query the region 25 records on the live DB for comparison purposes -- perhaps just viewing the data on the live site would be sufficient?

Thanks Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Vihar,

I completed local testing. As I understand I have to add the appropriate records into table Updater_MLSRegionUpdateSteps. What should be set for field [LastUpdateTimeStamp], i.e. do we need to receive all records from REST server or not? And also I'm ready to perform testing on dev DB as you wrote in note 25.

Thanks Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

George,

You are correct. The dev. site also connects to the live database. That is the reason it didn't display any result for MLS search. Ben and Vihang are working on adding new front-end sites, and, therefore, they need to connect the dev. sites (on sierrainteractive-1) to live DB so we would not be able to perform visual comparisons.

Btw, I quickly checked the latest MLS records on the dev DB. Pls find below my comments:

1 -- It looks like the newly added listings are not geocoded. That is, the Geocode_ID value for such listings is 0. To give you a brief overview of geo-coding - we have a table, Geocodes, which stores details like latitude, longitude, address etc... This info. is used in displaying listing on map, performing search by map area etc... So when a new listing is added to the MLS table, we also associate it with a new Geocodes record. If latitude / longitude info. is available from the RETS server, then those values are used in creating a new Geocodes records.

The updater also runs Geocoding step. This step queries 3rd-party service like Yahoo / Google to get missing geocoding details. And, associates listings with new Geocodes records. So for all those listings, which don't have latitude / longitude info. available, the geocoding step populates missing details for them.

Can you pls verify this in the MIBOR updater?

2 -- None of the listings have open-house details. Can you pls check if the open-house step is executed for the MIBOR region? This step should populate info. like open-house date / time etc...

3 -- I'm not sure if had the photo-downloader step enabled for this specific test. If it was, can you pls check why photos have not been downloaded for newly added listings? Also, no records have been added in the MLSPhotos table.

4 -- When you have chance, can you pls add some logging in the MIBOR steps' programming? This will help us in verifying updater steps, location errors (if any).

I'm currently working on finishing one of the open tasks. Hopefully that would be completed in another day or two. I'll then be able to test the updater thoroughly.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Ben, It is very helpful! Thank you!

Posted by Molchanov George(unfuddle username: george)

[Battler45]

George,

I've modified the MIBOR updater to ignore listings with "Public Internet" set to "No". I've pushed those changes and planning to run a full update of all Indy listings in the next 15 minutes. If you happen to check this before that can you pls confirm the changes?

Ben - removing the existing listings with the "Public Internet" set to "No" would be a bit tricky in that those listings are already added to the MLS table, and there is no other way to remove them other than removing those MLS records through the backend. I was thinking that it would be fine to execute the spRemoveListingByMLSNumber stored-procedure manually for all such listings. That is, after the full update is completed today, the DateLastUpdate date of all active listings having "Public Internet" set "Yes" would have changed. The DateLastUpdate field of the other listings, most likely having "Public Internet" set "No", would remain unchanged and so it would be fine to remove such listings by executing the spRemoveListingByMLSNumber stored-procedure manually. Pls let me know if you see any issue with this.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

George,

For the purpose of testing, I think it would be good to set the LastUpdateTimeStamp value to previous date i.e. 30th Aug. This should download sufficient number of records, which you can then compare by reviewing live and development database side-by-side. In addition, as Ben had mentioned earlier, you can also compare the live (www.hometoindy.com) and development (hometoindy.sierrainteractivedev.com) sites to make sure the correctness of data.

As for testing the MIBOR updater on the dev server, my thought is to do this by executing command-line test application. This will allow you to test the MIBOR region updater in isolation.

The development server (75.103.119.144) has a Test App folder (D:\Updater System\Test App). Pls FTP the latest command-line executable and other associated DLLs to this folder. The Sierra.Updater.Tester.exe.config file already contains server specific settings so you won't need to change it unless you want to test the email alert functionality. In that case, pls change the TestEmailAddress param with appropriate value.

Important points:

1 -- If you need to update the config file, pls make sure that LogEmails is set to true (otherwise emails would be sent to actual leads)

2 -- The connection-strings are updated to point to the dev. DB (sql4.sierrainteractivemls.com) so you can remove the SoCal specific updater steps from the Updater_MLSRegionUpdateSteps table in dev DB; the SoCal MLSRegion_ID value is 10. This will make sure that only MIBOR records are downloaded / updated.

3 -- Pls don't FTP the following two files: librets-dotnet.dll and librets-pinvoke.dll; they are of 64-bit version. Uploading the build version (which is 32-bit version) will result in error.

I've set up a new user, georgem (#G30rg3#) on the development server (75.103.119.144). Pls remote into the development server using these credentials. Also, you can use the following FTP settings to FTP console app to the Test App folder directly: 75.103.116.57 sierraupdaterdev #Med2a$123#

--

As for side-by-side database comparison, you can remote into the following server: 208.106.250.174 using the same credentials i.e. georgem (#G30rg3#). I've already opened an SQL Server session, and have connected to the live DB (sql2.sierrainteractivemls.com) and development DB (sql4.sierrainteractivemls.com).

Just in case you need to connect to either of these DBs, the username and password are s13rra and 1nteractiv3 respectively.

Pls let me know if you have any queries / need additional info.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

George,

First, there are no fixed rules regarding which RETS fields get mapped to which fields in our database, meaning there are

no requirements mandated by the data providers and we can set our own rules.

That said, we do have general guidelines regarding which RETS fields get mapped to which fields in our database, and I

will try to outline those for you here.

First, it will probably be helpful for you to review the schema and data in our MLS table if you have not already done

so. As you'll see, there are essentially three types of fields:

1 - Those that reflect a single value from the RETS feed, such as MLS, SqFt, Price, etc. These are relatively self-

explanatory.

2 - Composite fields, which draw from multiple fields in the RETS feed. These fields in the MLS table primarily begin

with "Features..." as in "FeaturesInterior," "FeaturesExterior," etc.

3 - Bit or TinyInt fields which typically contain boolean values of 1 or 0, such as Pool, Spa, REO, Foreclosure,

ShortSale, Equestrian, etc. These fields are used in our application to make the search process quicker. Each of these

fields represents a search field on one of the search forms so that when a visitor searches for a home with a pool, for

example, we can easily search against the Pool field in the MLS table to find matching results. Determining whether each

of these fields is true for a given property record can often involve a number of steps.

It might also be helpful for you to review the MLS data as it is presented on a client's website. Here are a few

examples for you:

http://www.hometoindy.com/property-search/detail/25/21125020/15630-shining-spring-drive-westfield-in-46074/ http://www.hometoindy.com/property-search/detail/25/21044899/1708-west-161st-street-westfield-in-46074/ http://www.hometoindy.com/property-search/detail/25/21136101/136-harrowgate-drive-carmel-in-46033/

---

Regarding the composite fields for MIBOR, I've outlined them below. Please refer to the mls_functions.asp file for an

example of how these fields were assembled using this data in the Classic ASP application (starting at line 460).

1 - FeaturesBasement / Describes the basement of the property

- "Base Desc(21)" as "Basement:"

2 - FeaturesConstruction / Describes the construction of the property (is it new construction? what stage of

construction is it in? what type of construction is the building? etc.)

- "Const.Stg(513)" AS "Construction Stage:"
- "Cnt Type(523)" AS "Construction Type:"
- "New Const(529)" AS "Construction Status:"

3 - FeaturesFinancial / Includes information on such things as property taxes, the last year in which taxes were paid on

the property, whether the property is in Foreclosure, financial disclosures, etc.

- "Semi Tax(284)" AS "Semi-Annual Property Tax:"
- "Tax Yr(292)" AS "Tax Year:"
- "Discltwo(1406)" AS "Financial Disclosures:"

4 - FeaturesDocuments / Similar to FeaturesFinancial, includes other types of disclosures and any other types of

documents available for examination in the sale of the property.

- "Discl(77)" AS "Primary Disclosures:"
- "DisclOther(1408)" AS "Other Disclosures:"

5 - FeaturesEnergy / Describes items related to the heating, cooling and electricity of the property

- "Wtr Heat(305)" AS "Water Heater:"
- "Heat(100)" AS "Heat:"
- "Cool(72)" AS "Cool:"
- "Fuel(99)" AS "Fuel:"
- "FP Desc(92)" AND "FP(93)" AS "Fireplace(s):" . This one is tricky, because you need to combine two values.  

Please see mls_functions.asp line 645 for an example of how this is done.

6 - FeaturesExterior / Describes items related to the exterior of the home, such as patio, porch, pool, spa, etc.

- "Ext Amen(11)" AS "Exterior Features:"
- "Porch(528)" AS "Porch / Patio:"

7 - FeaturesFarm / Describes items related to the farm, if the property is a farm

- None

8 - FeaturesFencing / Describes items related to the fencing around the property, if present. In this case the Fencing

description is included in "Ext Amen(11)" field under Exterior Features in the RETS data feed.

- None

9 - FeaturesFoundation / Describes the foundation of the property, if present

- None

10 - FeaturesGarage / Describes the garage of the property, if present. This field often overlaps with FeaturesParking,

and eventually we will probably combine those two fields into one.

- "Garage(1309)" AS "Garage Type:" 
- "1409" (not sure the name of this field) AS "Garage Features:"

11 - FeaturesHOA / HOA stands for "Home-Owners Association". Some properties are located in an area where they are

forced to belong to a local home-owners association. They usually get some benefits from this, such as belonging to a

community swimming pool, but they also must pay a fee to the association on a monthly or annual basis.

- "Mand Fee(137)" AS "Mandatory HOA Fee:"
- "MandFeeInclude(741)" AS "HOA Fee Includes:"
- "Mnd Fee Pd(145)" AS "HOA Fee Paid:" 

12 - FeaturesInterior / Describes the interior of the house, such things as interior areas, eating areas, appliances, etc.

- "Interior(520)" AS "Interior Features:"
- "Areas (Interior)(527)" AS "Interior Area(s):"
- "Eat Area(193)" AS "Eating Area(s):"
- "Appl(315)" AS "Appliances:"
- "Equip(316)" AS "Equipment:"

13 - FeaturesGeneral / Catch-all for items that do not fit in any of the other areas.

- "SF (M+U)(255)" AS "Above Ground Sq. Ft.:"
- "Mn SF(254)" AS "Main Level Sq. Ft.:"
- "Up SF(272)" AS "Upper Level Sq. Ft.:"
- "Tot SF(270)" AS "Total Sq. Ft.:"
- "SF Src(269)" AS "Sq. Ft. Source:" 

14 - FeaturesLot / Describes features of the lot surrounding the property, such as lake on the property, or barn, or wooded land, etc.

- "Lot Info(141)" AS "Lot Features:"

15 - FeaturesLotAccess / Describes ways in which the lot can be accessed (what type of road, etc.)

 - None

16 - FeaturesParking / Describes parking availability for the property. This overlaps with FeaturesGarage.

- None

17 - FeaturesRoof / Describes the roof of the property. This sometimes overlaps with FeaturesConstruction or FeaturesRoof.

- None

18 - FeaturesUtilities / Describes the utilities available to the property, such as electricity, water, etc.

- "Util Opt(302)" AS "Utility Options:"
- "Wtr Src(306)" AS "Water Source:"

---

One last thing regarding the data in the MIBOR feed. Unfortunately, the data as it comes from the feed is full of abbreviations which are hard to read. For example, in the data feed, "FinCeling" is used in place of "Finished Ceiling."

To make the data more readable, in the current updater I created a series of arrays which can be used to decode the data from the RETS feed into readable values. This file (mibor_features.asp) works in connection with mls_functions.asp (using the DecodeAbbrevs as you will see) and is also attached.

The SoCal MLS does not do this type of abbreviating and the functionality to decode abbreviations is not present in the SoCal MLS updater you are working from, and so you will need to integrate this into the MIBOR updater in some way.

---

That covers all of the composite fields. Once those are set, we will still need to work on setting the bit fields (REO, Foreclosure, Pool, Spa, etc.) I will send you notes on that tomorrow.

I hope this has been helpful -- please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

George,

You can find the example for working with RETS meta-data here: http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/librets/documentation/devguide/. The 3rd point, "Working with metadata" provides some examples of downloading RETS server metadata. This metadata can then be used as reference for mapping MIBOR fields to our database fields.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

George,

The HomeToIndy.com client phoned today to report that her board has released a new class of data -- data for "Past Solds", or listings that have sold and are no longer on the market.

Can you pull the metadata for the MIBOR / Indy feed and see if there are new resources in the feed which would allow us to acccess that data?

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

George,

Yes, it's definitely okay to connect to live servers for testing purposes. Since the data feed only comes in one direction (from them to us), it's fine to query during the testing process.

Thanks Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben,

Developing a small application for data comparison sounds good. The only concern I've is that in using this application, the old and new updater would have to be synchronized. That is, the tests would have to be carried out only after the old updater has run; otherwise the comparison application won't be much of a use. Could you pls confirm the time when the MIBOR updates are completed (through the old updater)? George can then schedule the new updaters to run around that time, and, then can use comparison application to verify correctness of data. Pls let me know your thoughts on this.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Ben,

RE: #66: I've restarted the DEDN173 server but I'm now unable to remote into it. The server appears to have restarted correctly as I could access the CAA website. Could you pls look into the same?

As for the size of SoCal photos, it is definitely lot more when compared to other regions. I verified that all these photos are associated with active listings. Moreover, the ratio of photos added to photos removed is more than 2 majority of the times so this size in all likelihood will increase.

Thanks.

Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Ben,

I couldn't verify the following widgets for the PhotoServer specific changes:

• MLS_Tools_Integrated\widgets\carousel.asp
• MLS_Tools_Integrated\widgets\carousel-listings.asp

I'm not sure which pages make use of these widgets. I did check http://realestate3000.sierrainteractivedev.com for carousel-listings.asp, but it appears to be including the site-specific carousel page ([Site-Folder]/res/includes/listing-carousel-2.asp). In fact, similar pages are being used in various other sites like hometoindy, weirproperties and so on... Pls let me know how to verify the above two widgets.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

George & Vihar,

I do think it might be worthwhile to develop a small application which would compare data rows between dev and live DBs for the same listing to make sure that the data is the same -- mainly because we do have a number of additional regions to convert from the old updater to the new updater, and so this application would be used for all of those regions and would therefore save us quite a bit of time in testing.

Unless, Vihar, you have already written some scripts that will do this type of comparison or have something else in mind?

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

George,

I've logged off from the server. Can you pls try after 5 mins and let me know if you can log into the server?

As for the changes to be applied to your local copy - you'll need to merge the remote changes into your local branch. This can be done by executing the following command git merge origin master. I'm not sure if origin is the name of your remote branch. You can check the same by executing git branch -r command; this will list all remote branch maintained by the git repository.

Alternatively, you can run git pull origin master. This will first fetch remote changes and immediately merge them in your local repository. So in a way it does the job of git fetch and git merge.

Pls let me know if you have any queries.

Thanks Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)

[Battler45]

Vihar & George,

Thanks, everything appears to have updated correctly and to be working properly now.

George, I do have one more question for the Indy updater -- the contact there says that the Sold data for this region should now be available through the RETS feed. Can you check the RETS metadata for this reason and see if the Sold data is now available as a new class?

Thanks. Posted by Peskoe Ben(unfuddle username: bpeskoe)

[Battler45]

Ben,

The only other open point is re. import of Open House details. As George had mentioned earlier, it looks like our MIBOR RETS account doesn't have access to open-house details. Pls let me know if the open-house step can be ignored for MIBOR region.

Thanks. Posted by Shah Vihar(unfuddle username: vshah)