"OpenMLS is a web-based real estate listing management system. As a database driven dynamic web application, it provides a scaleable solution for Multiple Listing Service organizations and Real Estate Listing Management Services of all sizes. Replacing client server technologies of the past with the web browser and web server technologies, OpenMLS operates securely as an intranet, a private wide area network, or over the Internet. . . OpenMLS has defined the next generation Real Estate listing search technology with the release of "Xsearch!", the first search tool based entirely on XML (eXtensible Markup Language). "XML will revolutionize the way Internet portals quarry data from the web. Currently, portal sites index information by crawling the Web and inspecting HTML pages", explains Doug Greenwood, Senior V.P. of Technology and Development at OpenMLS. Keywords are simply collected without regard to meaning or context. The task of sifting through irrelevant pages is left to the user. Searching a popular portal site for '3 bedrooms AND Oregon' can easily yield over 2 million results, including the advertising of real estate in miscellaneous states and countries." Utilizing XML to add meaning to mark-up, Xsearch! changes all this for the better. Just as HTML defines the display of data, XML defines the meaning of data. By reading XML mark-up, indexing software correlates meaning with data, thereby providing users with truly valuable information . . ."
An initial design document by 4thWORLD Telecom models information relevant to real estate listings in terms of a draft DTD. "The real estate DTD(s) needs to work with several different user types; those making MLS entries using custom software (such as OpenMLS), those making MLS entries with standard XML editors, and those who are simply making a web site (separate from MLS entry). With these scenarios, the DTD must balance the detail needed in the MLS with the simplicity that web developers desire. In addition, there are no MLS form guidelines given by the NAR (although they may currently be working on some). Therefore a very general purpose MLS form must be distilled from the customized documents that the various Board of Realtors will produce with this DTD. . ."
References:
- OpenMLS Home Page
- [March 09, 1998] "Real Estate Listing Software Takes A Quantum Leap Forward With XML Open Standard."
- [March 04, 1999] "HomeSeekers Joins the Co-authoring Effort of the XML based RELML Specification for the Real Estate Industry." - "HomeSeekers.com joins the XML Open Standards Process by participating with OpenMLS and 4thWORLD Telecom to co-author the RELML specification. The XML based RELML (Real Estate Listing Markup Language) specification has gained momentum this week as HomeSeekers.com has joined OpenMLS.com and 4thWORLD Telecom to participate in the co-authoring process of describing real estate listings." [local archive copy]
- Real Estate DTD Design Considerations, from 4thWORLD Telecom; [local archive copy, text only]
- "A New Standard [XML] in the Computer Industry May Change the Real Estate Industry and Fortify the Agent's Personal Touch in Transactions."
- Automating search interfaces
[May 01, 1998] "Data Proposal. Test XML Form Offered for Review." By [Staff]. In LA Times (Thursday, April 30, 1998). [local archive copy]
[March 09, 1998] "XML, Meet MLS. Software could revolutionize listing services." By Warren Lutz. Inman News Features (March 9, 1998). ". . . MLS software based on the XML standard. . . called OpenMLS, the new software is described as an MLS software application package that will be the new, sleeker alternative to current client server based software. . ."
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