[Rets-dev] Why XML?

[Matt Lavallee]

On Friday, August 03, 2007 at 3:51 PM, Chris McKeever wrote:


> > You are an MLS.
> > How do I determine which standard payloads do you have available?
> 
> I think Matt's point is that the 'standard' payloads all _need_ be available
> for a system to be compliant

This is already a "MUST" in the standard for the MLS payloads.

> > If a lightweight RETS IDX payload is defined next year how hard is it to
> > add to your server?
> 
> if it is a required standard, it will be added, and the mapping
> exercise will be as difficult or as easy as the previous

IDX and IDXExtended payloads are already in the spec.  If IDXLight is added, as
Chris said, it won't be any more difficult than the first implementation
(particularly if it's a "light" version).

> well, now on to that thought - is it so hard to ask that the consuming
> client doesn't negotiate and try to predict everything?  Can't there
> be a mls-by-mls RETS developer document available that discusses the
> fields, payloads, allowed queries and compact decoded or not?
> 
> Here is a case, I write a client that does queries based on bathroom
> count, but the next MLS I add doesnt allow that query.  Well, as the
> developer I need to change my client, it isnt going to self heal
> itself that much.  As a developer I'd sure like to read some document
> published by the MLS that told me the queries and/or custom payloads
> verse having my client-app choke when I run it.  Because inevitably,
> no matter what the client-app does, I'll need to massage the data for
> either replication into my system or display and I'll have to visually
> go over the data that is returned to understnad what the custom
> payload gave me anyhow.

Chris makes a good point -- you're stating that this parse-readable format
actually be destined for human consumption (and, basically, only human
consumption).  This definitely doesn't make sense.  Given the endless
possibilities available to us via XSL for reformatting output, I think it would
make much more sense to create a standard payload AND XSL+stylesheet that
generates these kind of docs in the implementation that ARE human-readable.

-Matt