|
|
|
|
|
|
by developer2
3151 days ago
|
|
|
Fuck MLS. It's supposedly a "standard", but every single MLS API endpoint is completely different. As in, there are very few recognizable similarities between any two feeds. The data structures are not actually standardized whatsoever; one MLS will have all listings in a single "table", while another will have 12 different tables that you have to figure out how to parse and/or join. There is some lingo that is fairly standard because of the industry, but the way the data is organized and represented is wholly unique per MLS. And there is no documentation other than an (optional, usually 2-3 word!) description on each field providing little insight. The protocol used by MLS servers is kind of standardized... expect not really. There's no single way, for example, to accomplish a full download of an initial dataset. Some MLSes let you order by id with an offset, so you can paginate properly. With others you must use date ranges - but you're assuming that a create or update timestamp is actually meaningful, and surprise - they are not. Some let you run multiple concurrent connections so you can increase data throughput, while others only permit one slow connection that makes it takes 6+ hours to download their entire database. Finally: good luck figuring out when a record is flat out deleted. The MLS may have a separate table where deleted records are supposed to go, but that table is always empty. The MLS nukes data rows with no way for clients to detect the change other than by downloading the entire database from scratch to find the gaps. This requires running hours of queue jobs PER MLS every 24 hours. It's so ridiculously inefficient. Yeah... fuck MLS. End rant. |
|
|
They are absolutely terrible to work with.