A lot of people enquire about getting custom IDX Systems built and want to know what is involved so I thought I would put together a quick thread on it and answer questions for you guys.

Ok to get started a broker needs to apply to their MLS provider for the IDX datafeed, this usually comes in the form of an ftp download or other download. Now be prepared (Rather have your server prepared) downloading the IDX data requires Gigs of extra storage space and takes a lot of bandwidth (Which makes sense as you are download thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of photos depending on how big your MLS is)

Once your broker has signed the forms and gotten permission and a login to download the IDX Data, we then login and download the data to the server. Once we have the data (In whatever form it came in XML, Excell etc) We then write a script that parses the data and converts it into a mysql database.

Once we have the data into the database there is a ton that can be done with it, but the basics are creating the search form, the basic listings pages and the details pages.

Example search page
http://www.realestatejackson.com/mls.php

Example listings page
http://www.realestatejackson.com/lis...Search&action=

Example Details page
http://www.realestatejackson.com/lis...erty=propertyA

Now there are 2 things involved in the creation of these pages, the programming (Backend coding) and then the skinning (Creating the layout and design, graphics etc)

I have to take my son to a piano recital will finish this post later

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