Hi community. I am working on a real estate site that uploads to Inspect Real Estate. They have an API to pull listings in but there is no endpoint for the property features. So an agent there suggested this:
You will need to accept REAXML files via FTP as our Listing API does not contain property features as it’s only a basic Listing API.
Here’s what will need to be done to setup a website feed from the client’s IRE account to the website:
Provide FTP Details : If you can send us the FTP details for your website (like the server address, username, password, and directory path where the files should go), we’ll configure the feed to send your listings directly.
Confirm Compatibility : Make sure with your website developer or hosting provider that your website is set up to read REAXML files, so the listings import smoothly.
So i have found out that Webflow doesn’t directly support FTP access. Can anyone offer any assistance or is available for me to hire to help implement this? This is an SOS so I don’t have to go back to Wordpress site. haha
FTP isn’t the problem, you can FTP it anywhere. The problem is parsing the XML and loading it into the Webflow CMS.
How would Wordpress be easier? Is there already a loader service / integration there? If so I’d look at utilizing it if possible. Even to the point of having that data feed into a dummy WP site, and then extracting that data by web scrape.
If not, you’ll need to build this;
FTP drop for REAXML. If you use something like ExaVault or GoAnywhere, you can have webhook trigger fire once the new file is fully received. Otherwise you’ll just schedule your imports at a time when the upload is hopefully not in-progress.
An automation process validates and parses the XML
Iterate through the items
Create / update / delete listings
For the update it helps to have a specific setup;
Collection item slug ( or name ) is the real estate feed item ID
And to do it in a specific sequence;
Query all items from the CMS, and store the ID’s in an in-memory “checklist”
Lookup the item ID with Webflow API 2, List Collection Items using the slug or name filter
If it does not exist, create it
If it exists, update it
Each found item is removed from the in-memory list
Any remaining at the end were deleted. Here I’d update to a “sold” state and display that on the site for SEO, but you could just archive them.
This will have to vary depending on your data feed.
Be prepared for data validation and cleanup work, when I last did the Chicago MLS it was maintaining 60,000 records daily and there was a ton of bad data in the fields; broken room measurements, realtor notes in numeric fields, it was a hot mess.
Also, you’ll have to figure out images, depends on how they deliver them. If they’re public URLs and the images are max 4MB in size, you’re in good shape, Webflow’s API’s are designed for that.