Boston.com : Real Estate Help : Listings Feed Upload Instructions

Listings Feed Upload Instructions

Revised May 18, 2009

- Updates to class codes in Appendix E

Welcome to Boston.com and thank you for advertising your properties on our site

Below you will find detailed instructions for how to post your listings on our site.

Before you begin, please note the following:

- Listings are loaded on the site twice a day, Monday through Wednesday and three times a day Thursdays and Fridays. Listing are loaded twice per day Saturday and Sunday.

- Listings that are in the system by 7am will be live on the site shortly after 9am.

Also, please note the following FTP information:

- FTP Address: ftp://reftp.gabriels.net

- Username: (supplied by Boston.com)

- Password: (supplied by Boston.com)

Feed Setup Process
If you have any questions during this process, please contact Kate Kelleher at kkelleher@boston.com or (617) 929-8650 Send the following logos to rbouganza@boston.com and kkelleher@boston.com. These logos will appear with your listings. 95 x 50 (width x height in pixels) and no more than 2k and in gif format and named yourcompanyid.gif (i.e. 338.gif). Set up a file in the format indicated below. * Once you have created the file, send it to kkelleher@boston.com to be tested. This must be done before you place your listings file on FTP. Once your test file is approved (within 5 business days) you will receive an email indicating that you are able to place your file on FTP. You will login using the FTP username and password provided to you by Boston.com. (Note: DO NOT change your file format by adding or subtracting or moving around your headers once it has been approved. This will cause the file to not load correctly as it is mapped based on the format the database is expecting. If you wish to change your current format, please email the file to kkelleher@boston.com along with what was changed for testing and remapping.) After that, you can place a new file on FTP daily, and the data will be updated on our live site Monday through Sunday. Files that are placed by 7 a.m. will appear shortly after 9 a.m. daily. Files that are placed by 11 a.m. will appear shortly after 2 p.m. daily.

Feed Upload Format

* Download Text File (Tab Delimited) Template [Updated 06/12/09]
(Note: After download right click and open with Excel to enter your listings then save it a as text tab delimited file when you are finished)

Files must be sent in a tab-delimited file format named as follows: yourcompanyname.txt.
If information is not available, please leave field blank, but include a tab.
Please always include field headers.
No text qualifier.
Your photos should be hosted on your own site and include absolute URLs in the feed.
*UPDATED* You can now send 20 photos per listing, an increase from 12.
Photo instructions-
- Sizes:
  - Property photos: 399 x 311 (please try to resize photos down to this size as large images tend to load slow and might cause errors)
  - Agent Photos: 80 x 80 (width x height in pixels)
- Format:
  - Photos should be .JPG format.
  - Floorplans should be .GIF format.
  - Virtual Tour should be a url to an external site.
- Naming: Names should correspond to the property name or agent and should not include dashes or spaces.
- Pathname:
  - If you or another vendor is hosting your photos: Once you have loaded the photos, include the path in the fields below as follows (yyy = photo path / photo name):
    - Fields 17 to 28 - http://www.yoursitename.com/yyy.jpg
    - Field 29 to 33 - http://www.yoursitename.com/yyy.jpg
    - Field 7 - http://www.yoursitename.com/yyy.jpg
  - If we are hosting your photos: Once you have ftp'd the photos, include the filename only in the fields 17-28.

* Bold / Highlighted = Required Field

Field Name

Description

* Listing ID

Your internal listing ID
Character limit: 30

* Company ID

Company ID provided by Gabriels.net and Boston.com

* Classification

Type of listing. Choose one code from appendix E. (Example: 800)

Agent ID

ID that uniquely defines an agent / Most likely MLS agent ID
Character limit: 25

Agent Name

Name of the agentExample: John Smith
Character limit: 60

Agent Phone Number

Phone number for the agent
Character limit: 25

Agent Email

Email address for the agent
Character limit: 80

Agent Photo

URL of Photo. Prefix URL with http://
Example: http://www.yoursite/image/agent_pic.jpg
Note: image size: width should be 40 x 44 (width x height in pixels)
Character limit: 127

Rental or Sale

Rental = "R", Sale = "S"

* Location

Location for listing (see appendix C for format)
Important: neighborhoods need to be separated from city name
Example: Boston|MA|United States|Brighton
Character limit: 100

* Price

Listing price. As a full number. Do not use $ sign or commas.
Example: 1399

Rooms

Number of rooms. Must be an integer.

Bedrooms

Number of bedrooms. Must be an integer. (enter 0 for studio)

Full Baths

Number of full bathrooms. Must be an integer. 2.5 baths must be split up into 2 FULLBATHS and 1 HALFBATHS

Half Baths

Number of half bathrooms. Must be an integer. See note above for FULLBATHS

Lot Size

Size of lot in Square Feet
Character limit: 10

* Ad Copy

Text to be displayed for the listing up to 4500 characters
Character limit: 4500

Photo 1

URL of Photo. Prefix URL with http://
Example: http://www.yoursite/image/house_pic.jpg
Note: image size: width should be 325 x 244 (please try to resize photos down to this size as large images tend to load slow and might cause errors)
Character limit: 127

Photo 2