Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Listing Bits Episode 44: A Collaborative Approach to Web API Adoption with Jon Druse of W+R Studios

“A phone call is worth a thousand emails, and a Slack channel is worth a million conversations.”

I’ve been saving this episode until W+R Studios formally made the announcement about not accepting RETS feed on new MLS implementations. Its a great conversation with Jon about the road to getting Cloud Agent Suite working with the Web API.

RESO’s push for an industry shift from RETS to Web API makes a lot of developers nervous. You can spin your wheels for days trying to figure out how to make the new way to consume MLS data work with your application. But here’s the thing: Somebody else has probably already solved that problem. So, how do we create a platform where developers can team up to move adoption forward? How much does accessibility to the experts serve as a game-changer in the switch to Web API?

Jon Druse is a Senior Developer at W+R Studios, a software company dedicated to building tools for the real estate industry. Prior to W+R, he served as a Software Engineer and Interaction Designer with Socialcast, Sleepy Giant, and Central Desktop and cut his teeth as a Senior Developer at PhishMe, Inc. Jon has 11-plus years of experience in the industry, and he was recently responsible for leading Cloud Agent Suite’s shift away from RETS, making W+R the first vendor to put Web API into production.

Today, Jon explains why direct access to ‘people with answers’ was critical to his success on the project. He describes how Web API is less error-prone and requires fewer requests than RETS yet displays in the same format. Jon also discusses the minimal differences among Bridge, Trestle and Spark when it comes to replication of a data set. Listen in to understand why collaboration among developers is key in moving Web API adoption forward and learn how Jon was able to make the transition happen at W+R in just 6 months!

What’s Discussed: 

How John set up the Web API feed in W+R’s Cloud Agent Suite

Why accessibility to ‘people with answers’ was crucial to Jon’s success

RESO’s push for an industry shift from RETS to Web API

The intention behind RESO’s Replication Workgroup

How Web API outperforms RETS in terms of time and accuracy

How a common schema will solve for maintenance in Web API

The 3 vendor-MLS partnerships delivering data through Web API

The minimal differences among Bridge, Trestle and Spark for replication

Jon’s insight around how to move Web API adoption forward

How Jon taught himself to program working tech support at a high school

Resources:

RESO Conference

Mike Wurzer & Andy Woolley on Listing Bits EP035

Al at CoreLogic on LinkedIn

The Bridge API

Trestle

Spark API

Connect with Jon:

W+R Studios

Jon on LinkedIn

Jon on Twitter

  1. Usually I wait for the gym to catch up the next episode, but I couldn’t resist taking some time out during the day to catch up on this one. As a huge fan of the podcast, I really appreciate the shout out.:D This was a great experience for us as well. We happily enable MLSs to support both platforms (RETS & WebAPI) but we’re constantly amazed at how quickly good teams are able to get up to speed on the WebAPI.

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