OK Gurus, I need some advice...

chillout · 06-29-2012, 06:22 PM

I am working on a realtor website. Coding is not my strongpoint..that's where I hope one of you guys/gals can help me find a solution.
Here's what I have:

I am designing a realtor website. I have the graphics pretty well complete and need to get the coding right in order for all to work correctly.
I will post a link to the graphics to give you a visual on what I am trying to do, but let me first give you an overview.

This realtor is with re/max, and he has two websites. The main website we have full control of every aspect. The other website is where all the MLS listings, featured properties, etc resides, and its coding is controlled by re/max. We have full permission to manipulate our website any way we chose to display their database info, but we do not have access to their coding (for obvious reasons).
So what we end up with are widgets to allow the user to do various search criteria, but once submitted it goes to their database layout, which takes the user away from the main website, and as all of you know, we want to avoid google seeing the main website as simply an "entry page" website as opposed to a full functional website.
Now one solution is to simply place links on the main page of the website rather than the actual search widgets, which would open a page on our server with various iframes to allow the users to do their searches...and we may do that in some cases, but we do not want to do that on the home page. So let me show you a couple of the widgets to allow you to see the coding and the display of those widgets:
http://jerryhatley.remax.com/Listing...search_r4.aspx

http://jerryhatley.remax.com/Listing...60514&CVID=142

http://jerryhatley.remax.com/Listing...getFP1_r4.aspx

Here you can see how its layed out in the graphics (this page is just a large pic file at the moment):
http://jerryleehatley.com/

So the way it is setup, it does the search criteria correctly, but it is opening their basic template page. I need to at least have that page open in an iframe to keep the visitor from leaving the main website, but I am also interested in hearing what ideas you have to display in a better way (if possible).

So here is the root of my question: Is their a way in javascript or any other language that would allow me to work with their coding within those widgets to get the results to display as we need it?

I'm not sure how well Ive explained this, so I will allow for your questions to be asked and answer them timely. Any help would be much appreciated.

Old Pedant · 06-29-2012, 07:59 PM

Probably the best way is to use a search PROXY.

But that requires server-side coding: PHP or JSP or ASP, etc.

You would have the user enter the search criteria on your web page, the criteria is sent back to YOUR server, then your server hits the ReMax server with the criteria and gets back a page with the content. Your server then reads the content and "massages" it to make it fit the layout you want on your page, including putting your own header/footer/nav/etc. on it.

Basically, you throw away the *appearance* of the ReMax server's page and replace it with your own.

Looking at those search results, this should actually be pretty easy to do.

NOW... This is only possible if it doesn't violate the licensing terms ReMax imposes on you.

chillout · 06-29-2012, 09:59 PM

Thanks for the tip.
As for the licensing agreement, they have given us full range of whatever we can figure out we can do as long as all logos and copyright info is in place. They actually didnt even point out those things, but Ive dealt with the MLS offices long enough to know they have to be in place. I also advised my client that if we figure a way out to do what you have suggested, that he is not not cancel the website with them, as he would be in violation at that point.

Their team has actually asked us to let them know the best solution for this issue because they have other agents looking for solutions as well.
They've tried data pushes, data pulls, etc...but there are so many issues with server timeout issues that they are doing away with those.

Any more tips are welcome. Thanks again.

Old Pedant · 06-29-2012, 10:14 PM

You could use an <iframe> solution, of course, but it's not elegant and Google *will* see that you are doing it. The server-based solution means that Google has no idea you are doing it and all content on your site then looks like your own.

How hard/easy this is depends on what you have available on your server. Is it Windows or Linux server, for example. And you would probably need to be able to handle all kinds of responses from them, including those that show advanced search form, just for example. It's not trivial, but it's not a months-long project, either.