RETS2 compared to RETS 1.x
From RETS Community Wiki
| RETS2 | RETS 1.x | |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol | Web Services – SOAP 1.2
WSDL file can be used by standard toolkits to generate interface: http://www.rets.org/retsorg.nsf/rets.wsdl | HTTP 1.1 |
| XML Format | XML Schema | DTD |
| Statefulness | Stateless | Stateful |
| XML Data | Variety of Standard MLS, TMS and Media payloads:
http://retsserver.realtors.org:8080/xsd/Payload_Schema_List.html | Only supports three payloads: STANDARD-XML, COMPACT, COMPACT-DECODED |
| Tabular Data | Standard DELIMITED payload for: “flat” data: tab, comma or pipe, delimited flatfile that can be processed immediately in Excel, etc. | COMPACT and COMPACT-DECODED are “xml-like” but not XML – URL-encoding used; parsing needed to turn pseudo-xml into desired delimited file |
| Data Extensibility | Standard Payloads are extensible – servers can augment with local data at xs:any extension point. | Standard-XML is not extensible.
Servers cannot augment with local data. All local data is confined to a COMPACT payload. |
| Other Data Formats | Ability to create Custom XML payloads and other custom format payloads (archives, pdfs, JSON,etc.) : | No support for user-defined payloads. |
| Metadata | Several Small Metadata
http://retsserver.realtors.org:8080/xsd/ResourceList.xsd http://retsserver.realtors.org:8080/xsd/Vocabulary.xsd http://retsserver.realtors.org:8080/xsd/LookupList.xsd | One Big Metadata
http://www.rets.org/retsorg.nsf/rets-metadata-content-1_7.dtd |
| Query Language | RQL Query Language – SQL-like syntax, Can also use grammar parser (ANTLR) to implement BNF | DMQL2 Query Language – syntax not like SQL. BNF cannot be parsed by a standard grammar parser. |
| Search | Search can be used to retrieve photos/media as well as XML or other payloads. This means that full queries can be used to find photos/media. | Search can only be used to retrieve XML or COMPACT.
GetObject must be used to retrieve photos/media. Photo/media retrieval limited to identifying an ID. |
| Update | Update can be used to update ANY FORMAT: this includes XML, photos, documents (pdfs, etc.). Update can also update records as a batch. | Update can only update a single text record at a time. The only format supported is an HTTP queryString of key-value pairs.
There is no PutObject transaction to update photos/media. |
| Security | Web Services Security with Support for Username Token, X.509 and SAML. | HTTP Digest and Basic Authentication. |
| Query Vocabularies | Multiple Vocabularies designed to make client query generation easier, including WellKnown and Local. Can mix elements from one list with another in a query. | Two query formats supported, StandardNames and SystemNames. Cannot mix elements from one list with another in a a query. |
