What is WPRealty?

What exactly is WPRealty?

WPRealty is quite literally an integrated listings manager script based on a forked version of OpenRealty modified in such a way as to provide WordPress bloggers a means of adding real estate listings to his/her site while extending the feature of adding custom search, display and marketing of properties. Although version 3.0 will be 100% proprietary, the decision to integrate our forked version of OpenRealty served a few purposes in order to facilitate the transition.  Almost daily, people will still ask us why we went with the forked version of a listings manager to achieve what we were after in version 2.0. Here is a bit of history to explain this.

Back in 2008 we had taken the static build version of OpenRealty and forked it to suite our needs for the projects we developed with OpenRealty.  We have our own formula for site building and therefore required a few enhancements and modifications to the product in order to accommodate our needs.  After building the fork however, we opted to NOT publish it since maintenance and support would become a lofty task given the potential confusion between our forked variant and the actual OpenRealty script.  Having consulted with Ryan Bonham about my intentions several years ago in a group chat session, he stressed that forking OpenRealty would be fine so long as the name OpenRealty was not used.  His concern naturally was that they would not attempt to support it and would prefer we do not use their product name which could result in some confusion. 

Shortly after we started using our forked version of OpenRealty, problems would frequently surface where updates were concerned. The original idea was to remove the ADODB abstraction layer for the much faster PDO method. As clients attempted to update their websites with successive versions of OpenRealty they would overwrite our version resulting in a broken site and in many cases a site that would not function with automated MLS updates. This was the first issue we identified and knew we needed to consider other methods of using the forked variant.

Naturally as time went on WordPress not only grew in popularity, it exploded as the number one tool used by Real Estate professionals seeking to increase their presence on the internet. As early as 2007 we began building WordPress sites for Realtors and as I will demonstrate below you can examine the succession of the WPRealty plugin as it evolved over the past two and a half years.  But first, it was important to keep in mind a that since the market really dictates what gets developed, Realtors were migrating away from paid solution providers faster than we could keep up and they expected to take back control. We formulated the concept of WPRealty to integrate rather than bridge applications.

WPRealty 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, what is the differences and why does it matter?

WPRealty 2.0 was to be the transition application between the former WPRealty 1.0 bridge and the fully realized custom WPRealty 3.0 Plugin. A brief look at the versions will tell a better story of our efforts and what you can expect in the version updates as we publish them.

What Is WPRealty 1.0

WPRealty 1.0 was essentially a way to integrate listings from OpenRealty into a WordPress blog by using a plugin. A truly unique and 100% proprietary solution, the plugin was used quite successfully in dozens and dozens of sites. 

In essence, the plugin would bring in listings into a WordPress blog for better SEO control and benefit from the listings to take advantage of the native WordPress features that have proven successful time and time again.  Although we had still employed other methods of using both WordPress and OpenRealty together with a technique of CURL and php Includes to clone the features, the subsequent SEO results were spotty at best. We needed something a bit more reliable if we really wanted to bridge the two applications for better SEO control. WPRealty 1.0 as I stated above became the tool that worked for dozens and dozens of real estate websites quite effectively.

WPRealty 1.0 was first published in 2007 and officially on WordPress in December of that year. We used WPRealty 1.0 throughout 2008 and part of 2009. WPRealty 1.0 was updated recently and is still maintained. Although WPRealty 1.0 was truly unique and proprietary it was not without its challenges as competitors took every opportunity to not only copy the plugin for use in their own solutions but shoot it down as a viable product in part because of their dislike for OpenRealty.

OpenRealty over the course of a year earned a horrific reputation of being one of the most hostile and unfriendly forums on the internet. Challenging the wisdom of professionals as a routine and often editing, punishing and even banning members for mere mention of integration with WordPress or employing tools such as vieleRETS.  The OpenRealty community dwindled substantially in activity which so offended people they would not use WPRealty as a result.

What is WPRealty 2.0

WPRealty 2.0 came about after we received countless requests and trouble shooting tickets from the plugin users that said the latest version of OpenRealty included a blog of their own and presented unique changes that would actually conflict with WordPress. Although we fixed the bugs and updated WPRealty 1.0, we opted to consider a new approach. It was time to go back to WPRealty 1.0 and rather than ask someone to install OpenRealty for integration, we would simply apply our forked version to the plugin folder as to avoid version conflicts.  Naturally this was no easy task.  After thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in development, design and testing, we released the very buggy version of WPRealty 2.0 in October 2009. Since the initial release of WPRealty 2.0 we have since published 6 updates of which 4 are official version updates to correct bugs and add in new features.

One might consider WPRealty 2.0 to be in a similar position as Joomla was with its relationship to Mambo.  Joomla 1.0 was forked from Mambo after many reasons which lead to a conflict in the direction the product was going. Joomla's first version was quite literally Mambo rebranded as was our first fork of OpenRealty.  Although many dozens of products people use today are forks of the originals, the license method remains in tact.  The reason for the licensing of a GNU/GPL product is to provide succession of the work which can be published freely as unique works if desired. With OpenRealty their license actually began as GNU/GPL and migrated to a proprietary license with similar characteristics.  Most notably, OpenRealty requires that any product, commercial or otherwise, must retain the copyright tag in the source, must include an unencrypted version of the modified code and must be available freely without expense. 

From the licensing stand point we opted to maintain a separate folder or archive for those wanting to download the free code in keeping with the OpenRealty license and we went a step further by providing a full, unedited copy of the original license within the plugin folder.

WPRealty 2.0 Was essentially developed to take away the need to install OpenRealty and allowed us to add in all the dozens upon dozens of modifications and enhancements we wanted without running the risk future updates of OpenRealty would render our efforts moot.  Although WPRealty is fully unique in terms of its being a plugin, it has caused a bit of confusion regarding the integration of the forked version of OpenRealty and the modification of the details in each PHP file.  I'll summarize the changes like this; We modified each php file to include new details because Ryan Bonham DOES NOT and WILL NOT support the product.  In keeping with his request years past, we not only renamed it accordingly but also removed support links that pointed back to OpenRealty.  Although WPRealty 2.0 is still a fully unique product as a plugin, we do include our forked version of OpenRealty to simply remove the need for a separate install.

We have found people on the internet suggesting that this was done in an attempt to debunk OpenRealty and the simple fact is, its done to make things easier instead of trying to maintain cohesion between separate applications.

What is WPRealty 3.0

WPRealty 3.0 was planned for development back in 2008 and began casual part time development in October of this year. Although developed from the ground up as a completely proprietary product, nearly all of the existing features available in WPRealty 2.0 are maintained to the next version.  WPRealty 3.0 will be back in full development after the first of the year and will feature a tool for importing both WPRealty 2.0 and OpenRealty data for easy migration to the new solution. 

WPRealty 3.0 solves several issues we have experienced over the years with enhancements in key areas of concern. First, we are building WPRealty 3.0 to be better positioned for use as a replacement for proprietary solution providers.  Rather than try and assault and directly compete with the proprietary solution providers, we are opting instead to structure the licensing that would allow solution providers to use the solution unbranded, unrestricted for the most part, and to do so in an affordable way.  The same is true of our relationship with theme developers like Bryan Gardner and others who specialize in Real Estate Theme development.  We are building WPRealty 3.0 to work as an enhancement to those themes by keeping the listings manager dependent on the theme for its overall structure. Naturally some may wonder why and the simple answer is simplicity of integration.  Too many plugins require too many modifications to function properly and the more we shift the styling, structure and typography to the theme developer the more likely the new WPRealty will be embraced.

Another key factor in the development of the WPRealty 3.0 version is our total migration away from the forked version of OpenRealty as the technique we use for the listings manager is entirely unique. This allows us to publish WPRealty 3.0 as a fully GNU/GPL product as originally desired with WPRealty 1.0.  Enhancements will include a much better database structure, better support for IDX and RETS import, CSV import is a native feature and a lofty inventory of key features like google maps, xml export and sales lead management are central to the development.

When WPRealty 3.0 is published it will be GNU/GPL licensed and will have paid options that will include branded, non branded, non branded unlimited use.  By doing so we can keep a free version out there as we do with all of our other plugins in exchange for link bait.  Most themes and plugins in fact are published with links back to the developer site and we would intend on keeping this a feature in our free version.  A person could buy a support license like they do now with WPRealty 2.0 for an unbranded version and then we would offer an unlimited unbranded version for people who build and or provide Real Estate WordPress websites to their clients.

We thought long and hard about the best way to fund the development and maintenance of the plugin without violating the GNU/GPL terms and we feel that making it "Support Ware" is the best solution. Support takes time, it takes money and it takes persistence and many open source applications die as a result. Our solution will provide it freely for those confident with plugin usage and still offer a supported version used to fund development and updates as we now do.