I’m not from Phoenix, nor am I testing Flex MLS. I wouldn’t hold my breath on anything coming from MarketLinx, but here’s hoping that it’s better than the archaic crap like MLXchange.

However, I was a software engineer, before I became a realtor, and I know technology really well. I still keep up to date on technology on a regular basis.

The biggest obstacle for MarketLinx in their current product portfolio has been their reliance on a proprietary technology and framework from Microsoft - namely ActiveX and a variety of outdated and unsecure VisualBasic/ASP bloatware dating back to the mid to late 1990’s. This technology is so old and insecure and slow, that even Microsoft has stopped using it. Remember, this is the kit that ties the user to Internet Explorer as the ONLY choice of a web browser, and also renders MLXchange not accessible from a mobile phone.

I heard recently that MarketLinx has been developing a version of MLXchange using Adobe’s new Flex framework. While and sexy and fresh (as was ActiveX in the 1990’s), it is still ties to a single vendor for all future updates. Therefore the problem doesn’t necessarily go away; now we just have to deal with a less evil vendor (though they’re getting more and more evil every day).

I think the people at MarketLinx, really need to pull their heads out of the collective a$$es, and start developing a PROPER web application, using open, industry-standard, modern toolkits, such as PHP, Rails, Python and others, along with Ajax toolkits for the UI. This way they’ll never be tied to a vendor or a browser plug-in or runtime.

Somehow, I don’t see that happening. They seem to be some incompetent that they can’t even do basic assessment of the technology platforms. Adobe’s Flex is so new and un-weathered, even Adobe won’t rely on it for anything mission-critical. And yet, these guys have jumped on it, because they were sold with the glitz.

It’s very disappointing and shameful, that hundreds of thousands of realtors, all across North America, depend on a very backwards and incompetent company like MarketLinx.

Okay I found some documentation on the Portal and started working it today.

In “Contact Management” the context Help link in the upper right-hand corner covers the Portal, at least enough to get going.

So in “Contact Management” after you select a contact, a bunch of information on the contact comes up in the bottom half of the screen. Then click on “Help” in the upper right-hand corner for some helpful info.

The “Searches/Auto E-mail” tab is where you select the searches you want for either the Auto E-mail and/or the Portal (the Portal has a separate tab).

So, if you only want to do a Portal, you select the Search or Searches you want in the area in the lower left-hand side of the screen called, “Searches.”

Okay, you have selected a search. Now, you can use that search to create an Auto E-mail (click “Add an Auto E-mail”).

If you want to create a Portal, there isn’t an “Add a Portal” button or anything. Just click on the Portal tab and then turn “On” the Portal (click the button “On”). The Portal will automatically use all the searches you selected in the other tab “Searches/Auto E-mail”.

Or something like that.

My confusion was caused by running into all these “Auto E-mail” and “Portal” options when saving a search. Knocking around “Contact Management” I understand the logic a bit better.

I will probably use the Portal most of the time and skip the Auto E-mail… although I am still worried about the ease of use of the Portal for clients since clients have to remember their username and password.

For example, I created a test “Portal” for “John Wake”, got the initial email and I had to use the username and password provided in the email to get into the Portal. Maybe I’m doing something wrong.

I’ll echo all that you’ve said and more… FlexMLS is a many splendid thing! The listing data went over flawlessly too and oh what a relief that is. Michael Wurzer and his sleep deprived team deserve a huge thank you! The vast majority of agents are pumped and thrilled, but some aren’t too keen on flexmls… yet, that is.  I am encouraging all ARMLS subscribers to log into the flexmls online video library.  It contains a fabulous Overview video tutorial, 13 Getting Started video tutorials, and 14 Advanced video tutorials.  There’s also an online manual library that contains 15 separate and clearly illustrated Adobe PDF manuals covering every topic… from the most basic to the complex.  ARMLS is conducting hands-on training at their Tempe headquarters and hosting ongoing webinars covering every flexmls function and there’s no limit on attendance. Previously recorded webinars are stored in the newarmls.com webinar archives and can be played back any time. Many Title Companies have generously offered to  partner with ARMLS and they are conducting training sessions all over the valley.  When I can track down all the Title Company training links, I’ll post thme here.  I promise… that if those agents who are struggling with this necessary change invest a little time to learn it… they’ll love it.  ARMLS absolutely made the best possible choice with their unanimous decision to award the MLS service contract to FBS.  They have a stellar reputation and their service is unparalleled. This puppy works right out of the box! Michael Wurzer at FBS, our CEO Bob Bemis, Mary Toberman at ARMLS, Austin Drew at ARMLS, Barb Hoffman at ARMLS, Brian Wharton at ARMLS and all of the other amazing folks at FBS and ARMLS deserve a major award for delivering the goods!

Thank you also, Greg & Cathy for all of your contributions during the flexmls pre-cutover testing phase and for all of your ongoing suggestions as well. Your input is invaluable. And… a humongous THANK YOU to all of the other beta testers and ongoing supporters out there that worked so hard to make this happen and who are continuing to lend a helpful hand to so many.

I also like the “Selected” feature where you can run different searches but “save” some homes as Selected.

PORTAL - The Great Mystery

Anybody figure the Portal out? There is no video tutorial on the Portal feature. The context help for the Saved Search page does not even mention the Portal feature. Not helpful.

Using English would be nice - you can “Create” a Portal but then it has to be “Enabled”? WTF! I thought I just “Created.” Do I select the password for the client on that screen or is the password some internal password that I leave alone. Can I end up sending a client updates from both the email and the Portal.

The Portal feature needs a video tutorial and accurate, complete context help yesterday.

Photo uploads: We need to do an Adobe AIR or some other type of desktop accessible app to allow drag and drop of folders of photos for uploading, labeling and organizing. Browsers suck for uploads and file management, whether it’s one or six at a time.

Boolean searching: You can exclude text items in a series by using a minus (-) sign in front of the text item and separating items by commas. You mentioned in an email that this function may not be working correctly. Let me know the details and we’ll look into it.

Saving: I also agree about saving searches and carts. We can improve those interfaces. I’m not sure what you mean by a document-based solution but I am sure we can improve the UI.

There are tons of other ideas, too, some of which have already been discussed here earlier and hopefully we’ll get past the core issues in the next few days so we can focus on the fun stuff. I’ll definitely be here to participate.

One potential way to solve it would be to have the developers add a mandatory Current Status field and have Normal, Short sale, Bank Owned, Auction, etc. as the acceptable input similar to Parking has 0, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 for example. That way, you could search that specific field for Normal AND Bank Owned which would eliminate Short Sale and/or Auction.

Just a wish list item, IMO.

Today we have 3 separate products - the MLS, ZipForms, and SureClose. Each requires some level of access to either create or store forms. Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate all the manual labor to move forms from one location to another?

I realize that the entire state does not use the same MLS system, but it seems to me that interfaces could/should be available to eliminate the time-consuming processes currently in place.

As the new CEO for the Arizona Association of REALTORS, I appreciate your comments/concerns regarding our e-forms provider. I will look into those concerns and contact you shortly.

Regards,

Tom Farley

Greg, I am surprised that you still use a fax machine “routinely.” Talk about creating documents that are hard to read.. Do you use DocuSign or is that a horrible experience for you as well? just curious..

“Training for trainers is available on the 4th of June. We have one class still available at 1:00 pm on the 4th. The class will be held here at ARMLS at 120 S. Priest (corner of Priest and Rio Salado). The information I need to sign any one up is their name, company, email address and current user name. There is very little space available. Follow up classes will be held on the 18th with advanced topics being covered.”