RETS is an acronym for the Real Estate Transaction Standard. The Real Estate Transaction Standard is the new open standard for exchanging real estate transaction information. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) implemented this standard in March of 99. Consisting of a transaction specification and a standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) Document Type Definition (DTD), RETS is being implemented by many real estate industry leaders in their next generation of real estate information systems.

Basically, a RETS Client can be considered to be any piece of software that meets the minimum compliance standards for communicating with a RETS Server, based on the requirements outlined in the RETS Specification. Communication with a RETS Server occurs via HTTP and TCP/IP, using message headers. Currently, the specification supports 9 distinct transactions--3 of which are required, and the remaining 6 are optional (see the ORC HOWTO for more information).

ORC is an acronym for the Open RETS Client.

The ORC is free of charge. However, if you like using ORC, and have found the application to be useful in your day to day operations, please consider a donation. Help continue further development of the ORC with your contribution. Thanks.

The ORC is licensed under the GNU General Public License (or GPL). Basically, this means that the source code is available to anyone who might be interested in viewing or modifying the code. To learn more about the license, have a look at this page.

Reference the ORC HOWTO page.

Well, the answer to this question really depends on the platform you're using. On Linux, the information contained in the mlsrecords.dat file is copied from the previous versions mlsdb directory to the newer versions mlsdb directory. On the other hand, for Windows, the information contained in the mlsrecords.dat file is not copied from the previous versions mlsdb directory. Instead, the end-user will have to manually copy the file to the newer versions mlsdb directory (I hope to change this in future releases).

Before installing ORC on Windows make sure that your dealing with only one version of Java. If you've got two version of Java installed on your box (e.g. JDK 1.4.0 and JDK 1.4.1), you will need to remove one. The simplest way to uninstall JDK or Java RE, is to use the Microsoft Windows Add/Remove Programs utility, accessible from the Control Panel (Start --> Settings --> Control Panel).

Yes. However, it is recommended that if your using ORC's 0.7.x series, you should stick with Java version 1.4.0.

These types of warnings are usually attributed to some sort of conflict between Java Virtual Machines (Java VMs). The conflict is typically the result of an improperly set PATH environment variable. To solve this kind of problem review the following:

1. Make sure that your only running one version of Java.

   • Linux: Actually, Linux can have multiple versions of Java installed. However, you need to make sure that your PATH environment variable is properly set. To check this, from the command-line type echo $PATH. Verify that there is only one Java bin directory -- something like /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.0/bin. To remove an unwanted version of Java, simply change directories to the "Java Home dir" (usually found at /usr/java or /usr/local/java) and delete the unwanted directory.

   • Windows: Check for multiple versions of Java by using the Microsoft Windows Add/Remove Programs utility, accessible from the Control Panel (Start --> Settings --> Control Panel). Remove unwanted versions of Java by highlighting the version and then clicking on the Remove button.

2. Update the PATH environment variable.

   • Linux: Open the ~/.bash_profile file in your favorite text editor. Then remove the duplicate/extra reference to the Java bin path. You should end up with only one reference to the Java bin directory.

   • Windows:

Simply open the mlsrecords.dat file located in the ORC's mlsdb directory, and edit the UserAgent parameter for the MLS record your interested in updating.

Essentially, it serves as a "database", providing access to MLS specific information used within the Open RETS Client. The file is structured like a Windows .ini file, with each section representing an MLS record. Within each MLS record are a series of name/value pairs. These name/value pairings represent parameters (arguments) used in the Open RETS Client. Modification of the values associated with these parameters, alters the behavior of the ORC. See the ORC HOWTO guide for more information.

No. The end-user is only limited by the amount of disk space available on their drive.

That is actually a value returned by the RETS Server. The ORC has no control over this information.

This is actually an issue with Sun's Java runtime environment. With the 0.7.x series of the ORC, if your version of Java is anything greater than 1.4.0 you are going to encounter this issue. The best thing to do is download version 1.4.0 of Java. Then, uninstall your current version of Java, and go ahead and install version 1.4.0.

Yes. For example, to retrieve Property listings in combination with a user defined query use -P"your search query"

Linux: [user@host] /usr/local/orc-x.x.x/bin/orc.sh -P"(STATUS=A)" Windows: C:\Program Files\orc-x.x.x\bin\orc.bat -P"(STATUS=A)"