DS2UIDX (Diverse Solutions to UltimateIDX)
Shortcode Emulator User Guide

For WordPress website owners faced with a conversion, voluntarily or otherwise, from Diverse Solutions dsIDXPress, one of the top search engine friendly integrated IDX products on the market, the task can seem daunting, especially if they have lots of DS shortcodes to replace on hundreds of WordPress blog posts and pages.

Our DS2UIDX shortcode emulation plugin can address this issue. Instead of replacing the Diverse Solutions shortcodes, the UIDX website owner simply replaces the idxPress plugin with DS2UIDX plugin, and voila! Every on-page shortcode will now use UIDX search parameters to import UIDX standard search results pages and details pages instead. Because it uses the standard UIDX templates that have been approved by your MLS, and there is no manipulation of IDX data by the plugin, MLS compliance is maintained.

For real estate website owners who also have lots of custom dsSearchAgent specific search links on their site’s posts and pages, we are also looking at a conversion / migration process that may be able to convert those on-page links to equivalent UIDX links with a batch MySQL update process, but that is a different requirement from what this WordPress plugin is designed to address.

Installation

• De-activate the Diverse Solutions dsIDXPress plugin.
• Download the DS2UIDX plugin zip file to your PC.
• Upload it to the /public_html/wp-content/plugins folder of your new UIDX website.
• Uarchive it to create the DS2UIDX plugin folder.
• In WP Dashboard, Plugins, Activate the DS2UIDX plugin.
• Insure that your customized UIDX default.css file is loaded by your WP theme’s header.php file.
  Your local UIDX integration consultant will usually do this for you.

Single Property Details Shortcode [idx-listing]

The plugin supports the standard DS single property shortcode, i.e.:

In this case, an abbreviated version of the standard property details page will be displayed, embedded on the page the shortcode is on. It contains exactly the same property details, photos slideshow, virtual tour link and all required IDX compliance components that would normally be displayed by clicking any search summary result, but without of the “Call to Action” buttons, similar listings, agent contact information, and other supplemental content of the normal property details page. See example page.

IDX Search Shortcode [idx-listings]

Below are the list of fields that the standard DS plugin allows you to specify to select and filter listings with its [idx-listings] shortcode. Following each field, the action taken by the DS2UIDX emulator is described, including replacement of the DS search parameter name by its UIDX equivalent, and the default value is shown, if applicable. The filter parameter name can be entered as all lower case, all upper case, or mixed upper and lower case. By default, the standard WordPress shortcode parsing process automatically converts all parameter names to all lower case, so it doesn’t matter how they are entered. However, the capitalization of all standard DS values must be as shown. For each of the following DS field names, the user may also substitute the UIDX field name that it is converted to. This allows current UIDX website users to also use the DS2UIDX shortcode emulator, using native UIDX search parameter names they are already familiar with.

• community=“littleton”
  ‘community’ will be converted to ‘city’, its value set to all lower case with underlines replacing any spaces in the city name. Default is all cities.
• tract=“arapahoe acres”
  ‘tract’ will be converted to ‘subdivision’, its value set to all lower case with underlines replacing any spaces in the subdivision name. The subdivision name will be handled as a “contains” search, so the actual sub-area / subdivision field in the IDX feed does not have to be an exact match. It only needs to “contain” the provided tract/subdivision parameter text. Default is all subdivisions.
• zip=“80122”
  ‘zip’ will be be converted to zipcode. Default is all zip codes.
• minprice=“250000”
  ‘minprice’ will be converted to ‘price+’. Default is no minimum price.
• maxprice=“500000”
  ‘maxprice will be converted to ‘price-’. Default is no maximum price.
• propertytypes=“4”
  ‘propertytypes’ will be converted to ‘type_id’. Default is 4 for Residential. Use 1 for Condo. 3 for Land.
  For Denver Metrolist MLS, values of: res, condo, land or income will also work. These are MLS specific values, and can be tailored as needed.

Additionally, you can choose to sort the listings using any of the variables below. In all cases, ‘orderby’ will be converted to ‘sort’, and the closest applicable UIDX field name will be used, as shown in braces after each sort parameter. Sort parameters not currently supported by UIDX or this plugin are also shown. If used, non-supported sort parameters will be replaced by the default: DateAdded (MLS# descending).

• orderby=“Price”
• orderby=“ImprovedSqFt” (Finished Sq Ft)
• orderby=“LotSqFt” (not supported by UIDX)
• orderby=“Beds” (not supported by this plugin)
• orderby=“WalkScore” (not supported by UIDX)
• orderby=“Baths” (not supported by this plugin)
• orderby=“OverallPriceDropPercent” (not supported by UIDX)
• orderby=“DateAdded” Default. This plugin uses MLS number, descending, so most recent first.
• orderby=“LastUpdated”

Additional UIDX Native Filtering Parameters

For additional search results filtering, the DS plugin requires its users to use special procedures and an optional Pro version tool in their dsSearchAgent product to build custom search links. However, UltimateIDX allows many more filtering criteria to be used, and some of those are also supported by the DS2UIDX emulator plugin as follows. Field names are already in their UIDX / Metrolist format, so no translation of field names is necessary. The plugin can be easily modified by our programmers to support other MLS/IDX data structures and values as needed.

• home_type=”townhome”
  Any one home_type. townhome, condo, patio, loft or … See allowed values for your MLS. home_type may be further translated to a numeric database value in the search url for some MLS feeds, such as we do for Denver MetroList.
• zipcode_csv=”12345,56789,34567″
  List of multiple zip codes, separated by commas. Use of zip and zipcode_csv in the same shortcode is not permitted. If attempted, zipcode_csv will prevail, and zip will be ignored.
• county=”douglas”
  Any one county. Spaces in county names will be replaced by underlines.
• mlsarea=”douglas county west”
  Any one valid MLS area name, spelled out or as your MLS requires. Spaces will be replaced by underlines. No validation.

Additional fields and values may be added as required by us, or any other qualified php programmer.

Search Results Content

For UIDX clients, we provide a special search results set, built and customized with the UIDX template management back end. It includes a simplified “Refine Search” form at the top, so users can further modify their search parameters, plus a set of search results that utilize the standard MLS preapproved search result summary layout and content, plus all the MLS required disclosures. See example page.

Note on the example page that most of the shortcode search parameters, like city, county, MLS area and subdivision, are not in the simplified search form. This means that the user can refine the search results by modifying the price range, bed and bath counts, square feet, and a few other supplemental parameters, but not the basic selection criteria specified in the shortcode. To do that they would need to use the standard basic or advanced search form, for which a link is always provided in the generated output, or they must be on a page or post where the basic criteria in the shortcode on that page is different.

The behavior and the fields available in the condensed search form can be customized to each client’s specifications. Since MLSs really only care about how IDX data is displayed, and the html search form itself does not contain any IDX data, MLS review and approval should not be required for this kind of customization.

Search Results Handling Differences and Advantages

Because UIDX is a single, unified IDX product, not a blending or mash-up of two separate products, like dsSearchAgent and dsIDXPress are, summary search results and detail pages are displayed and handled exactly the same everywhere, whether the search is initiated from a UIDX search form, or is embedded in a post or page with a shortcode, or displayed on a mobile device like iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet.

This means that users viewing the embedded search results will always be prompted to register for all details page views, or in our custom UIDX “Tailored” templates, to be able to use our greatly expanded advanced search form and its more complete set of Metrolist IDX parameters. Registered and logged in users will also be able to save specific listings to the “Favorites” list. This means more lead conversions from landing pages and posts with embedded IDX search results.

Still Not Enough Parameters and Options? Read On!

At least for now, and until UIDX builds a more flexible native shortcode search plugin, this plugin actually generates an intermediate shortcode that many UIDX clients already use on their WordPress websites. This intermediate shortcode is then automatically submitted for processing by a 3rd party plugin, available for download from WordPress.org, which must also be installed on the website running the DS2UIDX emulator plugin. UIDX back end verification processes insure that only the website that is actually responsible for the UIDX search results can use the plugin to display IDX data.

Because of this, the user can also build very complex searches that this plugin does not support natively, and that the standard DS shortcode also does not support. This is accomplished by using the normal UIDX basic or advanced search form, and simply copying the resulting search parameters from the search url it generates into the intermediate plugin’s native shortcode, similar to the example below:

In the example above, the UIDX url that executes the actual search is /listings/landing-snippet/. This is different from the normal search url on your website, /listings/search/ so do not copy the original search url part. Only copy and paste the url search field parameters, as highlighted in red, into the wpws shortcode, following its own special search url. Everything else must be exactly as shown in the example.

This 3rd party shortcode is then put into the page that needs the more advanced search criteria. The same results as in the example page, including the simplified search form, search results summaries and MLS compliant disclosures, will then be embedded into the post/page as SEO friendly content. As with the DS shortcodes, multiple DS2UIDX and/or WPWS shortcodes may be included on a single page or post.

UIDX developers are working on a simpler, more user friendly way to guide users in generating the shortcode and its parameters, based on the client’s specific MLS/IDX feed and the fields it supports. When this is available, it should be able to support every available IDX field and value, not just the limited fields as supported by the standard DS shortcodes or the DS2UIDX plugin.