Web Advertising Upload from REST Professional to Rentfind
Rentfind.com.au
Rentfind.com.au is an online advertising service for rental properties only. All REST Professional users are eligible to advertise their vacant properties on this site for no charge. In addition, REST users do not have to register with Rentfind to start using the service. When REST uploads your vacant properties for the first time, Rentfind automatically creates an account for your Agency based on the email address in REST and emails you with the username and password so you can log into Rentfind.
Note: You are able to upload to Rentfind automatically from REST Professional without subscribing to the Web Advertising Module. You will require the module should you wish to upload to all other websites (see below).
Web Advertising Upload Module
The REST Professional Web Advertising Module allows you to automatically post/upload the rental or sales property advertising details, photographs, floor plans and virtual tour links to any participating Internet Real Estate advertising portal. The data is transferred between locations via XML formatted files. Some of the current participating portals are www.domain.com.au , www.realestate.com.au , and www.rentfind.com.au in Australia and www.realenz.co.nz and allrealestate.co.nz in New Zealand. Each portal has its own XML format and the data is sent directly via FTP to the portal server from REST at the client’s site. Please visit the Additional Module page within the REST section on www.rockend.com.au for a full list of all the participating advertising services and portals. REST can also create a generic XML file that your web developer may use to upload the details to your own web site. For more information and specifications, request the Developers Kit by emailing to sales@rockend.com.au .
How the upload to Rentfind Works
Please refer to the following pages for more information on each step.
- Select the Rentfind Upload in Other > Utilities > Company Details > Advertise Tab
- Update the properties to be advertised on Rentfind.
- Enter the advertising photos and details in the Advert Tab of the properties you wish to advertise.
- Tick the ‘Advertise’ checkbox on the bottom Advertise Tab and enter the available date.
- Save the property.
- When you have entered the details for all the properties you wish to upload :-
- Select Files > Web Advertising and check that the properties you wish to upload are displayed
- Select UPLOAD and wait for the upload process to finish. The Upload may take anywhere from ½ hour to several hours to upload to Rentfind
- To change the uploaded details such as the rental amount:-
- Change the details on the property
- The updated information is automatically sent to the advertising portal the next time you initiate an upload.
- To remove properties from Rentfind:
- Uncheck the ‘Advertise’ checkbox
- Or the property will be removed automatically if you have selected the option to remove the advertising when a deposit or rent receipt is taken.
- The updated information is automatically sent to the advertising portal the next time you initiate an upload.
Setting up REST Web Advertising to Rentfind
Before you start uploading to Rentfind you must switch on the option to use Rentfind and enter your phone numbers and email address in Company Details. To do this, follow the instructions below:
Select Other > Utilities > Company Details > Advertising Tab
Default Phone, Fax and E-mail
Enter your office telephone and fax numbers and your office e-mail address. These details are uploaded as contact details if an advertising contact has not been attached to the property. The email address is used as your login user name for Rentfind. When you first upload to Rentfind you will receive an email to this address advising you of your username and password.
Advertising Contact
The Advertising Contact checkbox is used to identify the user as an advertising contact. When you have set up a user as an advertising contact, you can then attach that contact to the property.
Go to Files > Property > Advert Tab > Advertise Tab and select the user from the Contact dropdown list.
Hide Ad Amount
Select this option to hide the rental amount on the web sites. The rental amount is still used when searching by rent range.
Rentfind.com.au Active
Select this option to upload to Rentfind
Advertising Services
You can configure other advertising services that you wish to automatically upload to from REST for example realestate.com.au .
Select Properties to Advertise
The Property Details Screen holds the advertising contact, all the advertising photographs, floor plans, detail and virtual tour links for the property. If advertising is active for the property, the Advert ID is displayed on the top right hand side of the screen. You should enter the details you require to be uploaded in the Advertising Tabs and then select the ‘Advertise’ checkbox in the bottom Advertise Tab.
Click on File > Property from the menu
Advert ID
When a property is advertised, REST creates a unique advertising identification number. This used by the advertising service to identify your advertisement. eg. If your domain ID is 9999 and the REST Advert ID is 0016, the full advertising identification number in domain is 9999-0016. If you have been using realestate.com.au before you start uploading using REST, realestate.com.au will send you a spreadsheet with the existing advertising IDs. These must be entered in the realestate.com.au ID field in the Advertising > General Tab of the Property Details.
Advertising Tab
The Advertising Tab displays the advertising details and photographs for the property. The information and photographs stored here are used in the counter vacancy report as well as window cards and are uploaded to the Internet using Web Advertising. At the end of this section, there is a list of what information is uploaded to each Advertising Service.
Advertisement Heading
Enter up to eighty characters for the advertisement heading.
Advertisement Description
Enter the advertisement details. As well as being uploaded to the Internet using Web Advertising the advertising heading and details are printed on the counter vacancy report and the window card.
Photos
You may attach up to nine photographs and a floor plan to a property. The photographs and floor plan are printed on the counter vacancy report, the window cards and are part of the upload to the Internet. The number of photographs uploaded to the Internet, depends on the Advertising Service. See the table at the end of this section for more information.
To attach a photo or floor plan to a property, click the plus (+) sign on the left of the photo and browse to where your property photographs are stored. The photographs may be stored anywhere on your Server or PC but when you attach them to a property, REST makes a copy of the photo and stores it in the images directory. This is normally a sub directory of the rest directory (\rest\images on the server if have a network). The saved images are resized to 800 px by 600 px and no greater than 150 kb. You may not attach photos from the images directory as this is for REST use only.
Click the minus (-) sign to detach a photo from a property.
Photographs and floor plans should be backed up regularly, preferably as part of your daily system backup to tape or other media. They may be backed up to the REST quick backup directory (normally \REST\quickbak) by clicking File >Archive > Property Images
Photos next
Click the Photos next button to attach five more photographs.
Advertising Detail Tab
Property type
Choose the type of dwelling e.g. House, unit, etc. These property types may not be changed or added to as they are based on what is allowable by the Internet Advertising Services such as domain.com.au and realestate.com.au.
Rooms
Enter the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and ensuites.
Parking
Enter the number of garages or car spaces.
Area
Enter the building and land area in square metres.
Notes
The notes section is not used by Internet sites such as domain.com.au or realestate.com.au but may be uploaded to your own Internet site.
Advertising Features Tab
Select the features that apply to the property. The features uploaded to the web depend on the Advertising Service that you use. See the table at the end of this section for more information.
Advertising General Tab
Unit Number
New Zealand users of Trademe will see a field for unit number. This is used by Trademe to separately upload the unit and the street number.
Street number and name
Enter the street number and name. These are entered separately so that you can decide whether to show the full address or street name only when you upload the advertising to the Internet.
Address display
Choose street name only, full address or no address from the dropdown list. Depending on the option chosen here, REST uploads the property with or without the full address.
Street Directory
Select the street directory you wish to use along with the map page and reference.
Internet Links
Enter the details for any Internet links that you wish to upload along with the property details. For example, enter a link to a virtual tour of the property (www.virtualtourist.com.au\unit123).
Advertise Tab
Open days
Enter any open for inspection dates that you wish to be uploaded to the Internet as part of the advertisement.
When you have rented the advertised property, un-tick this option and the property will be removed from Rentfind the next time you run the Web Advertising Upload.
Date Available
This date, not the vacating date on the tenant, is uploaded as part of the advertising details.
Contact
Advertising contacts are those users who have been marked as an advertising contact in Users / Passwords. Select Files > Users / Passwords from the menu.
If an advertising contact has been attached to the property, the telephone, fax, mobile number and e-mail address entered in Users / Passwords are uploaded to the Internet along with the phone numbers. If the property details are uploaded to domain.com.au, the Domain Agent ID is uploaded instead of the contact phone numbers and the contact details taken from those stored by Domain.
Advertise
Tick this option to advertise the property and the next time you use the Web Advertising Upload, the property will be uploaded to Rentfind.
Services Selected
The Advertising Services that you have configured in Company Details are displayed. You may select the service(s) on which you wish to advertise the property.
Uploading properties
Overview
The Upload sends the new and changed and deleted advertisements to the Internet advertising services. An XML file is created and transmitted via the FPT to the site of the services specified in the advertising configuration in Company Details.
Note: You must of course be connected to the Internet when you run the upload.
Select Files > Web Advertising Upload from the menu
Upload
A red cross in the Upload column signifies that the advertising details will be uploaded when you select UPLOAD – F12. A property will have a red cross in this column if, since the last upload, they have been marked for advertising by checking the Advertise checkbox in Property Details.
- The advertising details have been changed since the last upload.
- The Advertise checkbox in Property Details has been manually unchecked since the last upgrade.
- You are utilising the system option for automatic cancellation and you have taken a deposit or rent receipt on the property.
Alpha
This is the alpha index of the property.
Address
The property address displayed here is taken from the street name and number in the Advertisement Tab of the property. If these do not exist, only the suburb will be displayed.
Rent
The property rental calculated to a monthly rate is displayed.
Available
If the Available Date on the Advertising Tab of the property is in the future, the available date is displayed otherwise ‘Now’ is displayed.
Advertising Services
The next columns are the names of the advertising services you have configured in Company Details. eg. Rentfind and domain.com.au and realestate.com.au if you have the Advertising Module.
The status of the advertisement is shown for each service that that you have selected on the Advertising Tab in Property Details. These are:
- Withdraw - The property will be removed from the advertising service when the upload is initiated.
- Leased - You are using the automatic cancellation option in System Options and have posted a deposit or rent receipt. The property will be removed from the advertising service when the upload is initiated.
- New - The property will be added to the advertising service when the upload is initiated.
- Active - The property has already been uploaded. If there is a red cross in the Upload column, some change had been made to the advertising details since the last upload and the changes will be uploaded.
Note: If you cannot see all the advertising services, move the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen.
Upload – F12
When you click on Upload – F12, the upload process creates an XML document for each advertising service with the details of all the properties that are to be added, updated or removed from the service. Once all the properties have been processed, the XML file and any images are transmitted via FTP to the relevant server.
Progress of the upload is shown on the form and is updated whenever an upload event completes.
- All information displayed in the progress list is also written to the log file ‘WebUpload.log’ in the application log directory. Each entry is prefixed with a time stamp. This may be viewed by selecting Other > Utilities > Log Files from the menu.
- Uploads can be done as many times a day as is required.
System Options
Select Other > Utilities > System Options > Other Tab from the menu
Cancel web ad upon deposit / rent receipt
If you select this option, when you take a deposit receipt on the advertised property or take the first rent receipt on the property, REST will uncheck the Advertise checkbox on the Property Detail Screen. When you initiate the next upload, REST will transmit a command to remove the advertisement from the Advertising Service(s). If this checkbox is not checked, you will have to manually uncheck the Advertise checkbox on the Property Detail Screen.