Critical - RETS search returning different columns in result set

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The add/remove done on 9/9 caused what I saw with the WY data. It's not clear to me how to best handle this scenario though. How often do these changes take place? Our implementation downloads data via RETS, stores it, and then presents it to the user so they can add custom data based on onsite appraisal work. Storing data sets that have the columns periodically changed is fraught with headache! There really should be a consistent API. Is there someone I can speak to? kmccartney@gmecwy dot com

Fixed typo in my email address. Sorry.

When you login to RETS it returns metadata version information that can be used to determine if changes have been made.
Another way is instead of using all the columns returned, select the ones you need and pass them in the search Select parameter so that it only returns those fields.

Hi Bwolven, the approaches suggested really aren't what I'm after. I'm using structured data, so I have a table created with all the expected columns. Retrieving the metadata, parsing it, and egregiously updating the table based on changes won't work for us. And when I search I'm getting back 156 parameters consistently having values - not a small set mapping to what I search with. I need a consistent way to get the same results. With whom may I speak about this?

You would probably need to contact the MLS directly and ask them inform you when they are making field changes in the system. RETS basically follows whatever changes they make in the system.

Hi Bwolven, OK - I highly expect to do as you said for our implementation. Additionally, am I missing something -- why are Paragon field names different from other vendors field names? So the L_ListingID, L_* and other field names I use to parse this data set are Paragon-proprietary. Is there not a cross-vendor standard? Thanks very much.