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nemanirc · Apr 2, 2004, 12:43 AM

My wife is a real estate agent and used her PowerBook to access the Maris MLS system operated by Rapattoni Corporateion. They recently "upgraded" upgraded their software and it no longer works properly using the Mac version of Internet Explorer (it does not work on Safari at all). When she told them that it worked on the Mac before the "upgrade" and now it does not, they responded that "We require Internet Explorer 6". Has anyone else dealt with the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) from Maris?

nemanirc · Apr 2, 2004, 08:05 AM

Here is the letter my wife received from the company:

Dawn,
_
I am sorry to hear you are having trouble with the MLS software in the Mac environment. We are aware that certain software features may not function fully using a Macintosh computer and sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. In order to utilize every piece of the MLS software, we require the use of Microsoft�s Internet Explorer 6.0.
_
Our customers are constantly requesting new and better features, which inherently require the latest browser technology. We have always done our best to provide ever-improving functionality while at the same time ensuring backward-compatibility. However, as the Internet and technology evolve, so must we. At this time, our newest features (such as a drag-and-drop custom report writer, to be released in first quarter 2004) now require Internet Explorer 6, which Microsoft has no plans to release for the Macintosh platform. _
_
We regret that technology has put us and our customers in this position, and we will continue to look for opportunities to overcome this issue as new tools become available.
_
Please contact the Rapattoni MLS Support Department if you have additional questions.
_
Thank you.

Debbie G

Rapattoni MLS Customer Support

1-866-730-7114
[email protected]

Bax23 · Apr 2, 2004, 10:21 AM

I don't know how you got it to work before. The MLS website is one of the reason I can't get my mother to switch from her old Dell to a eMac or iMac.

nemanirc · Apr 2, 2004, 02:07 PM

Originally posted by Bax23:
I don't know how you got it to work before. The MLS website is one of the reason I can't get my mother to switch from her old Dell to a eMac or iMac.

I just spoke with the tech support at Rapattoni. He said that they are working with Apple to get their system to work with Safari. While I am not sure that this will happen in the next few months, it is an encouraging sign.

andi*pandi · Apr 2, 2004, 03:31 PM

bastards. It is not like IE 5.2 is 5 years old.

hope they get safari running!

nemanirc · Apr 7, 2004, 02:30 PM

I received the reply below from Rapattoni's CEO regarding the MLS software and Safari:

Hi Richard,

We are working with Apple to help them make their Safari browser
compatible with our software and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Unfortunately, compatibility with Rapattoni MLS is in Apple's hands.
Currently MAC users only represent about 1% of our 140,000 Realtor users
across the US. In order for us to remain competitive we must take
advantage of the advancing technology being built into IE. Hopefully
Apple will be able to provide you with compatibility.

I also love the MAC. However, if we were to maintain compatibility with
the MAC we would not have a competitive MLS product and would have a
difficult business model to work with.

I hope you will understand and suggest that you lobby Apple or switch to
the PC which has become the primary Realtor information tool.

Andy

Andy Rapattoni
President
Rapattoni Corporation
98 West Cochran Street
Simi Valley, California
800-722-7338
[email protected]
www.rapattoni.com

chabig · Apr 7, 2004, 02:33 PM

Let's see if I follow the logic...

1) We don't make or support a Mac product.
2) The result of that is that less than 1% of our customers use Macs.
3) Therefore, we don't support Macs because the Mac user base is so small.

What a perfect example of circular reasoning.

Chris

Bax23 · Apr 7, 2004, 05:35 PM

Originally posted by nemanirc:
I received the reply below from Rapattoni's CEO regarding the MLS software and Safari:

While your at it, why don't you enlighten him on the difference between MAC and a Mac.

Moron.

talisker · Apr 7, 2004, 06:54 PM

Hey wait a minute, these are real estate agents we're talking about here. Anything that causes them inconvenience is surely a good thing for society as a whole.

ASIMO · Apr 7, 2004, 07:06 PM

Go PC for real estate. It is not worth the fight. Besides, XP is fine for the job.

daimoni · 02:42 PM

.

daimoni · 02:42 PM

.

MacOSR · Apr 7, 2004, 07:55 PM

We do real estate web sites for many Brokers/Agents around the country. Unfortunately, this is commonplace for an MLS vendor such as Rappattoni and is a reflection of poorly written software.

Our system, although it is not an MLS system, has functionality that is as advanced if not more advanced then Rappattoni's. We actualy handle 1/3 of the nation's data in our system now and our system is 100% platform independent.

The bottom-line...this is poorly written web-based software. I would suggest that she put pressure on her Broker, who in-turn should pressure the EO or CEO of the Board who should pressure Rappattoni to fix their programming errors. Don't let this go!

MacOSR · Apr 7, 2004, 08:01 PM

I am wondering where their 1% figure comes from...it was pulled from somewhere

I checked one of our busy company web systems. Here are their numbers for March 2004:

10,848,491 Total page views
10,504,105 Windows page views
225,099 Macintosh page views

96.8% Windows
2.1% Macintosh
1.1% Other

nemanirc · Apr 8, 2004, 12:01 AM

Originally posted by daimoni:
This is not a problem of platforms of choice, it is a problem of a poorly built web service and a company that is unwilling to own up to their sub-standard product offering.

I say, vote with your feet. They're not the only game in town.

Are there other MLS available? I kind of figured MARIS was the local St. Louis monopoly on MLS, and they use Rapattoni as their vendor. Is there another company that gives the same access to the local MLS database?

Another reply said my wife should get her company to pressure MARIS to pressure Rapattoni. Sadly, the brokerage for which she works has only ten agents, so theirs would be a very small voice.

finboy · Apr 8, 2004, 03:15 AM

Originally posted by talisker:
Hey wait a minute, these are real estate agents we're talking about here. Anything that causes them inconvenience is surely a good thing for society as a whole.

torsoboy · Apr 8, 2004, 03:47 AM

The MLS system is usualy provided by a single company for a city.. you can't just go use another one. I think that they (Rapattoni) have a good point; if only 1-2% of their users use a macintosh computer it would not be a good investment to go through it all and make it work on Safari. If there are advantages that they would like to take advantage of in Internet Explorer that aren't available elsewhere than I think that they should take advantage of them and require internet explorer. Standards schmanderds; standards take time to develop and new technologies should not be ignored just because it hasn't been made a 'standard' yet. Anyway, use a PC when doing your real estate lookups and instead of complaining that the application doesn't support Safari (or any other of your browsers), you should complain that your browser can't handle the lastest evolving technologies.

Chris O'Brien · Apr 8, 2004, 04:11 AM

So, this company is assuming that everyone using a PC uses Internet Explorer 6?

What about all the people still on 5 and 5.5? That's possibly a large proportion... And, more to what I was going to say in this post: what about other browsers? Does the site work with Mozilla based browsers? If not, why not? In my experience, I've never met anything critical to a web apps functionality that couldn't be achieved in a gecko browser and IE... What are they doing? Using proprietary filters etc? it's not too difficult to get your head round the Gecko DOM and event models to make it interoperate... I'd do it for them if they want.

You mentioned drag and drop stuff - that's very simple to implement in IE and Mozilla - all that's required is a knowledge of the standards (better, IMO) approach and IE's (crappy) approach.

Point? Ask if it works in Mozilla or Netscape or Firefox etc and use them if it does... They work exactly the same on a Mac as they do on a PC... And this isn't just a question of Macs versus PC's, it's IE6 versus everything else. I won't use IE for general browsing, and only use it for development, so I have this problem at work (where I have to use a PC) because sites written specifically for it (not many) don't work with firefox.

Oh, and torsoboy: IE6 is an old browser - the latest evolving tehnologies are generally seen in Mozilla etc and it's rapid development cycles. Admittedly, there are lots of things that are very nice in IE, but there is generally a comparible solution with other browsers - ones less open to security flaws too.

I sound quite evangelistic towards Moz, don't I?

nemanirc · Apr 8, 2004, 07:48 AM

I just downloaded and fired up Mozilla. It does not work either. The basic issue with their site is their pull-down navigation menus (embedded in the page) that do not work on any of the Mac Browsers that aren't IE for Mac or Windows.

My problem with the argument a few of the posters who said my wife should just use a PC for Real Estate is that no one is supposed to control the Internet. If Rapattoni wants to write a custom application for browsing their database, then they should be able to dictate on what platform it works (but, not really, since they are, in effect, a local monopoly). However, since they have chosen to use HTML and the Internet, they should make sure their system works on most web browsers (not all; that would be silly). What they are doing is being lazy. They could most likely code their site with minimal effort to work properly within the shared space of HTML.

If their site were only inoperable with Safari, I would blame Apple for writing a bad program. However, as my earlier posts indicate, their system works with no other browsers but IE 6 for Windows. I could either blame the authors of all of the other browsers (including Microsoft, who authored prior versions of IE that no longer work with the MLS), or I could blame Rapattoni for bad coding, laziness, and poor customer service.

einmakom · Apr 8, 2004, 08:15 AM

Just because I'm curious, what happens if you change the User Agent in Safari or Camino or Firefox to report to the server that you're using IE6 on Windows?

You have to get the debug menu in safari turned on to do that, or in camino/firefox, load the user agent switcher plugin which gives a nice menu from the menu bar...

It's wrong that you should have to do it, but it does make some sites open when servers refuse. I understand that isn't happening here, but it's at least a try.

memento · Apr 8, 2004, 12:39 PM

I'd say to try as many different browsers on both platforms as possible. Even try changing the User Agent for as many as possible on each platform. If you find some combo that works, then you can call their bluff. Disregarding the relative merits of each browser, these are the ones that I know of.

Mac:
Safari
OmniWeb (try both 4.5 and 5beta)
Mozilla/Firefox/Camino
iCab
Opera

Win:
Mozilla/Firefox
Opera
(I'm sure there's more)