How to create a DDF national shared pool feed
For us to be able to provide you with MLS® listing functionality such as automatic listing imports and MLS® searches, you need to sign up for a "National Shared Pool" data feed from CREA® and designate us as the technology provider. By creating such a feed you are essentially telling CREA® that you would like to grant us access to listing data to use on your website.
It is a very straight forward process and should only take a few moments to complete. Here is a simple guide we have created to help take you through the process. If you have any questions or get stuck, please feel free to get in touch and we will be happy to help you.
If you have any issues or don't see the same options as shown in the screenshots below, refer to the bottom of this guide for more information.
1) The first thing you need to do is go to "http://realtorlink.ca" and login:
- Step1: Choose your board/association
- Step 2: Enter your user ID
- Step 3: Enter your password
- Step 4: Click "Sign-in"
If you cannot see the Realtor.ca site, login from this URL https://member.realtor.ca/default.aspx
2) From here you need to navigate to the "My Tools" then "Data Distribution Facility (DDF®)" section by clicking the link in the main navigation:
3) Now you have to start creating a new "National Shared Pool" feed by clicking the "Data Feeds" icon as shown here:
4) Continue the process by clicking the green "Add a Data Feed" button:
5) There are a number of items to pay attention to here so I will detail what you should choose/enter for each step on this page:
- Step 1: Choose "National Shared Pool"
- Step 2: Choose the first option in the list labeled "I will be engaging a 3rd Party Technology Provider to operate my Data Feed"
- Step 3: Here you have to designate RealtyNinja as your technology provider. First you should type 'realtyninja' into the search box as shown in the screenshot below and then select the RealtyNinja option
- Step 4: In this step you have to enter the URL of the website you are creating with RealtyNinja. Your name should already be auto-populated into the second field but if it is not, please enter your full name.
- Step 5: Choose the first option in the list labeled "I want the data feed to PROVIDE ALL available listings"
- Step 6: Click the submit button at the bottom of the page
6) This is the final step and all you have to do here is make sure that the status is set to "Active" and to click the green button at the bottom of the page. Please note: Do not click the blue button that is halfway down the page as this will take you back a step. Instead scroll down and click the green button at the bottom
Your DDF® feed has successfully been created and you can continue on with the rest of your website setup.
7) If your website is going to be a team or brokerage site, please e-mail support@realtyninja.com and let us know if you have not done so already.
IMPORTANT NOTE
There are the 3 different options that you might see when you are joining DDF. Please select National Shared Pool Feed. If this is not available, it means your brokerage has decided to not be a part of the national shared pool data feed. This means that the MLS Search Features will not work on the website.
If you are able to ask your brokerage to join the National Shared Pool Feed, then you will see the option to select 'National Shared Pool Feed'. Thus allowing us to activate all MLS Features on your website.
If your brokerage does not want to join the DDF, then you should select the 'Member Website Feed - One or More Offices' options which will give you access to your own and your offices listings. If that is not available you should choose the 'Website Member Feed - My Listings' and this will allow only your personal listings to appear on your website.
National Shared Pool - If an agent selects this, it means that their active listings, office listings and all other DDF listings in the National Shared Pool (through MLS search pages) are available to them. This is what we ideally want them to have.
Member Website Feed - One or More Offices - this means the brokerage has not joined the National Shared Pool feed but has allowed their agents access to only their own and brokerage listings. If a agent selects this, then their personal listings and Office listings will appear on the website
Website Member Feed - My Listings - this means the brokerage has not joined the National Shared Pool feed and the agent is only allowed to view their own listings. Only the agents personal listings will be visible on the website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I sign up for a feed or Why don't I see the same links/options as you?
The reason for this is more than likely that your brokerage has not opted into DDF® yet. This means that none of the listings in your brokerage are part of DDF® and none of the agents in your brokerage can sign-up for any data feeds.
What we suggest is that you get in touch with your managing broker or broker of record and ask them what their policy is on DDF®.