Hi I would like to know if anyone has created or is going to create a mod to import listings. If there is one available please point me in the right direction. Thanks
I have been doing this for a couple of years. I do not offer it as a module but only as a custom development. It is not a cheap thing to do either and requires some skills on the part of admin as xml feeds tend to be different from one advertiser to the next. You will also need VPS or dedicated hosting. Shared hosting will not cut it and will time out. That of course is another cost in itself. The bottom line as someone who has done it and does do it every day with his own sites is this. It is relatively complicated to set up and can get difficult if you intend to process bulk listings which are being delivered in different formats. Each effectively requiring their own driver and xml spec import file. If you look at the real estate industry and large automotive classifieds portals they have all gone towards xml feeds as opposed to csv files. One company that you may like to look at is http://www.xml2u.com . they can build xml files for you from other websites holding listings.
Creating a module for bulk import is quite complex. Two of the biggest challenges are the extra fields and images. Extra fields are assigned on a per category basis. The images also have to be processed individually and set to both of the settings for the thumbnail image then stored to the thumbnails directory, the standard image also has to be processed by settings and saved to the photos directory. Doing this in bulk is extremely server intensive and will usually time out. I have created some custom modules for clients, however without extra fields and only remote image hosting.
If you wish to know more write to me at templatecodes.com . As quoted. I have been doing it for 2 years or more now where I suck in complete listings including scaling/compression of images (hot-linking images is not a good idea - you can be seen as a spammer and upset the host because you are taking their bandwidth). i also capture extrafields. I can even build extrafields from combinations of the others or add in text to titles, descriptions, etc, etc dynamically.
