Specification - RETS

S ECTION
CHAPTER 0INTRODUCTION
1.1 Purpose
1.2 Scope
1.3 Requirements
1.3.1 Required Features
The Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS) is a specification for a standard
communication method between computer systems exchanging real estate information. It
defines a standard interface for use by applications such as agent desktop software, IDX
(Internet Data Exchange) systems, data aggregation systems, and many other systems that
store, display or operate on real estate listing, sales and other data.
This specification describes the Real Estate Transaction Standard communication
protocol. Together with the companion XML DTDs (Document Type Definitions) listed
in Appendix A, it constitutes the specification for the standard.
This specification is intended to define only the minimum a product or service must do in
order to be considered “compliant”. This specification is extensible and nothing in the
specification precludes a vendor from adding data or functionality over and above that
detailed here. However, when a function is provided or a data element is stored by a
compliant system, it must offer access to the function or mechanism in a way that
complies with the specification in order to be considered compliant.
This specification uses the same words as RFC 1123 [1] for defining the significance of
each particular requirement. These words are:
MUST
This word or the adjective "required" means that the item is an
absolute requirement of the specification. A feature that the
specification states MUST be implemented is required in an
implementation in order to be considered compliant.
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