Which API Is Right For You?
FBS offers two APIs: the Spark API and our RESO Web API. The Spark API is our proprietary, most fully featured API, capable of both reading data from Flexmls and writing data back to Flexmls. The RESO Web API, which is within the Spark API, returns Flexmls data in standardized RESO Data Dictionary format for maximum compatibility across MLSs. Both APIs use the same credentials and authentication methods, allowing you to choose the one that is right for you.
Feature | Spark API | RESO Web API |
|---|---|---|
Standardization | Offers a much greater degree of data standardization than RETS, with a large group of consistent Spark API fields standardized across MLSs. | Uses RESO Data Dictionary fields to provide the highest possible degree of standardization and field name consistency between MLSs. Meant to support interoperability of code used across multiple MLSs. |
Writes back to Flexmls | Supports writes to certain services based on role and user. | No. Our RESO Web API is read-only. |
Services | Provides many features that are not available via the RESO Web API, including the following: | Supports standard services, including the following: |
Real-time requests | Yes. The Spark API is our fastest API. | Yes. The RESO Web API is fast enough to support live requests, although the field standardization layer makes it slower than the Spark API. |
Replication | Yes. Both APIs have separate replication endpoints and support for replication with pagination parameters. | |
Standard role support | Yes. Both APIs use standard roles to determine which data should be available, including the following roles: | |
Encoded field names | No. Both standard and custom fields are provided in human-readable format. | Field names and values are provided in human-readable format whenever possible. Custom field names and certain field values are encoded to comply with RESO Web API transport specifications, and can be decoded to human-readable values via metadata translations. |