Understanding Image Handling in MLS Router

Introduction The MLS Router is a critical component for managing and distributing real estate listings, ensuring high performance and efficiency in handling media files. This article provides insights into how images are managed, stored, and served via the MLS Router CDN, including their uniqueness, format, and best practices for performance optimization.

Unique Image URLs in MLS Router One common question regarding image handling in MLS Router is whether each image receives a unique URL and whether these URLs are ever reused.

• Each image imported into MLS Router is assigned a unique URL.
• Once an image is deleted, its URL is not reused for any future images.
• This ensures data integrity and prevents outdated images from being inadvertently served.

This unique addressing mechanism helps maintain consistency and reliability for image hosting and delivery.

Use of WebP Format for Optimized Performance To improve web performance and user experience, MLS Router employs the WebP format for images. This choice is driven by multiple factors:

• Superior Compression: WebP images offer better compression rates than JPEG and PNG, reducing file sizes while maintaining high quality.
• Faster Loading Times: Smaller file sizes lead to improved page speed, which is beneficial for SEO and user experience.
• Cross-Browser Compatibility: WebP is supported by most modern web browsers, ensuring broad accessibility.

MLS Router supports 130+ MLSs and serves thousands of clients. No significant issues have been reported with the WebP format, and performance benchmarks such as GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights confirm its advantages.

Converting WebP to Other Formats While WebP offers many benefits, some systems may require images in JPEG or PNG formats. MLS Router allows for seamless conversion:

• Automated Conversion: Users can implement a simple script to convert WebP images to JPEG or PNG before storage or serving to end-users.
• ETL Process Optimization: MLS Router converts all incoming images to WebP during the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process, ensuring uniformity and efficiency.

This approach provides flexibility while leveraging the performance gains of WebP.

Conclusion MLS Router’s image management system is designed for reliability, performance, and flexibility. By ensuring unique URLs, leveraging WebP for optimized performance, and offering easy conversion options, it provides a seamless solution for real estate listing management. For any further questions or assistance, the MLS Router Support Team is available to help ensure a smooth transition to the new API.

For more information or technical assistance, please reach out to MLS Router Support at support@mlsrouter.com.