What are they?
Data feeds are a mechanism for the transfer of structured data.
Rightboat.com uses data feeds to relieve its members of the inconvenience of managing boat specifications many times over multiple sites. By sharing data, sites like Rightboat.com can save a dealer many hours a week in repetitive work uploading boat details. The dealer simply needs to upload their data to one site, then ask that site to share the data with other sites that they wish their adverts to appear on.
How do they work?
A file is transmitted between the sender and recipient that contains all current boat information in a structured format.
Before the first transmission can commence there are a 3 main variables that must be agreed between sender and recipient.
Method
Whether the data will be sent or fetched by the recipient.
Protocol
The following protocols are commonly used:
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
- HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
- SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol)
Format
There are many formats available for transmitting data. Below are a few that are currently being used:
- XML
- Open Marine
Rightboat.com is a founding member of Open Marine. All Open Marine members are committed to both sending and receiving data without cost or complications. - Boat Stream
- Fast-Net
- Custom XML Feeds
- CSV (Comma-seperated values)
CSV is a plain text file with rows of fields delimited by a single character. This is typically a comma although other characters may be used. - Direct Database Connection
We can connect directly into the vast majority of databases including, but not limited to MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite
Rightboat.com's policy
As a founding member of the Open Marine initiative, we believe the data should remain the intellectual property of the broker. We encourage the tranmission of clean, secure, cost free, data to or from any portal, specified by our members, without complication.
