The easiest way to find UK property

Nestoria co-brand implementation guide

This page explains how to implement a "co-branded" version of the Nestoria UK property search. Please see the general details regarding what the co-branded service is and how it benefits webmasters.

Overview

The service we offer is essentially a framed version of the Nestoria search results. We've made the Nestoria branding much smaller while still providing the same quality property search experience in terms of relevance, comprehensiveness, freshness, and usability (maps, local data, etc).

There are many good references on how frames work on the internet. Here are two:

Examples

We have a working example for you to look at. It is hosted on the domain opencage.co.uk to demonstrate how you would host the service on your domain.

How it works:

You create an html search form that has the action="" paramter set to a URL on your domain. Behind this URL is a simple html page that is a frameset. This frameset splits the page in two, the top part pointing to a header file which is hosted on your domain and controled by you, the bottom part points to a Nestoria domain cb.nestoria.co.uk. Finally, there's also a tiny bit of javascript that ensures the search parameters entered by the user are passed on to Nestoria.

Technical limitations

Your user will need to use a browser that supports frames and javascript. The vast majority (>99%) of general internet users use such browsers.

Step by Step guide:

Step 1.

You need to create a file on a unique URL that will contain the frameset. Here is a template. Note that you can change the title (the bit that users will see at the top of their browser, and the relative size of the top part of the page (in the template below it is set to 15%).

<html>
<head>
<title>Your property search (you can change this)</title>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
<script type="text/javascript">
  function bounce(){
      parent.nestframe.window.location.href 
          = "http://cb.nestoria.co.uk/cgi/search" 
          + window.location.search;
      return 1;
  }
</script>
</head>
<frameset rows="110,*" onload='javascript:bounce();'>
<frame noresize="noresize" frameborder="0" src="cobrand-header.html">
<frame noresize="noresize" frameborder="0" src="cobrand-placeholder.html" name='nestframe'>
</frameset>
</html>

Step 2.

Paste the search box onto your page(s). The action="" paramter of the form tag to point to the unique URL you put the template above on.

Please have a look at the source of the search boxes on the example page (go to the page and then "view source"). Many of the parameters are optional, and you can make your search form more or less complex. Also, you have full control of the look and feel, font-size, colours, etc. of the search box.

There are several parameters you can pass to the Nestoria search:

parameter	values	meaning	required
`bathroom_min`	a number, for example 2	minimum number of bathrooms	No
`bedroom_min`	a number, for example 2	minimum number of bedrooms	No
`listing_type`	"buy" or "let"	type of listing	No
`place_name`	for example "soho"	location name	Yes
`price_max`	a number, for example 500000	maximum price	No
`price_min`	a number, for example 100000	minimum price	No
`property_type`	"all", "flat", or "house"	type of property	No

Step 3.

Create the header file which will be the top part of the results page. In the template above in Step 1 it is called cobrand-header.html, but you could call it whatever you like.

You should also create a dummy page for the bottom portion (which will be replaced automatically with the Nestoria search results). In the template above it is called cobrand-placeholder.html. This can be a very, very simple page like

<html>
<body>
<a href="http://www.nestoria.co.uk">Nestoria cobranded UK property search placeholder</a>
</body>
</html>

Step 4.

That's it, you should be done.

Stay Informed

The best way to stay up to date with enhancements to our co-branded search service is by subscribing to our blog: blog.nestoria.co.uk.

Suggestions?

Have any ideas for other ways we make Nestoria more useful for you? We'd love to hear from you. Get in touch via our online feedback form.

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