What an import task is, and creating your first one

An import task is one saved set of filters. It decides which listings from your MLS become properties on your site, what they are called, and who owns them. Nothing is imported until you create one and start it.

You can have as many import tasks as you need, all running from the same MLS connection. Each one holds its own filters and its own settings.

Before you start

1. Your MLS connection is verified. Open MLS Import Settings, MLS/RESO Api Options, and confirm both connection messages are green.
2. Your import fields are selected on the Select Import fields tab. Without them the task screen tells you to pick fields first, and the import has nothing to write.

Create the task

1. Go to Import Tasks in the wp-admin sidebar and click Add New.
2. Give the task a title. Use something that describes its scope, for example Miami Residential Active. The title identifies the task in Import History and in the activity banner.
3. Read the line that says We found a number of listings. That is how many listings in your MLS currently match this task, counted before anything is imported. On a new task with no filters set, it is close to your whole feed.
4. Set How Many to import. Enter 0 to import everything the task found, or a smaller number such as 25 for a first run.
5. Set your filters under Import Parameters. City, county, price, property type and status all live here.
6. Click Publish. The task must be saved before it can run.
7. Click Start Import. A progress bar appears and the status line reports each property as it is written.

Expected result: properties appear under your theme’s property post type, and the task finishes with an import completed message. The listings are ordinary WordPress posts from that point on.

What the task controls after the first run

The task is not a one-time action. It stays as the definition of that group of listings, and two scheduled jobs read it afterwards.

1. The hourly sync uses the task’s filters to find listings changed in the last two hours and update them. It runs only when Enable Auto Update every hour is on for that task.
2. The daily reconciliation uses the task’s Select Status and Protected Statuses settings to decide which of its properties should be removed when they leave the MLS.

That is why the filters matter beyond the first import. Editing them changes what happens on every later run.

If it does not work

1. No Start Import button. The task has not been saved yet, or the connection test failed. Click Publish and reload the screen. If a red connection message is showing, fix that first.
2. You have too many parameters selected. The query built from your filters is too long to send. Split the work across tasks: import by county instead of listing ten cities, or divide by price range.
3. This MLS requires to have one item selected from Property Action Category. Rapattoni servers refuse a query with no property type. Pick one and save.
4. We found 0 listings. Your filters are all applied together, so the MLS has to satisfy every one of them at once. Remove them one at a time until the count moves.

Frequently asked questions

How many import tasks should I create?

As many as it takes to keep each one inside what your server can process in a single run, with filters that do not overlap. One task per city or per county is a common split. All of them share the single MLS connection on the site.

Does editing a task change listings that are already imported?

Not on its own. Filters apply to the next run, so properties imported under the old filters stay on the site until reconciliation removes them or you delete them from the Tools tab. After a large change of scope, deleting and re-importing gives a clean result.

Is there a limit on one task?

Yes. A single task imports at most 10,000 listings in one run, and the request is paged in batches of 25 listings. If your filters match more than that, split them across several tasks.

Can I delete an import task without deleting its properties?

Yes. Deleting the task removes the configuration, and the properties it imported stay in WordPress. They stop being updated and stop being reconciled, because the rules that governed them are gone.

Related

1. Controlling which listings are imported
2. Running a manual import and stopping one
3. Title format, property status and owner
4. Avoiding overlapping import tasks

If your first task finds listings but imports none, send us the task screen and the status line and we will read it with you.