Developer Q&A: Updater Integration with SkySlope

By Jenna Weinerman

Published Mar 3, 2016

Updated Dec 23, 2023

Updater Senior Software Engineer, John Negron, sat down with us recently to discuss his work on our integration with leading real estate software provider SkySlope, and why he believes this tech partnership provides great value to our shared clients.

John, what’s your core focus at Updater?

I work on a variety of projects, but specifically focus on our APIs and integration software (the fun stuff behind the scenes that allows our clients to integrate with us).

That may be fun for you, but sounds intense for clients. How do you take the integration burden off their shoulders?

That’s exactly why I work on it! (laughing) We do the leg work to make it easy on our clients. The integration allows a seamless transfer of information between Updater and the real estate brokerage company via SkySlope, respectively.

What kind of technologies make this possible?

Our entire integration platform is built using the Ruby on Rails framework. Ruby includes a background processor, which was essential for us. We also wrote several parcel tools and schedulers to parse out the files and pull information dynamically from the company’s API.

How often is maintenance required to manage the integration?

This integration has actually been one of the least problematic systems we have integrated with. We spent a significant amount of time up front architecting the integration, which has paid off over time.

Personally, what was most enjoyable about working on this project?

Being able to collaborate on the architecture of the integration itself was very interesting. I really enjoyed the challenge of designing a component-based solution, as we had to look carefully at what the needs of our clients were and how exactly different parties operate.

Why should real estate brokerage firms care about this integration? What’s in it for them?

If a brokerage wants to offer a seamless moving experience to their clients, Updater is the perfect answer. Not only is it a simple app to understand, roll out, and use, but it can also tap into their pre-existing software systems. There’s seriously nothing else a client needs to do on their end. It’s a total no-brainer.

And, lastly, just for fun, what do you love most about engineering at Updater?

Definitely the people – it’s like a family, everyone hangs out and is awesome.

Jenna Weinerman

Jenna is Updater’s Head of Marketing and a published ReloTech expert. She’s an endless seeker of knowledge, a lover of craft brews, and a huge Philadelphia sports fan. Follow her on Twitter here.