How to query external databases via API and show results

I am looking to build a holiday property letting agency website which will interact with Supercontrol.co.uk to display property availability via an API. I would like to develop the website to search and display results via a snippet.

Are there any tutorials or pre-existing snippets which I should use.

Thanks

If you haven't tried these yet, here are some resources you'll probably find very useful:

Rowboat => For looping over rows in any database table

AdvSearch => Allows searching in custom packages.
CMPGenerator => a GUI tool that will create the xpdo scheme files and xpdo classes for your custom database tables
Developing an Extra in MODX Revolution

Using Custom Database Tables in your 3rd Party Components

Custom Database Tables => Practical real-world example creating an extra and interacting with custom tables

You can use CMPGenerator http://rtfm.modx.com/extras/revo/cmpgenerator. It´s very simple.

CMPGenerator is intended to be used by PHP developers that want to create custom database tables to be used via a snippet, plugin or CMP. CMPGenerator is a GUI and it will create the xpdo scheme files and xpdo classes for your custom database tables with just a click of a button. This allows you to quickly start using xpdo in your custom projects.