Web Scribble Blog

webJobs 3.1 Released: Themes, Backfilling, iPhone Compatability

Alexander — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:17:02 +0000

Just two months after webJobs 3.0 was released, we’re excited to announce the released of webJobs 3.1.

To upgrade webJobs follow the instructions in our documentation.

New Features

iPhone compatibility
When a user logs on to your webJobs site using an iPhone he will see a iPhone-compatible version of the site. The site and navigation have been tailored specifically for the iPhone screen size.
New theme system
You can now make new looks for webJobs without overwriting any existing templates. New themes make it easy for you to try out a new look or change between existing looks. It also allows you to share themes with others in the community.
- New theme: Modern (available in: blue, brown, green, orange)
- New theme: Minty (available in: blue, green, orange, red)
Ability to charge for featured jobs
The featured job on the front page can now be charged for. If you choose to use this feature, only those who pay for the featured job will be shown there. Instead of rotating between random employers, webJobs will rotate between those who have paid for the upgrade.
Backfill jobs from Indeed
Don’t ever worry about having an empty database ever again! webJobs will feed in jobs from Indeed to fill in your search results wherever yours are lacking, making your job board look more complete.
Ability for job seekers to apply for a job without signing in

Backfill your job board with jobs from Indeed

Alexander — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:54:32 +0000

One of the most common questions we get from pre-sales and post-sales customers is how to get jobs posted on their site. It’s a chick-or-the-egg problem: no job posters want to shell out the big bucks for a site with no job seekers and no job seekers want to join a job site with no jobs.

So what’s the solution to this Catch-22? Backfilling your job board from a source like Indeed.

What is backfilling?

“Backfilling” means essentially taking jobs from a third party source (in this case Indeed) and importing them into your job site. That way, when you first start and have no jobs posted, your users see the jobs posted from Indeed.

How does it work?

First of all, this feature is optional. It can be turned on/off in the administrative area. If enabled, it works to supplement your existing database. This means that if you do have some jobs posted, but don’t have too many, your database will be filled out by jobs from Indeed.

Let’s look at an example: you have two jobs posted each with the title “PHP Programmer.” When someone searches for the keywords “PHP Programmer” your jobs show up first. However, that still leaves room for more search results. The backfill feature takes the jobs from Indeed and supplements them here. Instead of showing just 2 jobs, your search results will look complete. Remember, your jobs always show first.

Let’s extend the example further: you have the same two jobs listed above, but one of your users searches for “Sales Associate.” Now, you don’t have any jobs listed for this position. In this case, webJobs pulls jobs from Indeed that match those keywords, making your search results appear complete.

Specific Results

Indeed has an API which is quite powerful. With their API, we can actually be very specific with the type of jobs that should be backfilled. For example, if you are looking for a PHP Programming position in New York, the search feature in webJobs will send those parameters to Indeed and will get back only jobs relevant to that region.

Conclusion

This new feature being released in webJobs 3.1 will be a great addition to those of you who want to fill out your database with extra results. By giving your users the appearance that you have many jobs, you will get more job seekers to sign up and as a result get more employers to post jobs, finally solving the chicken-or-the-egg problem!

Another new theme for webJobs

Alexey — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:36:30 +0000

We’ll be releasing one more theme in the next version of webJobs. A screenshot is attached below. All current customers get a free update, so you’re welcome to use this if you like it!

webJobs: Charge for Featured Listings

Alexey — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:03:57 +0000

The upcoming release of webJobs will have another great addition: the ability to charge for Featured Listings (which appear on the home page). As always, you can set the price and duration for this option however you want. It appears as a new billing item for employers to purchase when they log in. If multiple employers purchased a featured listing, the software selects one at random between all paying employers. If there are no paid featured listings, the software will select one at random from the entire employer database.

webJobs is now iPhone compatible

Alexey — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:59:42 +0000

We’re really excited about this feature to be released in the next version of webJobs. We’ve added a complete interface for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As you can see in the screenshot below, the site is properly sized to fit within the resolution of the iPhone, and you can easily tap between the different screens. We’ve even built in the iPhone transition effects when you’re moving from page to page so it looks like a native iPhone app. We had a great time building this feature!

Once you log on to the site, webJobs automatically detects that you’re using an iPhone and shows the proper iPhone theme. Using the iPhone, job seekers can search for jobs, log into their account, apply for jobs, and much more. Employers can search through resumes, view job postings, and log into their account. It couldn’t be easier to do a quick check for new applicants while you’re on the road, or apply for a job as a job seeker.

We hope you find this feature a great addition to your site. Let us know what you think!

New webJobs Theme Preview

Alexey — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:44:35 +0000

The next release of webJobs will have a new theme system in place. The theme system will allow you to easily choose from our pre-built themes, create new themes, and share/exchange them with other webJobs customers in our forums.

In addition to the existing theme that you’re probably using now, we’ll be adding two new themes. Included below is a preview of one of them. We’ll add a screenshot of the second theme soon as well. Let us know what you think!

webNetwork 3.1 Released

Alexey — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:46:10 +0000

We’re happy to announce the release of webNetwork 3.1. Below is a list of features/improvements we’ve made from our release of webNetwork 3.0 just a month ago! If you have webNetwork 2.x, go to our members area to download the update. If you’re already running 3.0, you’ll get an upgrade message from our automatic upgrader and can do the update right within the software.

Improvements

Members and friend requests
Joomla/webNetwork improvements

New Features

New video player for webNetwork

Alexey — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:50:57 +0000

We’re introducing a new video player to webNetwork 3.1. It looks more modern and sleek, but more importantly has a lot more functionality which we plan to take advantage of in the future. Everything will look the same as before, only with the new player. You can also switch back to the old player if you prefer it.

webNetwork: Auto-complete AJAX Search

Alexey — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:35:15 +0000

The next release of webNetwork will have a great new search feature. Similar to Facebook, your members will have the ability to easily search for their friends. When signed in, webNetwork will automatically auto-complete a users search form and show potential matches as they type. This search form will only work when you’re logged in, and will only show friends in the results, but you can still search normally when not logged in, or when there are no matches.

In the screenshot below, you’ll see that I started typing “al”, and two potential results came back. I can then click on either result to load their profiles.

webJobs 3.0 Released

Alexey — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:15:14 +0000

We’re excited to announce the release of webJobs 3.0! Below are some of the features we’ve included in the new release:

New Features

Twitter support
Every new job posted on your site can get tweeted to the account you specify.
News feeds to Indeed, SimplyHired, Oodle, and Google base
Syndicate your jobs to these sites for extra exposure.
SEO friendly URL’s
Improves search engine’s ability to crawl your site. Requires mod_rewrite.
Resume Agent
Employers can get e-mail alerts of newly registered job seekers based on keywords, location, experience, education, etc.
Automatic updates
Every new update released for webJobs can now easily be deployed with one click in the administrative area.
Create a new page from admin area
Word/PDF cover letter uploads

Improvements

Allow for .docx support in resume uploads
Mass delete for cities/states/countries lists
Option to attach resumes with new applicant message

If you’re an existing customer, you can download your free update by logging into the members area. If you’ve been waiting to purchase the new release, buy it today!