We’ve added to our  portfolio of Wordpress features available in the new search widget and have our first customer trying them out. We can now embed the search widget within customer sites and filter search results so it only display vacancies advertised by that customer. In addition, we can theme the widget to match the customer’s website ..

Thus far we have one customer trying this out, take a look at;

http://www.pccjobs.co.uk

Ok, we have an initial version of the new software up for testing on the Pharma Careers demo site. This should be relatively complete from a candidate’s perspective although we’ve not included any of the recruiter functionality just yet.

Please feel free to use the built in feedback form, we would very much appreciate your comments, suggestions and reports of any problems.

The software should be 100% on Internet Explorer version 8 and Firefox version 3, however you should also find it’s 99%+ (i.e. fully usable) on Internet Explorer version 6 and on Google’s ‘Chrome’ browser.

(incidentally, it’s working off live data so it “can” be used in place of the current pharmacareers site with regards to candidates)

Ok, we’re on the last list of fixes prior to a test release .. most of those are browser compatibility issues. If anyone has any strong views about which browsers should (or shouldn’t) be supported, I’d be interested to hear. Currently we’re explicitly supporting Firefox 3.x, IE6 and IE8 .. hopefully we can get access to an IE7 browser for testing and add this to the list.

Development marches on, the candidate dashboard is now working and work on the registration Wizard is nearing completion leaving only personal profile and criteria selection left on the candidate interface. I’m sure there will be plenty to change and enhance when the first revision is finished, but as an initial release it’s looking pretty good.

Based on feedback from the initial demo of the vacancy search widget, we’ve now finalised the design and look of the new client GUI / search interface for the next version of the Jobs Board. Here are some screen shots, click on an image for a full-size view. A list of features is included below the images …

User interface features

o You can now set the search region by clicking on the “hot” flash map of the UK
o Clicking on the map activates the search with the current criteria set
o The interface can be used anonymously, or you can use it as an authenticated user
o For authenticated users, vacancies you have applied for are marked / detailed
o Vacancies can be listed in concise (one per line) mode, or in preview mode as shown
o Clicking on a vacancy will open a new tab showing details of the vacancy
o Any number of tabs / vacancy details screens can be opened at any time
o Applying for a vacancy is just a matter of clicking “Apply” , then “Yes”
o When viewing vacancies you have applied for, the “Apply” button becomes “Withdraw
o The applications run “in page” and does not refresh the screen (i.e. it’s quick!)
o Paging through result pages is quick, typically 1s per page of results
o The vacancy display allows for more flexibility with regards to details and formatting

For screenshots of the of the login process, please see the “User Interface TNG” posting.

Well it may have looked like a quiet month but we’ve been working away on the new Jobs board user Interface. Building on the concept exhibited by the search widget, we’re going with a popup box that sits in the middle of the screen which will mask out the underlying page, thus allowing the widget to work on top of any pre-existing page or site. The idea is that we can provide recruiters with a facility whereby they can embed the search widget within their own site, and filter it so it only displays vacancies posted by themselves.

Here’s where we’re at so far (although these are static shots, it’s actually a fully working framework that authenticates properly against the database and sets up all the proper session variables);

If you then click on the login button, it moves onto the second screen as shown below. Note that the change is “in-page” and does not require a page refresh.

Finally, when you enter your details (these are saved in a cookie on your machine if you click on the save checkbox) and click on the Login button, a progress indicator will appear on the screen while it tries to log you in, then you are either passed a “login failure” message, or you are passed on to the third screen. Note that for returning candidates who have saved their details, all you need do on this screen is to press “login” , and the login process takes less than 1s.

From here the candidate can launch their dashboard to see the current state of their applications, change their details / update their cv, or search / browse the database.

Bear in mind that what you see here is the result of feedback received from recruiters and candidates (mainly the former) so you if have any feedback or suggestions – it all counts!

Well, we’ve been running for about 2 weeks now (on the new website) , so how do things look? We were sort of coming from a standing start as the old UKCareers site was just being used  for publishing a few articles and wasn’t getting much by the way of hits, so 762 visits does seem like quite respectable growth over what is a relatively short period of time.

These stats were pulled off the local WordPress dashboard which gives a very handy view of what’s going on.

Here it is, the first live preview of the UK Careers Vacancy Search Widget. Please take a look and let us know what you think, and in particular whether is works for you or does anything strange. It’s been tested on the latest versions of FireFox and Internet Explorer only, so if you’re using an older browser and are having problems – please do let us know. [don't forget to mention which browser you are using and the version you have]

We already have a few minor user interface changes in mind, but if you have any suggestions, send them through and we’ll look at what we can roll in to the next version.

I’ve just turned on permalinks (so page URL’s no longer contain question marks), reindexed the site and re-submitted to Google webmaster tools .. which might help Google’s search index rating. I’ve also installed DB Cache which should make the site a fraction quicker ..

We’re now getting started on the new Jobs board user Interface and things are going fairly well. The decision is to use WordPress (as per “this” site) as the base for the new software with administrative tasks being handled by ExtJS with the data remaining in MySQL. There are a host of reasons for this and a huge number of benfits. Take a look at this initial screenshot of the new “search widget” [which is working!] and then the features listed below …

Search Widget feature summary

• The widget uses “light box” technology to overlay any pre-existing webpage, hence can be embedded on “any” site
• It is implemented as a WordPress “plugin”, so installation is totally menu driven for WordPress users
• Searching and displaying results pages is done “inline” using AJAX, so there are no page refreshes to display the results!
• The database will search / match / display 12,000 vacancies in under a second
• All the columns are clickable and clicking on a column will sort the result set by that column, 12,000 records in under a second
• All columns are resizable (by the user)
• All columns can be turned off / on by the user
• A”view” button is to come which will display the complete vacancy and allow the user to use our one-click application feature to apply for the vacancy “within the widget”
• A “featured jobs” slot is to be added for vacancies that need to be filled quickly
• Searching can be limited to a specific recruiter. So recruiters can embed the widget on their own websites!

Hopefully we’ll have a working demo embedded on this site within a week or so .. watch this space!