James B

Hi All

I am looking at setting up a feed from a recruitment company to my site that then lists jobs on my site.

The company has sent me a fact sheet of what needs to be set up my end but I still don’t have a clue how to do it. This is what I need:

Job posting concepts
Job posting in this concept is simply the process of transferring job advert
data from one system to another using HTTP as a transport method. This
is achieved via an ‘engine’ generating the data and instigating the
connection coupled with an interface answering the engines request to
process and complete the transaction.
The process can be considered much like a telephone conversation:
1. Caller places call to receiver
2. Receiver responds
3. Caller dictates advert
4. Receiver notes the information
5. Receiver confirms receipt
6. Caller disconnects
7. Receiver publishes data

Interface Requirements
The following requirements should be considered when designing the
interface:
• The interface must accept one advert per transaction
• The interface must be multi-threaded as we may make concurrent
transactions
• Each advert transaction must be able to handle a new, unique email
address
• Each advert transaction must be able to handle a new, unique
application URL
Other Requirements
In order to post to the interface, the following information will be required
prior to feed development:
• URL to post to
This is the URL to the page on your site which will accept the data;
this is normally either a page expecting XML, a web service or a
HTML form expecting field value pairs.
• Required Fields
Outline the fields you would like included in the feed and any
predetermined values for those fields. This document includes an
example XML format of which the field names and data content is
flexible, we can also support bespoke fields where necessary.
• Returned Messages
When an advert is posted successfully please print a success message
back to the page, we are flexible with regards to the format of the
message and the details it includes. We simply scan the page for the
expected message to confirm that the post has worked correctly.
The success message should include the URL to the advert on the site,
this enables us to provide a direct link to the job.
If the advert fails validation (for example ‘Invalid credentials’ or ‘Invalid
value in field’) it is required that a descriptive message is printed back
to the page as we will forward this information to the user.
• Aplitrak Support
It is necessary to accept a unique email address with each advert, this
address should be used for applications in order to forward the
response to the correct place. As you may be aware, we receive
responses back into our system for applicant tracking purposes.
The address we provide will be job specific as we use this to link the
response back to the correct job record, and then forward the
application to the consultant’s inbox.
Please be advised that we block duplicate applications from the same
applicant for the same job, thus we need the applicant’s email address
sent in the ‘from’ field of the response, the ‘reply-to’ address or in the
subject line. It will cause us a problem if the response is sent from a
generic address as the first application will be received but all
subsequent applications will be blocked.
• Application URL
Many of our direct employers prefer applicants to apply via an
online application form, where this is the case the application URL
field will be populated.
The URL should be used when populated otherwise applications
should be sent to the email address field.
• Support telephone number and Support email address
These will be used internally by Broadbean.
• Contact telephone and Contact Email address
These will be displayed on our site within the subscriptions area.
• Indication of acceptance of HTML
Confirm if you can accept HTML within the advert job description.

Example XML Submission
<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”ISO-8859-1” ?>
<job>
<command>add</ccommand>
<username>bobsmith</username>
<password>p455w0rd</password>
<contact_name>Bob Smith</contact_name>
<contact_email>bob@smith.com</contact_email>
<contact_telephone>020 7987 6900</contact_telephone>
<contact_url>www.smith.com</contact_url>
<days_to_advertise>7</days_to_advertise>
<application_email>bob.12345.123@smith.aplitrak.co m</application_email>
<application_url>http://www.url.com/ad.asp?adid=12345123</application_url>
<job_reference>abc123</job_reference>
<job_title>Test Engineer</job_title>
<job_type>Contract</job_type>
<job_duration>6 Months</job_duration>
<job_startdate>ASAP</job_startdate>
<job_skills>VB, C++, PERL, Java</job_skills>
<job_description>This is the detailed description</job_description>
<job_location>London</job_location>
<job_industry >Marketing</job_industry >
<salary_currency>gbp</salary_currency>
<salary_from>25000</salary_from>
<salary_to>30000</salary_to>
<salary_per>annum</salary_per>
<salary_benefits>Bonus and Pension</salary_benefits>
<salary>£25000 - £30000 per annum + Bonus and Pension</salary>
</job>



The xml sample is not a major problem that looks straightforward. I just need to add the values that my site has and remove the ones that it does not. What I fail to understand is what I do with this once I set it up. My site is build using a php script that I have purchased from someone. Do I just save the xml file into the folder online? How then does the job posting company attached the adverts to my database. If someone needs some more info then maybe I can email them the full documentation that has been sent to me. I can also show them my site. I can pay someone a small fee for their time but the above installation is going to cost me hundreds so I don’t have a lot left. Be nice if the person who offers any suggestions is good at mysql as well as I need to attempt to modify this as well.

Thanks

James

-NC-

from the way i read it, you would:

1)
create a php file to accept their jobs. e.g.
yoursite.com/createnewjob.php

2)
insert the received data into your database.

i notice that they let you specify that you want to use http post field/value pairs instead of xml.
this may be easier. ( personally i'm not a huge fan of PHP's event driven XML parser )

how you insert into the database should depend on how the rest of the application does it. e.g. maybe it uses adodb - go find an insert statement from somewhere else, copy it, and change the table/fields.

hope that helps,

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James B

Hi

Thanks for the reply. Im not very good with this sort of thing so dont really understand what I need to look at when you mention the insert statement. Would this be in one of the .php files on my server or do I need to look at the database (please say its not the database)?

1)
create a php file to accept their jobs. e.g.
yoursite.com/createnewjob.php

So with this I just save the xml stuff as .php but there is a simpler way if I use http?? Not sure how that works as I dont have an example.

2)
insert the received data into your database.

Im assuming there is a comand for this but Im not sure how to set that up or test it.

Not sure if you can offer your services but if you can maybe we can talk further and you let me have a quote as to how much it would cost me?

Not going to be online much longer tonight so will catch up tomorrow.

Thanks

James

-NC-

Sorry, I thought you had some programming experience and so phrased my answer that way. From my understanding of your reply, this is not the case.

You will need to hire a programmer who knows how to create a php file which receives an http post and inserts the values into a database ( also experience with php xml parsing may be helpful )

This should not be expensive, all the concepts required can be covered in a short, one page tutorial. e.g. http://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/mysql-insert-php.php

I'm not available for freelance work, you could try posting in the development wanted section here on namepros: http://www.namepros.com/web-development-wanted/ , i've also heard http://www.getafreelancer.com/ is a fairly popular site for finding freelancers to perform small jobs like this.

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James B

Ni NC

Thanks for the extra info. I will look to hire someone. Thanks for the links. Have a great week

James