WPJobBoard 3.5.0 is available for download in client panel. Due to unforeseen events, unfortunately the update is not as big as i would like, but i think you will still find some interesting features and updates.

As always please keep in mind that 3.X.0 release is a beta version, so while for the most part it’s safe to use it, before updating please backup your site and test job board after updating.

Below is a full list of changes

• [Feature] Google Maps integration with jobs
• [Feature] Extended company location in company profile
• [Feature] Edit Job/Resume link in Admin Bar, this is small update but i think it will be huge UI improvment for job board owners
• [Feature] Pending items in wp-admin sidebar
• [Feature] Pending job, resume email templates
• [Feature] Custom RSS feeds
• [Feature] States and city autocomplete in frontend and backed
• [Feature] Listing type descriptions
• [Feature] Payment method API
• [Feature] reCAPTCHA integration
• [Feature] Search jobs by advanced fields API
• [Change] Removed wp-admin update module
• [Bug] Removed “new image” styling
• [Feature] Google Maps integration with jobs
• [Feature] Extended company location in company profile
• [Feature] Edit Job/Resume link in Admin Bar
• [Feature] Pending items in wp-admin sidebar
• [Feature] Pending job, resume email templates
• [Feature] Custom RSS feeds
• [Feature] States autocomplete in frontend and backed
• [Feature] Listing type descriptions
• [Feature] Payment method API
• [Feature] reCAPTCHA integration
• [Feature] Search jobs by advanced fields API
• [Change] Removed wp-admin update module
• [Bug] Removed “new image” styling
• [Bug] Incorrectly displaying employers list in wp-admin

I was getting some emails with questions along the lines of “Is WPJobBoard compatible with WordPress 3.3?”, so i thought i would address it on the blog. WPJobBoard is fully compatible with WP 3.3 (it goes for new blog installs and blog upgrades), and for the most part it’s safe to upgrade to latest version of WordPress. However, as always, when updating please make a database backup first, so you can rever to older version if something goes wrong.

In the meantime, i am happy to anounce that WPJB 3.5 will be ready for download this month. It doesn’t have as many updates as i would like to (due to problems with my development machine), but i think it’s still a nice update. There will be a whole post about new version, here i will just list some of the most interesting features: Google Maps integration, reCAPTCHA integration in apply forms, pending items in wp-admin sidebar, payment method api, even more advanced search.

Version 3.4.5 was just released. As usually with minor updates there are no exciting new features. This is rather maintenance release with a couple of small bug fixes. Among others one change  that is worth mentioning is redesign of how Job Board menu and Resumes Menu widgets work.

Previously, if user was logged in as an Employer, Resumes Menu did not displayed Candidate login/registration links and vice versa (when user was logged in as Candidate, Job Board Menu did not displayed Employer login/registration links). This was quite confusing for quite  a lot of users so i decided to redesign how menus work. In new version when Employer is logged in the login/register links for candidate are still visible, but when Employer clicks on them he will see an error saying that he is already logged in as an Employer. I hope this one small change will make WPJobBoard more usable to everyone.

Version 3.4.4 is ready for download. In the update one of the most requested features was added. Indeed and plain XML jobs import, so currently there are 3 import methods available: CareerBuilder, Indeed and import from XML file.

The Indeed import was most requested feature for a while now. since many users claim it provides best search results, however i do not like it that much, because it returns only 256 characters from job description. As for the XML import i think that everyone who wishes to migrate to WPJB will find this useful. Exact XML scheme is described in Knowledge Base.

Aside of the import 3.4.4 contains 2 small bug fixes (no other bugs were found), which makes the 3.4 branch pretty stable and recommended for production use.

WPJobBoard version 3.4.3 was just released. This is a recommended release for anyone who is already using version 3.4.X. New version contains two critical bug fixes (resumes paging in the backend and applications saving and listing).

Like with every WPJobBoard release there are also some new features:

• Administration area can be now fully translated from the WPJobBoard *.po file, so now you can have whole job board in your language not only the frontend
• Finally the widgets were rewrote and now you can use each widget more then once. (BTW. after updating you might need to configure again WPJB widgets, ie. add them to the sidebar)
• Some source code refactoring, which hopefully will allow me to develop future versions faster – which means more features for you.

If you are also using WPJobBoard Theme please download new version as well, there are few bug fixes for the AJAX API.

I hope you will enjoy the new release!

Yesterday WPJobBoard 3.4.2 was released with some bug fixes and improvements if you are running version 3.4, then it is a recommended upgrade for you. Aside of bug fixes i also made some improvements in WPJobBoard JSON API which allowed me to add live search feature to WPJB Theme (if you do not know what live search is check how Google search works, it’s pretty much the same).

The JSON API is quite powerful i’ve got to tell you, it allows to search jobs be keyword/location, date posted, multiple categories and multiple job types at once (there is also similar API for resumes browsing).

By default “normal” search is enabled so when you select WPJobBoard-Theme on your themes list, you need to go to theme options and enable live search. If you would like to check it visit job board demo.

It’s been about week since 3.4.0 release and here is next release available. As usually it contains bug fixes for problems found in previous version and two new features. If you are already running version 3.4.0 this is recommended upgrade.

As for the new features. The first one is sales stats interactive widget. Basically it shows income and orders volume from previous 7 or 30 days. See below how it looks.

Sales stats dashboard widget

The second feature is JSON API. In theory it will allow you to easily create dynamic job board applications like Crebs or Hispanoxion. I wrote in theory, because you will still need to know JavaScript/AJAX in order to do this. The API allows job searching, viewing single job, as well as searching and viewing resumes.

In feature it will also allow to send job applications and subscribe to resumes. Either way, soon enough you will see on WPJobBoard Theme, how powerful the JSON API is and what can be done with it.

As i promised on Friday, WPJobBoard 3.4.0 was released today, and it’s a recommended version to use if you are starting a new job board. If you are looking to upgrade your current WPJobBoard 3.X to version 3.4 feel free to do so if and only if you didn’t make any modifications in WPJobBoard source code or templates files. On the other hand if you made some modifications/changes it’s very important that you read migration guide (more details in changelog).

What’s new in version 3.4.0?

First of all, long awaited resumes in the frontend. Both job seekers and employers can register/login and manage their “things” in the frontend. As always with WPJobBoard the experience for users is seamless since WPJB is using your Theme CSS on user pages.

Next, huge feature is ability to manage job applications by administrator or employer who posted a job. Employer/admin can accept/reject job application, view attachements, read applicant message etc. The idea is that employer can manage application from the web instead of going through hundreds of emails. Also, the application won’t get lost in case email won’t be delivered for some reason.

Small improvement is ability to assign a color to job type. This is pretty popular feature among job boards, so i decided to add it since it did not require a lot of work.

If you are looking to setup job board for a client then here is a good news for you. All WPJobBoard templates were rewritten, to make them as transparent as possible. Many HTML tags got CSS clasess so it will be easier for non-programmers to apply CSS to WPJB without modifying any files. Finally each template file starts with short documentation and list of variables that can be used in the template.

As every new release, this one contains few bug fixes.

Long awaited version 3.4 will be available for download on 13th June (2011). The version will be beta, however it will be recommended to use on new sites, updating from older version (especially in production environment) is highly discouraged.

The version 3.4 has a lot of new futures and improvements (codebase increased by about 10%), unfortunately the improvements come with a cost. Not in terms of money but rather backwards compatibility. If you changed something in the WPJobBoard source code or modified templates do NOT update to latest version on production site, there is a very high probability (almost 100%) that in very least the job board templates will revert to default templates. On the other hand if you made no changes whatsoever feel free to update.

Here is a short list of new features in version 3.4.0:

• Employer and job seeker accounts in the frontend – this feature was actually available in version 3.3.6 however only from wp-admin panel, now both job seekers and employers can register/login/manage in the frontend
• There is now differentiation between job seeker account and employer account – employer cannot access job seeker pages and vice versa
• All sent job applications are saved in the database and can be reviewed by admin or employer
• Better company jobs management
• Rewrote wpjobboard templates – it actually means few things, i’ve added a lot of documentation in the templates, switched from using wired functions to using variables in the templates (that should make it a lot easier for anyone who wishes to modify the templates), reorganized templates directories and and loading (that will be explained in the knowledge base), and finally i’ve added a lot of CSS classes in the templates so it’s simple to manage layout with just changing CSS properties

I am also planning to make a major update in WPJobBoard Theme, and maybe give it a better name, will try to make it available on 13th June as well but i am afraid that’s unlikely.