WP Broadbean Plugin Updates

In early 2014 I launched the first beta version of the WP Broadbean WordPress plugin. This is a plugin to integrate Broadbean Adcourier job postings with a WordPress website. The plugin has evolved and changed since then and therefore lets take a look at some of the plugins features.

Lets outline some of the new features of the plugin which have been introduced after the initial launch:

Extensibility

The plugin has been made as extensible as possible from the start. However as development has progressed it has become more obvious that additional extensible features could be utilised. Many of these have come from developers in the community using the plugin and feeding back to me.

There are now a number of hooks and filters that allow developers to extend upon and alter the functionality of the plugin. For example developers can use a different inbox.php file which processes each job simply by using a template override. Developers can also use filters to add additional job fields and taxonomies to the job postings should they wish to.

It is worth remembering however the more customisations made with the plugin through its extensible features, the more changes Broadbean will need to make to the feed which is used to send jobs to your site.

Below are some of the new filters you can use:

• wpbb_query_var_value – allows you to change the URL query var to which jobs are posted to. This defaults to broadbean but developers could change this to something else.
• wpbb_application_form_html – using this filter would allow developers to alter the markup of the application form used to allow candidates to apply for jobs
• wpbb_application_allowed_file_types – a filter that allows editing of the file types that are allowed by default in the CV upload field on the application form
• wpbb_apply_url – with this filter you can amend the URL used for applying for jobs. This means you could change the URL completely, maybe to use your own form or you could perhaps add additional query variables to the URL which you may use in your application form.
• wpbb_admin_sub_menus – allows developers to add a sub menu beneath the main WP Broadbean menu
• wpbb_registered_settings – add additional settings to the WP Broadbean settings admin page

There are many new action hooks you can utilise too:

• wpbb_job_term_added – a hook that fires after a term has been added to a job when sent through from Broadbean
• wpbb_job_field_added – this hooks fires after a field is added (post meta) to a job when sent through from Broadbean
• wpbb_job_added – after the job is added along with all the fields and the terms this hook is fired. Can be good for actioning things like clearing search caches etc. which need to be re-built when a new job or post is added.

There are many more and I would encourage you to search the code-base for apply_filters and do_action.

Application Form

The application form has changed along the way to, for the better I think. It now no longer uses a shortcode but instead you select which is your apply page in the WP Broadbean settings page. The application form is then appended to any page content you may have on that page.

The form also now includes a field for a message, something which many users requested.

Finally the form now also allows the upload of Word and Pages documents as well as the original PDF document type. Even these can be changed with a filter.

Attachments to Email Notifications

One of the initial issues with the plugin which was reported to me was that the application form was not emailing Broadbean correctly or not attaching the applicants CV to the email. This is something that is important for the tracking of an application from within the Adcourier system.

These issues have now been fixed and all the emails that are sent through to Broadbean will have the applicants CV attached.

Those are the main changes and alterations to the plugin which I hope make it much better for users and developers to take advantage of. Do remember that I offer a Broadbean Assist service where I can integrate Broadbean with your WordPress site for just £599 which takes the hassle out of doing it yourself.

Over the coming months I have some additional plans for the Broadbean plugin with a view to integrating this into some other services – watch this space. Oh and don’t forget that I recently launched a plugin for integrating WordPress with LogicMelon over at wplogicmelon.com – you can read a little more about this here!