[RussH]

Guys,

I've just completed the development on my Joomla CATS module. I'll release it here shortly - but for the moment if you want to see it, it's in test at http://www.chasejobs.co.uk

• - replaces the 'careers portal' entirely
  - pulls data directly from the CATS MySQL db (it respects the 'public' checkbox when deciding whether to display or hide vacancies')
  - it supports candidate questionnaires
  - supports categorisation of jobs, with different job listings per category.
  - joomla search box searches the CATS vacancies
  - applicants are entered directly into CATS backend databases, as if applicant was using the CATS career portal.

Note - this is a module developed for a single site. Released as-is for now.. customisation/code changes will/may be required to move this to another site. Guidelines on that to be developed.

This is a standalone Joomla module with no hooks into the CATS application - writes directly to the backend db & therefore will be released under the GPL. If anyone wants the code in advance of me getting my finger out and posting it - just PM me - but it'll be a raw export from the test site.

[tds]

This looks very promising. Great work.
Thanks

[mabdalla]

Hey Russ..

You seem to have forgotten to put out the Admin URL / Login Details. I just went through the site, created an account and applied to the Secertary job. The one thats in the "Big city" . Still i didn't know how to check out what i've done.

Seems to me that this is only a replacement to the Career Portal Function, right?

How can we demo the effect on the CATs itself?

P.S. I wanna see the code as well.. if possible.

Regards,

-MA

[RussH]

No worries. You can see the code once it's polished - but for a 'early days' view - it's available as a backup of the joomla directory for now as a downloadable file in the downloads section of the site (http://www.opencats.org/downloads). One of the other members in the forums has offered to go through it and tidy/document the install as part of their implementation - so that'll be great if it happens.

There is no customisable interaction from within Joomla though - it's purely direct from CATS. Therefore if you want to play with posting jobs etc, the cats backend is at http://www.chasejobs.co.uk/cats/

a user account is setup with catstest, and password catstest.

You wont however receive email notifications for people applying for jobs, as the email associated with that account is mine.

As you say - a straight replacement for the career portal, which means you avoid the problems of having to 'wrap' cats into Joomla!, but you get the benefits of being able to search cats jobs from within Joomla, and (to some extent) I'd expect that as this is not a piece of CATS code, there's no need for the badge 'powered by cats' - but don't hold me to that. The purpose of this was to integrate with Joomla, and not to sidestep the license requirements. I'd still credit the backend tool.

*NOTE: EDITED THIS POST TO INCLUDE THE CORRECT USERNAME AND PASSWORD!

[mabdalla]

hmm... catsuser is not working... login denied "Invalid username or password"

However, you have a point russ.. What else can you integrate into a joomla front end that can integrate with CATS as a back end module! Joomla has tons of plugins and extenssions.. and if you've managed to wire it with CATS, i believe the possibilities are endless.

Although it requires understanding of the DB structure and integration points between CATS and Joomla. you'll however end up with your data distributed between two DB's.. the CATS DB and the Joomla DB. How do you think you can over come that?

Let alone reporting..

Well.. its a good thing to think about before going to bed tonight!

Good job buddy!

Cheers.

-MA

[mabdalla]

Russ..

Spend some time to clean up the Joomla interface from all the nounsence that comes with it.. you need to make a clean interface with only jobs and job AD's displayed.. then we can think of what to add next.. but first, it needs to look clean so it gives us space to think!

-MA

[RussH]

sorry - my mistake catstest and catstest are the cats username and logon!

And yes, it's entirely a default out of the box Joomla 1.5.0 environment - haven't altered anything else. It's not a complete recruitment site - just a Joomla environment that's running the CATS module..

[mabdalla]

I logged in and checked it out. Good work Russ.. This looks pretty promising. Since Both Cats and Joomla are PHP, some soft of integration can be worked out and maybe you wouldn't have to write directly to the DB, but rather use the CATS integration system calls to do the job for you as if you were using CATS itself.

I have checked out the latest CATS site, and they seem to have been pouring in some good ideas. Development has reached version 0.95 already there. I wonder if they are ever going to do open source again or at least support for On-Site users.

Regards,

-MA

[RussH]

I logged in and checked it out. Good work Russ.. This looks pretty promising. Since Both Cats and Joomla are PHP, some soft of integration can be worked out and maybe you wouldn't have to write directly to the DB, but rather use the CATS integration system calls to do the job for you as if you were using CATS itself.

I have checked out the latest CATS site, and they seem to have been pouring in some good ideas. Development has reached version 0.95 already there. I wonder if they are ever going to do open source again or at least support for On-Site users.

Regards,

-MA

I'd doubt it - but they're still members of this site - so they're welcome to comment themselves! From what I see only the reporting module has seen development, and with all respect to them, that's 'simply' extracting the data from the database and visually representing it. It's what reports are presented/required that's important to the business. I've posted the question as to what reports people actually need - and I'm sure we can amend the reporting interface to provide them. Either that or - as I suggested in the post - use a GPL reporting app to poll the database directly.

[Jos]

Russh,

What is the current status of the joomla module. I want to implement it, but still cannot find the module to be downloaded nor find the code for CATS backend.