Question

I want to add functionality to a website I am building for a client that allows him to log on to a secure page and add new job listings. He will be the only one modifying this so I don’t need to worry about concurrent access or anything like that. At this point I don’t even have a database set up for him but I understand that might need to be implemented soon, for other features if not this one.

He doesn’t have any knowledge of HTML so I can’t just create a template job posting and have him manually fill in the information (although that is also unprofessional, I suppose.) I was planning on just making a simple php/html page where he could put the title of the job along with all details through submission of a form. Once I have that, though, I don’t know how to deal with adding that job title to a list of current job postings and also have that link to a new page with all the details of the job.

My memory from early undergraduate classes are hinting that the adding jobs to a list would be object-oriented. However, I can also see something where I would just add the title to an array which the list then dynamically filled from.

Another recommendation I have received is to look into implementing a django/python solution. The problem is I have about a week to work on this and I ahve no python experience. If that is something that would be possible to learn and implement in that time, I will go for it. I just don’t want to waste time on something that takes a week or two to learn and then still have nothing implemented.

Basically, I would appreciate a point in the right direction and some reassurance that I am considering all possibilities. If it would be easier to implement some kind of simple wiki, that is another option as well.

Do any of these ideas sound like the right choice? Is there anything I am missing?

I apologize if this is a trivial question but I have stumped myself and would appreciate any help you can offer.

Answer 1

A possible and easy solution would be using an appropriate CMS module, like Job Manager or Resume Submissions and Job Posting for WordPress. I haven’t tested them personally, but they should handle everything for you through a Web interface, no coding needed (you should just adapt the WordPress CSS to match the existing client’s Website style).

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For reference, here’s what I would have done in case no such CMS module existed.

1. Create a database with a table that will hold all job postings. The table should have the following columns: id, title, description, validityDate (names are self-explanatory). Add more if appropriate.
2. Write a script that queries the database for all current job postings using the following query: SELECT id, title FROM postings WHERE validityDate >= NOW(). To manage database connections, use the PHP PDO extension (look at its page on the PHP manual website for examples). This will return a list of all current job postings. For each result, let the script output HTML code like this: echo "<a href=\"post.php?id=$id\">$title</a><br />$description";, where $id, $title and $description are the variables holding the ID, title and description of the current record.
3. Write the post.php script that will fetch the details of the job posting with the ID specified in the id parameter.
4. Write another script where the client will input the details for a new posting into a form. After submission, the script should just insert the data into the table.