Users search jobs

In this part of the tutorial, you will build some pages that will allow users to search for jobs. There are two pages to be created, one containing the form that establishes the search criteria, and one that displays the results as a table, with links to each job's detail.

The fist page to be created is the form search page. Users should be able to search for jobs matching a desired type, domain, location, some keywords. Also, the user can enter a minimal value for the salary. There is no need for a maximum, because everybody knows that the higher, the better.

To create this page, follow the next steps:

Open the search page from the user folder in Dreamweaver.
To add the form that allows the user select the criteria for the job ad search, you can use the Custom Form Wizard. It allows the user to add fields that are associated to form elements. You can access this wizard from the MX Kollection tab of the Insert panel. Configure it as shown below.
In the first step, you must select a database connection. The wizard will not actually perform a SQL transaction , but the connection is used for error handling purposes. You can leave the redirect page field empty, as the generated form will point somewhere else anyway.
In the second step you will have to specify the fields to use with the custom transaction. This is important, as this is where you define what fields and under what form will appear on page. To add a field, you can click on the Plus (+) button of the Form fields grid, and type its label in the dialog box that opens:
After you add a field, you can configure its properties through the Display as and Submit as drop-down menus. The display as menu determines what form element will be used in the page, while the submit as menu selects the type of data to use. Configure the elements as follows:
· Add 5 elements to the Form fields grid: Job type, Job domain, Job location, Minimum salary and Job details.
· Set the Job type field to be displayed as a menu. when you select this option in the drop-down menu, two new buttons become available: Menu properties and Add recordset . Click the Menu properties to define the elements that will appear in the drop-down on the page: Full-time, Part-time and Project based. Add these both as values and labels:

· The Job domain and location will also use a menu to be displayed. But their values will be retrieved from the database. After you choose the Menu option in the Display as drop-down menu, two new buttons are available: Add recordset and Menu Properties.
For the job domain, select the Menu display as option, and Add a recordset. Configure it as shown below:
Close the recordset creation dialog box and hit the Menu properties button. Set the menu to use values from the database, with the id_dom column for values, and name_dom for labels.
Do the same for the Job Location - recordset and menu properties.
Click Finish to close the wizard, and add the form into the page:

· The Job details field will actually contain the keywords after which search will be conducted. change its label to reflect this.
· Now the form and its elements are on the page. One thing that the Custom Form Wizard does is leave the form action property empty, which is useful when the data processing is done in the same page. However, the page that processes the search criteria and displays the results is, in this case, another file. To make the form post the data to the correct file, select it on the page, and, in the Action field of the Property Inspector, enter the path to the results file:
Next you will change the Minimum salary field, for which you will use the Numeric Text Field server behavior. This is done in order to ensure that only numeric input will be allowed. Configure it to allow float values, and display the spin controls, for easier manipulation:
Now the search form is completed, with all fields necessary. You can preview the page in the browser, and it will display all available data for the Job type, domain and location, allowing you to select the desired values.

Once you are done with the search form page, you can move on and build the page that actually performs the search operation, showing the user only the matching results.

The search operation is actually only a fancier recordset, one that selects only the data matching the criteria specified in the search form. Thus, the first step when building the results page is (besides opening it in Dreamweaver, of course) to create the results recordset.

To create this recordset, follow the next steps:

Click on the Plus (+) button of the Bindings tab, and select recordset (Query) from the pop-up menu.
The recordset we're about to create is pretty complex, and you cannot create it in the simple form of the dialog box. Click the QuB3 button to switch the dialog box interface.
A window like the one below will appear. Configure it as shown, then click New Query:
Enter a name for the query in the prompt:
Now the MX Query Builder window will open in a new window. If you're not already familiar with the interface, you may want to give the QuB Workspace orientation page a quick look.
Check the table (job_job) to add it to the query and the database area of QuB
With the table now in the Database Diagram, you can select the necessary fields by checking the associated checkbox. Select the following fields:
· id_job
· iddom_job
· idloc_job
· title_job
· type_job
· salary_job
· detail_job
Now these fields will appear below in the Query Management panel. Here you will add conditions to five of the seven fields by clicking the button under the Condition heading:
Starting with the type_job field, click the Condition button. Configure the interface as follows, using the appropriate form variable from the search page:
Repeat the previous step for the idloc_job, type_job, and salary_job fields using their appropriate form variable counterpart (Job_location, Job_type, or Minimum_salary). With the salary_job field however,it would be better to use the ">=" condition instead of "=".
The last condition to add is the detail_job field which needs to be configured a little differently since it is not numeric. Click the Condition button and configure it as follows:
With all the conditions added, save the query from the Query menu:
Close the MX Query Builder interface and go back into Dreamweaver. The QuB Visual Recordset window should still be open.
Click the Refresh button next to the Query name field in the QuB Visual Recordset window.
The SQL code will then appear in the SQL field of the interface. Click OK.
To display the search results, add a dynamic table to the page, configured on the rsResults recordset, and displaying all records:

As all other dynamic tables you have used in this tutorial, you will notice that all fields from the recordset are displayed, some having very little significance for the user. As this is only the results page, you should eliminate all job details, and instead create a link to the job detail page, next to each result. First remove all columns, except the title_job column. For this remaining column, change it's header (in the first row's cell) to something more readable, like Job title.

Next add a new column at the end of the table, in which you will store the link to the job detail page. Type the title on the first row: Details. For the link text, type in Show details. Select the text and, by using the Browse for File button next to the link drop-down menu, select the job_detail page.

The job details page requires the job ID as parameter, and as such you have to pass it one. Press the Parameters button and add a new one, configured as follows:

Set the name to id_job.
Use the dynamic data icon next to the Value text-field, to select the id_job field of the rsResults recordset:
Note: For ASP, use <%=(rsResults.Fields.Item("id_job").Value)%> in the Value field.
Now the results page displays the job title, and a link to list more job details:

With this last step, the user's job search pages are completed, and you can save and upload them to the server. In order to try them out, login with a user account, and go to the search page. Here enter some criteria for the type, domain, location and salary, and eventually some keywords, and when you click the search button, the results page will open, with a link to more details, and the apply for jobs option:

First enter the search criteria:

Then click on search and see the results:

Congratulations for the successful search pages.

Using a similar approach you can create a search form that allows companies search for job applicants based on their defined preferred domain, location and minimum salary.