UPDATE 8/20/2010: All of the status messages that were on the live test site have been converted to blog posts and added to this blog.
I'm back to working on JawberDoo full time. Other than what is currently on the test site I haven't posted very much, so I decided to take some time to give everyone an update. There have been quite a few developments in the past couple of months, so here we go.
After talking with some users, we decided to add more support for agencies. While the site will not allow agencies to post jawb listings it will allow employers to post listings that are visible to jawb seekers and/or agency agents. Jawb seekers will be able to find direct positions with employers and agency agents will be able to find positions where the employer wishes to deal with agencies either solely or in addition to jawb seekers. Agencies may then use their resources, and others, to find applicants. The idea here is to make it as simple as possible for employers to post positions and for jawb seekers to find them.
While working on the database changes we decided to implement the manual entry of GPS coordinates for each address in the database. We had been doing a simple zip code lookup which typically returns either the post office GPS location or the GPS location of the center of the zip code zone. One of our future plans was to use a geocoding service for the GPS coordinates, so I did some research and I found 2 services that offer free address lookups. They don't validate addresses to USPS standards (ZIP Code Lookup), but they do give accurate GPS coordinates. I've completed the WCF coding for one of them, and will complete the coding for the other shortly. I'll tell you why I'm using 2 providers and their names in a later post, but this is great news.
A couple months ago I wrote the post, "Dropping the use and support of all Telerik products". The ComponetArt control suite is much better than that of Telerik's, but it is missing a CAPTCHA control. After searching a bit, I found an open source project at The Code Project for A CAPTCHA Server Control for ASP.NET. I am currently in the process of modifying it so that it may be added to my framework library. The interesting thing is that it looks like Telerik did the same thing, as their control is line-by-line identical to that of the open source project, which was written years before Telerik made their control available.
I need to get back to finishing off the CAPTCHA control, but I will try to be a little more diligent with my blog postings.
We've had requests for an additional type of listing where employer agents will create listings that are only visible to agencies, which we believe is a good idea for the greater picture. This is going to require some significant changes that require us to place the current testing on hold. We will update you when testing is again available.