Building a Job Board Plugin for WordPress

Posted on 18th June 2023

If you’re a WordPress developer, sooner or later you’re going to be asked to build a job board plugin. In this article, we’ll go over the basics of building a job board plugin for WordPress.

What is a Job Board?

A job board is a website that allows employers to post job listings, and job seekers to search for and apply to those listings.

Why Use WordPress?

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that powers millions of websites. It’s relatively easy to use, and has a large and active community of developers and users.

There are a few reasons why you might want to use WordPress to build a job board:

• WordPress is free and open source.
• WordPress is easy to use, even for non-technical users.
• WordPress has a large and active community of developers and users.
• WordPress is extendable with plugins.

Requirements

To follow along with this article, you’ll need a few things:

• A local development environment for WordPress
• A text editor or IDE
• Some basic knowledge of PHP

Creating the Plugin

The first thing we need to do is create a new plugin. In your local WordPress development environment, create a new directory for your plugin, and inside that directory, create a file named job-board.php.

In that file, we’ll start by adding some basic plugin information:

“`
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Job Board
Plugin URI: https://example.com/
Description: A job board plugin for WordPress
Version: 1.0.0
Author: Your Name
Author URI: https://example.com/
License: GPLv2 or later
Text Domain: job-board
*/
“`

Save the file and activate the plugin in your WordPress admin panel. Once the plugin is activated, you should see a new menu item in the admin panel called "Job Board".

Creating the Job Post Type

In WordPress, a “post type” is a type of content. The default post types are “post” and “page”, but plugins can register custom post types.

We’re going to need a custom post type for our job listings, so let’s start by registering it. Add the following code to your plugin:

“`
_x( ‘Jobs’, ‘Post Type General Name’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘singular_name’ => _x( ‘Job’, ‘Post Type Singular Name’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘menu_name’ => __( ‘Jobs’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘name_admin_bar’ => __( ‘Job’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘archives’ => __( ‘Item Archives’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘attributes’ => __( ‘Item Attributes’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘parent_item_colon’ => __( ‘Parent Item:’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘all_items’ => __( ‘All Items’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘add_new_item’ => __( ‘Add New Item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘add_new’ => __( ‘Add New’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘new_item’ => __( ‘New Item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘edit_item’ => __( ‘Edit Item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘update_item’ => __( ‘Update Item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘view_item’ => __( ‘View Item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘view_items’ => __( ‘View Items’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘search_items’ => __( ‘Search Item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘not_found’ => __( ‘Not found’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘not_found_in_trash’ => __( ‘Not found in Trash’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘featured_image’ => __( ‘Featured Image’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘set_featured_image’ => __( ‘Set featured image’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘remove_featured_image’ => __( ‘Remove featured image’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘use_featured_image’ => __( ‘Use as featured image’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘insert_into_item’ => __( ‘Insert into item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘uploaded_to_this_item’ => __( ‘Uploaded to this item’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘items_list’ => __( ‘Items list’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘items_list_navigation’ => __( ‘Items list navigation’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘filter_items_list’ => __( ‘Filter items list’, ‘job-board’ ),
);
$args = array(
‘label’ => __( ‘Job’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘description’ => __( ‘A job listing’, ‘job-board’ ),
‘labels’ => $labels,
‘supports’ => array( ‘title’, ‘editor’, ‘thumbnail’, ‘custom-fields’ ),
‘taxonomies’ => array( ‘job_type’ ),
‘hierarchical’ => false,
‘public’ => true,
‘show_ui’ => true,
‘show_in_menu’ => true,
‘menu_position’ => 5,
‘show_in_admin_bar’ => true,
‘show_in_nav_menus’ => true,
‘can_export’ => true,
‘has_archive’ => true,
‘exclude_from_search’ => false,
‘publicly_queryable’ => true,
‘capability_type’ => ‘page’,
);
register_post_type( ‘job’, $args );

}
add_action( ‘init’, ‘job_board_post_type’, 0 );

“`

This code registers a new post type called “job” with some basic labels and settings.

Next, we need to add some custom fields to our job listings. We’ll use the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin to do this.

Install and activate the ACF plugin, then create a new field group with the following fields:

– Job Title
– Job Location
– Job Description
– Application Email

Add those fields to your “job” post type, and you should now see them when you create or edit a job listing in the WordPress admin.

Creating the Job Listing Template

Now that we have our custom post type and custom fields set up, we need to create a template for our job listings.

In your theme, create a new file called single-job.php. This file will be used to display a single job listing.

Inside that file, we’ll start by getting the data from our custom fields:

“`

“`

Next, we’ll add some HTML to display that data:

“`

<a href="mailto:”>Apply for this job

“`

Save the file and view a job listing in your browser. You should now see the title, location, description, and an “Apply for this job” link.

Adding a Job Listing Form

The last thing we need to do is add a form so users can submit job listings. We’ll use the WPForms plugin to do this.

Install and activate

Building a Job Board Plugin for WordPress

Adding a job board to your WordPress site is a great way to earn some extra income. There are a few plugins available, but most of them are either too expensive or too complicated. In this tutorial, we will show you how to build a simple job board plugin for WordPress.

Step 1: Create the Plugin Folder

First, you will need to create a new folder for your plugin. For this tutorial, we will call it “job-board”.

Step 2: Create the Plugin File

Next, you will need to create a new file called “job-board.php” in your plugin folder. This will be the main plugin file.

Step 3: Create the Plugin Header

In order to create a plugin header, you will need to add the following code to your plugin file:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Job Board
Plugin URI: https://example.com/job-board
Description: A simple job board plugin for WordPress.
Version: 1.0
Author: John Doe
Author URI: https://example.com
License: GPLv2 or later
Text Domain: job-board
*/

That's it! You have now created the plugin header.

Step 4: Create the Job Board Page

Next, you will need to create a new page template for your job board. For this tutorial, we will call it “page-job-board.php”.

Step 5: Register the Job Board Page

In order to register the job board page, you will need to add the following code to your plugin file:

Step 6: Display the Jobs on the Job Board Page

Finally, you will need to display the jobs on the job board page. For this tutorial, we will use a custom post type and a custom taxonomy.

That’s it! You have now created a simple job board plugin for WordPress.