Extensions Update: Client Lead Form for Bullhorn 1.3.0

This week, we released updates to the Matador Jobs Pro All-Access Extension: Client Lead Form for Bullhorn. This release primarily brings default “action” value to Notes generated for Leads and ClientContacts, as was just added to Matador Jobs Pro for Notes generated for Candidates.

Client Lead Form for Bullhorn 1.3.0

  • The Bullhorn sync routine that adds Notes to a created or modified Lead or Contact entries will now have the “action” value assigned by default. We recently learned that to utilize Bullhorn Automation routines on Notes, they must have an “action” set, so moving forward Contact and Lead Notes created by Matador will have an action of “Website Contact” or “Website Lead”.
  • The Bullhorn sync routine that adds Notes to a created or modified Candidate entries now has two new developer filters so developers can modify the note before it is saved. The filter matador_extension_contact_form_client_{contact/lead}_note allows a developer to modify the string of text saved to the note and the filter matador_extension_contact_form_client_{contact/lead}_note_args allows a developer to modify the other arguments including the “action” value we now set.
  • Fixed bug causing “Sync” action buttons for “Other” type Form responses in the Submission Admin Screen to not show.
  • Improved logging around Email notifications for Contact, Lead, and Other type forms.
  • Deployed WordPress 6.5 plugin dependency rules to assist users in managing Matador Jobs Pro dependent plugins.
  • Plugin is tested up to WordPress 6.5

Update Now

This extension update was released for automatic update to Matador Jobs Pro All-Access subscribers as of Thursday, March 7, 2024. It is available for automatic update via the WordPress plugins page or direct download. If your subscription has expired, renew it on your account page. If you find any issues, please send a support request.

Matador Jobs 3.8.17 – Leveraging Bullhorn API Updates for Better Performance

On Thursday, March 7, 2024, we released Matador Jobs 3.8.17 to all our users. This release primarily supports updates to the Bullhorn API to provide our users improved performance. Our major feature release, 3.9.0, is coming soon, but we wanted to get these small but very useful updates out to our users ASAP!

Persisting Bullhorn Connection for 5.5 Hours

The most important part of this release is enabling use of the new 5.5 hour Bullhorn connection limit.

Prior to this week, a Bullhorn API connection was valid for 10 minutes, which meant that almost every action performed by Matador Jobs required a renewed login. Logging into Bullhorn is both time and resource intensive, so when we saw an announcement from the Bullhorn team that API logins can now be persisted for up to 5.6 hours, we were ecstatic!

This update leverages the significantly longer Bullhorn connection limit to save resources and and improve performance.

  • Persist Bullhorn connection for 5.5 hours. With an announcement made on March 5th, 2024, Bullhorn’s API can now support connections lasting up to 5.6 hours instead of the old default of 10 minutes. Matador is updated to support the full extended connection which will reduce time-consuming and resource-intensive API calls to the Bullhorn Login systems from several times per hour to 4-5 times per day. See announcement for more information from Bullhorn regarding the announcement.

Add “Action” to Notes, “Owner” & “Sending User” to Submissions

With various AI tools and other Bullhorn Marketplace partner software able to be deployed on a user’s Bullhorn account, we are always working hard to provide the most complete, useful synced data as possible. With this release we are improving our data syncs to Notes and Submissions.

  • Added a default “action” argument to the Bullhorn sync routine that adds Notes to a created or modified Candidate entries. We recently learned that to apply Bullhorn Automation routines to the Notes, they must have an “action” set, so moving forward Candidate Notes created by Matador will have an action of “other”.
  • Added filters to Bullhorn sync routine that adds Notes to created or modified Candidate entries. The filter matador_bullhorn_candidate_note allows a developer to modify the string of text saved to the note and the filter matador_bullhorn_candidate_note_args allows a developer to modify the other arguments including the “action” value we now set as “other”.
  • The Bullhorn sync routine that creates a Submission between a Candidate and JobOrder will now include the value of the Candidate Owner in the sendingUser and owners fields. New Candidates created by Matador will be owned by the preferred owner as set in the setting ‘Preferred New Candidate “Owner”‘, falling back to the the API User if the preferred owner is not found. This feature update will give that same assignment to the Submission, preventing issues where Candidate owners cannot see the Submission.

Miscellaneous

As always, a few other useful bug fixes were included. Further, with WordPress 6.5 will soon be released, we made sure to test Matador Jobs Pro on the new WordPress to ensure it still works as expected.

  • Added protections to Bullhorn Candidate Sync for users who enable “allow multiple values” on any of the four phone fields on the Bullhorn Candidate object. In general, we discourage users from enabling “allow multiple values” settings in the Bullhorn field mappings to any default fields.
  • Fixed issue causing Admin Notices handling to sometimes throw a PHP warning on PHP > 8.1. Depending on user error reporting, this could’ve resulted in errors printed to screen, logs, or had no impact.
  • Various improvements to logging to support plugin development and issue resolution.
  • Minimum WordPress version required is 5.5.0… unofficially. Officially we require WordPress 5.8 since January 24th, 2024 and will require 5.9 beginning May 23rd, 2024.
  • Tested up to WordPress 6.5.0.

Update Now!

Matador Jobs 3.8.17 is released for automatic* update to all subscribers as of Thursday, March 7, 2024. If your subscription has expired, renew it on your account page. If you find any issues, please send a support request.

* Please Note: if your current installed version is 3.8.0 to 3.8.4, you need to manually install this update.

Introducing the Discord Notification Add-On for Matador Jobs Pro

We are thrilled to announce the latest addition to our Matador Jobs Pro extensions: the Discord Notification Add-On, a powerful new feature designed to bridge the gap between your WordPress job board and Discord, one of the most popular communication platforms for online communities today.

In today’s fast-paced recruitment world, engaging with potential candidates quickly and efficiently is more important than ever. With this in mind, we developed the Discord Notification Add-On to ensure that your recruitment team and Discord community are always in sync with the latest job postings and applications.

Key Features of the Discord Notification Add-On:

Instant Notifications: As soon as a job is published on your WordPress site, a notification will be sent directly to your Discord server, ensuring your community is the first to know about new opportunities.

Real-Time Application Alerts: Receive immediate updates in Discord when a candidate submits an application, allowing your team to engage with potential talent without delay.

Customizable Alerts: Tailor your notification messages to match the tone and style of your Discord community, ensuring every alert is engaging and effective.

Seamless Integration: The add-on is designed for easy integration with your existing Matador Jobs Pro setup, making it straightforward to connect your job board with your Discord server.

Why the Discord Notification Add-On?

Our goal with this add-on is to streamline your recruitment process, making it more efficient and interactive. By bringing job postings and application notifications directly into Discord, you can engage with your community and potential candidates in real-time, enhancing the recruitment experience for everyone involved.

Getting Started:

The Discord Notification Add-On for Matador Jobs Pro is available now. All-Access subscribers can download a copy of the Add-On here, and set-up is simple and quick. 

Looking Forward:

At Matador Jobs, we’re committed to providing innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our clients. The launch of the Discord Notification Add-On is just one of the many ways we’re working to enhance your recruitment experience. Stay tuned for more updates and features in the future.

Thank you for choosing Matador Jobs Pro. We can’t wait to see how this new add-on transforms your recruitment process.

Matador Jobs 3.8.16 – Supporting Yoast SEO

On Tuesday, January 23, 2024, we released Matador Jobs 3.8.16 to all our users. This release contains an important compatibility update following the release of Yoast SEO 21.9, which removed a function we used as part of our Yoast SEO compatibility, breaking all our users’ sites that also run Yoast SEO.

Yoast SEO 21.9 Support

Today, the Yoast SEO team released their version 21.9 and it removed a function Matador previously relied on to connect the Job Posting Structured Data into the Yoast SEO generated Structured Data Graph. Users who updated to Yoast SEO 21.9 this morning found their Matador Jobs + Yoast SEO sites failing to load on Job Posting pages. We identified the fix and rushed it out to all our users.

Update Now!

Matador Jobs 3.8.16 is released for automatic* update to all subscribers as of Tuesday, January 23, 2024. If your subscription has expired, renew it on your account page. If you find any issues, please send a support request.

* Please Note: if your current installed version is 3.8.0 to 3.8.4, you need to manually install this update.

Announcing Matador Jobs Pro All-Access Extension: Recruiter Profiles

We are releasing version 1.0.0 of our newest Matador Jobs Pro All-Access Extension: Recruiter Profiles. Our All-Access Subscribers can download it immediately on its extension page (requires a logged in user to see download button).

Extension Features

The key features of the extension are:

  • Display Recruiters: Display the faces behind your job listings. Whether it’s a single recruiter or your entire team, give your candidates someone they can relate to.
  • Shortcodes and Blocks: Choose how you display your recruiters with easy-to-use shortcodes and blocks and template functions: no matter how you’re theming your WordPress site, we’ve made it easy.
  • Customizable & Extensible: Every detail of a recruiter’s profile is in your hands. Toggle information like contact details, social media links, and a profile photo on and off. Need extra fields? These can be implemented using filters. 

Get It Now!

Matador Jobs Pro Recruiter Profiles Extension is ready for download and installation now! Visit its extension page for more information and to download (log in to see download button).

Matador Jobs Pro Recruiter Profiles Extension has been tested and supports PHP versions 7.3 to 8.1 and WordPress versions 5.4 to 6.4, though we strongly recommend users always run the most up-to-date PHP and WordPress versions available to them.

Matador Jobs Pro Recruiter Profiles Extension requires an All-Access level subscription. If you don’t have a subscription, sign up now, or if you need to upgrade, you can do so on your account page. If you’d like a demo of Matador Jobs Pro or the Recruiter Profiles extension, request a demo. If you find any issues or need help setting it up, contact us via our support form.

Matador Jobs 3.8.15 – Security Release, PHP Compatibility, & Extension Support

On Tuesday, November 7, 2023, we released Matador Jobs 3.8.15 to all our users. This release contains an important security update, PHP 8.1 and 8.2 compatibility, a few bug fixes, and some changes to support updates to Matador Extensions. This update also includes the unreleased 3.8.14, which was provided to limited users during beta testing of updated extensions.

Security Update

The most important part of this release is a security related update.

Most web server software have settings allowing a directory’s (folder’s) files to be indexed (listed) for viewing and download when a special file called an index overrides that behavior. While it is a best practice to have directory indexing turned off for web host serving WordPress, most WordPress developers like us at Matador still install empty index.php files in their folders to override and prevent directory indexing (as well as do other things to secure the code when directory indexing is on).

An issue was discovered where a site that had installed Matador Jobs Lite first, and then, while Matador Jobs Lite was still active, installed Matador Jobs Pro second, missed the setup routine that added the index.php files in the folders Matador creates to hold user-submitted content like resumes and other application files.

While investigating this issue, we also determined that, perhaps due to user error and when doing database migrations between environments, if a Matador folder or index.php is deleted or missing, Matador will try to recreate the folder but not recreate the index.php file. In both cases, this could result in a site revealing sensitive data to third parties if directory indexing is turned on at the server level.

With this update, this will not be the case. Moving forward, whenever a new resume or log file is made, Matador will look for a missing index.php file and attempt restore it. If Matador fails to restore the missing index.php file, don’t worry, there are bigger issues, like, your site won’t be able to save any resume files anyway! This change will prevent directory indexing from exposing sensitive data moving forward.

  • Security: Fixed an issue that caused upgrades from Matador Jobs Lite to Matador Jobs Pro to not set up folders for log files or resume files with an index.php file to prevent directory indexing.
  • Security: Added a routine that double-checks for the presence of an empty index.php file to prevent directory indexing in the resume uploads folder during each candidate file save. This will restore the index.php file if it was missing from a previous bug or user action.
  • Security: Added routine that double-checks for presence of the index.php file to prevent directory indexing in the Matador logs folder during the creation of a new log file. This will restore the index.php file if it was missing from a previous bug or user action.

To be clear, again, however, a properly configured WordPress website hosting environment will have directory indexing disabled. If you use a managed WordPress web host, this will true in 99% of environments. If you are running your own web host, for example a “cPanel web hosting” plan, it would be wise to review your server settings to secure your whole site. These changes will only improve and prevent access to Matador’s filesystem, not your other plugins or themes, which could then be exploited and grant a malicious user access to your data.

PHP 8.1 and 8.2 Compatibility

While Matador Jobs Pro and Lite were already fully compatible with PHP 8.1 and 8.2, a handful of Deprecations were introduced to PHP 8.1 and 8.2 that resulted in Matador causing PHP E_NOTICE and E_DEPRECATION error output when PHP debugging for those levels was turned on.

Since developers may debug sites using log files or error output, this meant Matador created a lot of noise when run on PHP 8.1 or PHP 8.2 making the developer’s job more difficult. With this update, all PHP 8.1 and 8.2 Deprecations are handled in this update, either with backward compatible code changes, polyfills, or PHP attributes.

  • Compatibility: Changed an argument in a few WordPress core function calls that previously allowed null but in PHP 8.1 and later requires an empty string.
  • Compatibility: Added #[ReturnTypeWillChange] PHP attributes to the Cookie Monster class to ensure PHP 8.1 and later compatibility.
  • Compatibility: Modified the log delete function to fix an instantiation of the DateTimeImmutable class from a null value, which threw PHP deprecation warnings in 8.1 and later.
  • Compatibility: Added a method argument strict typing indicator and modified a function call to prevent an error with PHP’s rtrim() after an accepted argument deprecation was added in PHP 8.2.

Enhancements for Matador Extensions

Matador Jobs Pro is not alone! We have over 15 extensions, and more on the way, to enhance and extend Matador with additional features. We have major updates nearly ready for two popular extensions and to support their updated features, we needed to make a few changes to Matador Jobs.

  • Enhancement: Changes to template function visibility to allow extensions to also check for the existence of a Matador template before attempting to call it (the single change in unreleased version 3.8.14).
  • Feature: Added filter matador_settings_page_structure to allow developers to change the supported fields “structure” for Matador Settings.
  • Feature: Added filter matador_settings_should_skip_field to allow developers to skip an options field on a settings page.

Misc Bug Fixes

As we do with most updates, we scooped up some recent bug fixes into this release as well.

  • Bugfix: Added a routine to restore a missing log file folder that may have been deleted or not created properly on install/activation.
  • Bugfix: Added check to prevent loading of Matador Application when “Accept Applications” setting is off. A user with the [matador_application] shortcode but that turned off the “Accept Applications” setting would get an application that didn’t process. This “bug” has existed since day one of Matador, and we laugh, because it means no one has ever found it before we randomly ran into it.
  • Bugfix: Added a fix to gracefully handle unrecognized dynamic argument values for the [matador_portal] shortcode, which in certain cases resulted in an error.
  • Bugfix: Added fix to ensure recently new settings to not be available to the WPJM extension settings.

Miscellaneous

Today, WordPress 6.4 released to the world. Matador Jobs has been tested on the final release candidate of WordPress 6.4 and thus fully supports WordPress 6.4.

  • Matador Jobs Lite / Pro tested up to WordPress 6.4

Update Now!

Matador Jobs 3.8.15 is released for automatic* update to all subscribers as of Tuesday, November 7, 2023. If your subscription has expired, renew it on your account page. If you find any issues, please send a support request.

* Please Note: if your current installed version is 3.8.0 to 3.8.4, you need to manually install this update.

Matador Jobs 3.8.13 – Connection Stability Improvements

On Monday, August 14, 2023, we released Matador Jobs 3.8.13 to all our users. This release contains an improvement and bugfix to assist in connection stability issues with Bullhorn.

Connection Stability

We wrote a post last week that addressed some observed connection stability issues experienced by some of our users with a promise we’d look for areas to improve. We updated the post at the end of week explaining that we observed a new, infrequent, and yet unexplained occurrence during the reconnection loop that would create a false-positive condition when Matador evaluated if it should continue attempting to reconnect to Bullhorn. This patch contains an adjustment to add finesse to this process and minimize false-positives during this test.

  • It appears that Bullhorn is currently experiencing some issues with its connection quality and in reviewing our automatic reconnection routine we identified an opportunity to add finesse around a temporary error that was being misinterpreted by Matador as a permanent error, resulting in Matador determining it could no longer connect and send notice to the administrator. We will now retry a reconnection on these temporary errors while continuing to stop attempts to reconnect when the permanent error is encountered.
  • Fixed a bug impacting the functionality of the Test Auto Reconnect feature of the Bullhorn Connection Assistant that was introduced with performance improvements in 3.8.7.

Update Now!

Matador Jobs 3.8.13 is released for automatic* update to all subscribers as of Monday, August 7, 2023. If your subscription has expired, renew it on your account page. If you find any issues, please send a support request.

* Please Note: if your current installed version is 3.8.0 to 3.8.4, you need to manually install this update.

Recent Bullhorn Disconnections, WordPress 6.3, PHP 8.3

This week, the Matador Jobs team has been monitoring two things of note to our users, and we wanted to drop a quick update on each. First, we are monitoring an influx of notifications of Bullhorn disconnections that Matador’s automated reconnection routine has been unable to recover from and we are also monitoring Matador’s compatibility with WordPress 6.3.

Recent Bullhorn Disconnections: Acknowledgement & Mitigations

We’ve seen a number of reports of Bullhorn disconnections in the past several weeks that Matador seems to be struggling to automatically recover from.

By design, Matador Jobs will attempt to recover from a disconnection, but some disconnections are harder to recover from than others and you’ll occasionally need to intervene. Also, given that Matador attempts to connect to Bullhorn once per ten minutes, and emails administrators when it is unable to reconnect to Bullhorn after three attempts, prolonged downtime that would otherwise be recoverable may still trigger an email notice of connection issues.

We are monitoring these Bullhorn disconnections and we have two notes to share:

  • On July 10 & July 12, Bullhorn updated how API login systems operated. This was sent to Bullhorn admins via email twice in June. The email said the changes shouldn’t affect existing systems, but that systems should optimize for them. Matador Jobs was updated on July 19, 2023 with version 3.8.10 to address these changes. While our code was designed to minimize impacts of the Bullhorn change and require no user action, we worry that our advice was wrong, and we encourage everyone to deauthorize and reauthorize your site after a 3.8.10 (or later) update from 3.8.9 or below.
  • The Bullhorn status page has multiple reports in the last several weeks of planned maintenance and/or downtimes (more than usual, in our opinion) that impacted login or cause latency. These could result in disconnections when they are occurring for more than about 30 minutes. We should be able to recover from these, but perhaps the changes mentioned above, coupled with a downtime on a cluster, is the reason automatic recovery is failing?

Given the number of reports of issues, we are conducting a full review of automatic reconnection to seek improvements to our systems, as we are aware connection quality is critical to your business.

  • UPDATE, Friday August 11: Our review identified a potential cause, at least, impacting our automatic reconnection routine failing to reconnect. Infrequently, the API call that handles the automatic reconnection routine does not complete its loop and ends on a login screen. Previously, an incomplete loop ending on a Bullhorn login screen is the result of bad credential or user actions required, and our automatic reconnection routine “reads” the login screen for errors and stops automatic reconnection. That said, since no errors are occurring and the loop is infrequently ending at the login screen for no known reason, Matador can be allowed to continue reattempting reconnection. A 3.8.13 release candidate is being tested that only stops automatic reconnection when we explicitly find the error messages. This will not reconnect Matador, but it will give it a chance to reconnect on the next sync in 10 minutes.

While we do this, we also will ask you, our users, to continue to request Bullhorn consider deploying the more secure, easier to use OAuth 2.0 JWT Bearer flow as an alternative API authentication flow. This will wholly eliminate most of our automatic reconnection routines as each login is a new authentication that does not require a user (real or simulated) interaction.

WordPress 6.3 Released

On August 8, 2023, the WordPress team released WordPress 6.3. We have reviewed WordPress 6.3 and determined that Matador is fully compatible with WordPress 6.3. Further, WordPress 6.3 is the first version of WordPress to drop support for PHP 5.6, the last supported version of PHP 5.x.

PHP Version 8.3 Betas

Later this year, PHP version 8.3 will release, and its Beta 2 is out for pre-release and testing right now. The PHP 8.3 changes are largely minor and more or less preemptive deprecations for PHP 9.0 in the future. Therefore, we anticipate no issues using Matador in PHP 8.3 compared to PHP 8.2 or earlier.

Matador runs without issue in PHP 8.2 but some deprecations made in PHP 8.2 are not yet handled in Matador as of the 3.8.x release line. This means those who display errors to their screen or review server or WordPress debug logs may see PHP Notices on 8.2 and 8.3. This does not mean Matador fails to run, only that Matador can trigger some notices. We anticipate addressing all those deprecation notices with updated handling and full PHP 8.2 and 8.3 support with the release of Matador Jobs 3.9.0.

Extensions Updates: Client Lead Form 1.2.0, Advanced Applications 1.3.3

This week, we released updates to two popular Matador Jobs Pro All-Access Extensions, Client Lead Form and Advanced Applications.

Client Lead Form 1.2.0

  • Added an optional “contact type” of “Other”, which doesn’t create a sync with Bullhorn, only sending an email to the administrators. While we strongly discourage the use of this extension as a “Contact Us” form, this feature will allow people who find your lead form and use it incorrectly as a contact form to not clutter your Bullhorn data with bad entries.
  • Fixed a bug that sent the Administrator email notifications on submissions that failed to sync. Since Matador will re-attempt some syncs, this resulted in the Administrator email being sent over and over again.
  • The plugin is now tested to work on WordPress up to version 6.3.

Advanced Applications 1.3.3

  • Added additional Candidate fields to the list of blocked fields (due to being informational and thus inappropriate for an application.)
  • Addressed layout and display issues in settings screens.
  • Though in Bullhorn documentation TIMESTAMP data types means an epoch micro time integer value, many TIMESTAMP data types on the Bullhorn Candidate object require a MM/DD/YYYY formatted value. Matador was passing the epoch micro time integer value for these fields and causing an issues for those who wished to use them, ie: asking a user what their first day available might be. Matador will now reformat the date value for those fields into a MM/DD/YYYY format, which includes all customDateXX fields.
  • Fixed issue causing PHP notices (to be printed to screen or logged, based on your site configuration) on PHP 8.2 or later. PHP notices were caused by new deprecations in PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.2, and were not causing the extension to fail.

Update Now

These extensions updates are released for automatic update to Matador Jobs Pro All-Access subscribers as of Wednesday August 9, 2023. They are available for automatic update via the WordPress plugins page or direct download. If your subscription has expired, renew it on your account page. If you find any issues, please send a support request.

Matador Jobs 3.8.12 – Job Info Bar Bugfix

On Monday, August 7, 2023, we released Matador Jobs 3.8.12 to all our users. This release contains a single bugfix that fixes a bug introduced in 3.8.10 impacting the display of the Job Info header in certain configurations.

Update Now!

Matador Jobs 3.8.12 is released for automatic* update to all subscribers as of Monday, August 7, 2023. If your subscription has expired, renew it on your account page. If you find any issues, please send a support request.

* Please Note: if your current installed version is 3.8.0 to 3.8.4, you need to manually install this update.