Version 0.1 now available

The first working version of project "hippoHIRE" has just been released. The current title of the project is simply a codename and you may suggest a proper name if you would like. A logo will be designed once this is decided upon. Additionally, you will notice a color selector to the left of the header. This was done so that you can choose a color that you feel would best fit this application (this changes the color of the page header and table column headers). The color chooser is only temporary for testing purposes, but it can become permanent if you wish it so. Currently, the options for searchable skill sets are listed as a few popular programming languages. It is up to the client to decide if this search method should remain as-is (e.g., JavaScript, XHTML, c++, etc.) or if the search should be more broad (e.g., networking, programming, hardware, etc.) The same goes for the distance selected in miles. This can remain static, or it can be modifiable.

Other features/known issues:

• The table of search results is alphabetically sortable by clicking on the header of the column you wish to sort. This works in both ascending and descending order.
  
• As more skills are selected for a search, more jobs will appear, as the application searches for results that contain any of the selected skills.
  
• Default search parameters will be removed in the final version.
  
• We currently support Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0+. We have not yet tested on Safari and beyond that, we do not plan to support any other browsers. If we get a chance to test other browsers, we will.
  
• At this early stage of development, there are only three columns of data returned by the application. The client requested a ranking system and a "distance from you" dataset. These features have not yet been implemented.
  
• This application specifically searches for entry-level positions, although sometimes, jobs requiring more experience slip through the filter and are displayed on the page. This is usually a result of improper listing on the search engines that we are using to power this application. Since there is nothing we can do at this point about false listings on those sites, we do not currently plan the check for false posts.
  
• Error checking on search fields does not exist at this point. If the user does not enter a city, results will be returned for the entire state, and the city/state listing may not be displayed correctly. If no skills are entered, all jobs for the chosen location will be returned, even if they are not IT related. While this flexibility is usually favorable in web searches, this application is being developed for a specific kind of client, so this may add unwanted complexity. It is up to the client to decide whether we should restrict the search in this regard. Also, if the city you enter yields no results, there is currently no response from the system other than the "Loading Search Results" message, which simply does not change if there are no results.

Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions.
You can find the current version here.