Job Board / Website integration FAQ

Why integrate with idibu?

idibu is a multi-posting platform that allows our clients to distribute their job advertisements to as many different sites as they wish with just a few clicks. We already have around 1200 boards and posting destinations in our global network and are always adding more.

Whether you're looking to generate more business opportunities, increase traffic, secure more customers or just want to be able to post your adverts to your own website (or if you're a developer, the idibu client you're working for) you'll need to make sure the website is fully integrated with our platform first.

If you're a job board, it's worth knowing that we look after many of the UK's largest recruiters, as well as many clients in the US, Europe, and APAC, and we post in the region of 5 million unique ads per year.

How does it actually work?

It's very simple. Ultimately our clients want to post one job to multiple destinations at any one time, so we essentially create a 'hybrid' posting form that allows them to supply all the necessary data to all of the boards they have selected. You can see the posting process in summary here.

So how do I get my website integrated?

Well actually, it's really a case of us integrating with you..! If you can provide us with any means of posting jobs to your site (clear and concise API documentation for example), we will do our best to utilise it. Sometimes technical limitations may require us to ask you for an alternative solution, however, such cases are very rare.

In most cases, the best way to go is to use a simple external POST form, or REST API, often provided by commercial job boards, which can look something like this: http://www.cv-library.co.uk/jobpost.html

Sometimes we can use the website's existing form (intended for regular client's use), but it's not often possible nowadays taking into account modern interface solutions and security measures. As such, we would always recommend a dedicated one step, simplified posting page for multi-posting only.

We also support:

HTTP requests (POST, GET and any other methods);
Variety of SOAP-based webservices;
Direct HTTP XML uploads (as well as posting them in one POST parameter);
Any type of file uploaded to FTP server or sent via email;
Mass-job batch uploads (i.e. files containing all active jobs for processing, either uploaded to our / your HTTP / FTP directory or sent via e-mail.

Ok, I don't have anything like the above in place at this stage... What next?

If this is the case, the best and quickest way (involving the least development) would be to create a simple POST form for us to work with.

It should be as simple as possible and should allow us to populate all the job fields supported by your website. Here are some guidelines to help you create a fully functional form

Great! What fields do I need to provide? Do you have any instructions here?

When building a form, just forget it's being built for idibu! Just create a form that you would use to post a fully functional job to your site; idibu will then adjust to this, and we'll send whichever parameters you have specified in your documentation.

Anything else you might need from me?

Essentially, to integrate your website/job board we would need to know/acquire the following:

1. The preferred job posting method (HTTP POST, FTP, SOAP etc. - we support many different methods)
2. An example of a job file used for posting (ie. XML file, POST request, etc.)
3. The parameters used in your database (locations, sector values, etc.)
4. The server URL (where to send jobs)
5. A test job posting account

How long does the integration take?

Standard ETA's are 30 working days from the date we have all the necessary documentation, and the integration process has mutually agreed. We will always try to complete beforehand if we have everything we need from the partner with connecting to, and providing we also receive prompt technical support wherever required.

Any costs involved?

Please contact us on hello@idibu.com with any initial inquiries- we will discuss any associated commercials with you directly. There are never any 'renewal' costs, and future updates to the feed are included free of charge (excluding a complete reintegration due to platform change, etc).

My site runs on WordPress, can you easily integrate that?

For any WordPress-based website, we suggest you try out JobRelay service - we integrate with their system out-of-the-box, automatically and without any need for additional work on our end!

We can also integrate with WPJobBoard plugin. Please contact us on support@idibu.com for more detail.

Can you integrate with Joomla?

We can't integrate with Joomla directly from the admin back-end - the engine is too secure for that. However, you can always create a posting form similar to the one on the admin interface but at the front-end instead. This can be achieved by creating a separate page and adding a shortcode to the back-end form. Such a front-end form would be our external posting form (as detailed above), but only for idibu use. Your developers working with Joomla should understand this!

How about Volcanic?

You're in luck..! Please refer to this article.

OK, but why would this integration benefit me again?

Once connected to idibu your public board will be added to our network, and will be visible on our website, here. From experience, many clients will only start using a new board/posting destination if it's already fully integrated with their idibu software.

We also mention all newly added public websites in our monthly client newsletter.

If you're an idibu client (or working on behalf of a mutual client) and are integrating a personal website, then it will mean jobs can be posted directly from idibu to your website at the same time as all other external job postings. This means we can track all of those applications too!

I would like to have all the idibu jobs posted to my site. Can you facilitate that?

We're sorry, but no. Where any job is posted is the decision of the clients themselves, we don't force them to use any board they have not subscribed to.

In other words, getting integrated with idibu doesn't mean you'll start automatically receiving new job postings. Our clients need to consciously post their jobs to you.

One final thing, please be aware we have no means to automatically post all already-existing client's adverts from idibu to a newly integrated website - the process has to be manually completed by the client after the integration is complete.