Chapter 30. Creating a Job Site

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Installing the Job Site

• Creating the Home Page

• Authenticating Users

• Creating Vanity URLs

• Listing and Updating Jobs

• Creating the Jobs XML Web Service

In this chapter, you'll build a job site from start to finish with ASP.NET. You'll create the ASP.NET job site: a public Web site for posting and finding ASP.NET- related jobs and resumes.

Building this site provides you with an opportunity to see how the different technologies in the ASP.NET Framework work together. The ASP.NET job site illustrates several advanced features of the ASP.NET framework including

• Vanity URLs ” All registered users of the job site have their own personalized home pages. For example, if Mark Smith adds his resume to the job site, anyone can view his resume by going to /aspnetjobs/marksmith.aspx . Mark Smith, and no one else, can update his resume by going to his home page.

• XML Web Services ” The job site includes two custom controls, named NewJobs and NewResumes , which display the most recent jobs and resumes added to the site. Both custom controls use an XML Web Service to retrieve current listings from the job site. By providing these custom controls to affiliate Web sites, you can drive traffic to the job site.

• Forms Authentication ” The job site uses Forms authentication to authenticate users. When a new user registers, the Forms Authentication module automatically adds an Authentication Ticket to the user's browser to identify the user .

• Form Validation ” Several of the pages included in the job site use Validation controls to validate form information before it is added to a database table.

• Caching ” To improve performance, the job site caches data between requests . For example, the list of new jobs and resumes displayed on the home page is cached until a new job or resume is added. The Jobs Web service also uses caching to improve performance.

• User Controls ” To simplify development, all the pages in the job site are built with user controls. For example, the standard header and footer for each page are created with a header and footer user control.

Users of the job site can publicly post resumes, descriptions of their companies, and jobs. If a user is interested in a job, the user can submit an application. If an employer is interested in a resume, the employer can submit an enquiry to the owner of the resume.

Employers can visit their company home page or their job pages to view enquiries about their company or view applications for particular jobs. Individuals searching for jobs can visit their home pages to update their resume or view enquiries about their resumes.

New job and resume listings are displayed in two places. First, they are automatically displayed on the home page of the job site. They are also displayed by any affiliate Web sites that contain the NewJobs or NewResumes custom controls.

The complete code for the job site is included on the CD-ROM that accompanies this book. Because of the number of files included in the job site, I won't be able to discuss each file in detail. In the following sections, you'll learn how some of the more interesting features of the job site are implemented.