Submit custom application data into CATS

[Mark Sims]

Currently, we have a hard coded form on a website that accepts a few fields (name, email, etr...), resume and 3 file attachments. On submit, we are successfully creating the candidate, adding the pipeline, and adding the file attachments.

My client wishes to include the application forms that he setup through the CATS UI. I found the get_joborder_applications method in the API documentation, and it gives us the XML that we need to dynamically build out the custom applications. I cannot, however, find a way to submit the application answers into CATS.

Can anyone tell me if that's possible?  

Thanks! 

[Aaron Baluczynski]

Hi Mark,

We have a private (until now) API call used by our WordPress plugin that works in tandem with get_joborder_applications.

I've made the apply_joborder call public in the documentation. You pass the job order ID and all the fields from the relevant job order applications (as returned in applications).

Using this method, you wouldn't create the candidate directly or add to the pipeline, as that will be handled by apply_joborder.

Let me know if you have other questions.

Aaron

[Mark Sims]

This sounds fantastic, thanks! Since the only argument is joborder_id, I'm not sure how to pass all of the application form data to the API. Would it be too much trouble to get a small code snippet to use as an example? 

[Aaron Baluczynski]

Hey Mark,

The apply_joborder method in the PHP wrapper library is useless as is. It needs to be modified to take an array of fields.

Making the API call directly is quite simple. Each application field from get_joborder_application has a numeric ID. You just use these IDs as the get parameter names to apply_joborder.

Aaron

[Mark Sims]

Gotcha. I think that will get me started. After I get some modifications done in the wrapper for apply_joborder, I'll post the code back to this thread.

Thanks again, Aaron. 

[Mark Sims]

Hey Aaron, I'm experiencing some successes and some issues with the apply_joborder function. I am able to use this function and it creates a candidate properly, and populates the text fields. The issue I'm experiencing is that any fields that are in a dropdown/select form, are not submitting values. I didn't notice this until one of the dropdowns became required. Here is an example of what the query string looks like: 

487395=&488159=&487397=Mark&487399=Sims&487401=exa...@example.com&487403=&487405=Addison&487407=TX&487409=75001&487411=8172281489&556137=yes%20-%20test&556139=1&556141=0&487413=0&487415=&487417=&487419=

Values like exa...@example.com, Addison, and TX are populating just fine, but parameter 556139 which is a yes/no question doesn't post the data. 

Any ideas? 

Thanks! 

mark

[Aaron Baluczynski]

Hey Mark,

The apply_joborder function is inconsistent in the way it expects values for some of the question types. Passing form=1 to get_joborder_applications can help you see what values it expects.

In the case of the Yes/No question type, pass 0 for no and 1 for yes.

Aaron

[Aaron Baluczynski]

Sorry, forgot to mention dropdowns. They expect the value to be the answer index preceded by an underscore. (Not sure why it expects an underscore.)

[Mark Sims]

Thanks! The underscore was exactly what I needed. 

[Ryan Schortmann]

Hi Mark - 

Any chance you could post a snippet of code on how to modify the wrapper?

Thanks

Ryan

[Ryan Schortmann]

Hi Mark - 

any chance you could post that code snippet to implement this within the wrapper?

Thanks!

Ryan