PHP Job Seeker 2 (PJS2)

PJS2 is a single-user job search tracking web application. It tracks job applications, companies, contacts, searches, application statuses, keywords, and notes — everything a job seeker needs to stay organized during an active search.

Status: Maintenance mode. PJS2 is feature-complete. Only bug fixes and security fixes will be accepted. New feature development is moving to Personal Job Seeker 3 (PJS3).

Features

• Job tracking with application status, urgency, next actions, and due dates
• Company management with address, phone, URL, and agency relationships
• Contact tracking linked to companies, with phone, email, and last-contacted dates
• Notes system attachable to jobs, companies, and contacts
• Global search across all entities from a search box in the nav bar
• Detail pages for jobs, companies, and contacts with breadcrumb navigation
• Reports for weekly/monthly job search activity (unemployment agency compliance)
• REST API for programmatic access (GET, POST, PUT — no DELETE by design)
• Setup validation via checkSetup.php (CLI and browser)
• Job review panel for reviewing job postings inline
• Duplicate URL detection to prevent duplicate job entries

Requirements

• PHP 8.0+
• MySQL 8.0+
• Apache or nginx with PHP-FPM
• HTTPS recommended

Quick Start

1. Extract files into your web server's document root
2. Copy config_sample.php to config.php and update with your database credentials
3. Create the MySQL database and user:

   CREATE DATABASE pjs2;
   CREATE USER 'pjs2_app'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON pjs2.* TO 'pjs2_app'@'localhost';

4. Set resetOk to 1 in config.php and visit resetDb.php in your browser to initialize the database
5. Set resetOk back to 0
6. Run checkSetup.php in your browser to verify everything is configured correctly
7. Log in and start tracking your job search

Configuration

Configuration lives in config.php (not XML) because PHP files cannot be served raw by any web server, preventing accidental exposure of database credentials. A legacy config.xml format is still supported but deprecated.

See config_sample.php for all available settings.

REST API

API endpoints in api/ are authenticated via API key (X-API-Key header). Set the apiKey value in config.php.

Method	Endpoint	Purpose
GET	api/jobs.php	List/search/get jobs
POST	api/jobs.php	Create a job
PUT	api/jobs.php	Update a job
GET	api/companies.php	List/search/get companies
POST	api/companies.php	Create a company
PUT	api/companies.php	Update a company
GET	api/contacts.php	List/search/get contacts
POST	api/contacts.php	Create a contact
PUT	api/contacts.php	Update a contact
GET	api/notes.php	Get notes by ID or entity
POST	api/notes.php	Create a note
PUT	api/notes.php	Update a note

DELETE endpoints are intentionally omitted — deletions are done manually.

License

This software is licensed under GPLv2. See the LICENSE file for details.

What's Next

PJS2 is being succeeded by Personal Job Seeker 3 (PJS3) — a multi-user SaaS application built in Node.js. PJS3 will offer:

• Multi-tenancy with per-user data isolation
• Responsive web frontend (mobile and desktop)
• Cloud hosting (no self-hosting required)
• Unemployment reporting with jurisdiction-specific compliance
• Paid subscriptions at an affordable price point for active job seekers

The "PJS" acronym is being rebranded from "PHP Job Seeker" to "Personal Job Seeker" to reflect the tech stack change and broader vision.