JobifyGarden

A comprehensive job aggregator platform built with Laravel 13 that fetches, stores, and displays job listings from multiple free job APIs.

Quick Start

# Clone repository
git clone <repository-url> && cd jobifygarden

# Install dependencies
composer install

# Start Docker environment (includes MySQL, Redis)
./vendor/bin/sail up -d

# Setup application
./vendor/bin/sail artisan key:generate
./vendor/bin/sail artisan migrate
./vendor/bin/sail artisan db:seed

# Install & build frontend assets
./vendor/bin/sail npm install && ./vendor/bin/sail npm run dev

# Start queue worker (in a separate terminal)
./vendor/bin/sail artisan queue:work

# Visit http://localhost

Important: After setup, configure the cron job (see Cron Jobs section) to enable automatic job fetching.

Requirements

• PHP: 8.3.x or higher
• MySQL: 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.3+
• Composer: 2.x
• Node.js: 18.x or 20.x
• Redis: 6.x+ (for caching and queues)

Features

Core Functionality

• Multi-Source Job Aggregation: Fetch jobs from multiple APIs
• Advanced Search & Filtering: Full-text search, location, job type, experience level, salary range
• Smart Deduplication: Automatic detection and removal of duplicate listings
• Job Enrichment: Auto-categorization, geocoding, salary normalization
• Real-time Analytics: Track job views, searches, and user engagement

SEO & Marketing

• Dynamic Meta Tags: Job-specific title, description, and keywords
• Structured Data: Schema.org JobPosting markup for Google Jobs integration
• XML Sitemaps: Automatic sitemap generation for search engines
• Social Sharing: Open Graph and Twitter Card support
• Mobile-First: Responsive design optimized for all devices

Performance

• Redis Caching: Aggressive caching strategy for fast page loads
• Database Optimization: Proper indexing and query optimization
• Queue Processing: Background job processing for API fetching
• Asset Optimization: Minified CSS/JS with lazy loading

Monitoring & Analytics

• API Metrics: Track success rates, response times, errors
• User Analytics: Popular searches, viewed jobs, click-through rates
• Admin Dashboard: Real-time monitoring and statistics
• Error Tracking: Comprehensive logging and error handling

Installation

Development Setup (Laravel Sail - Recommended)

1. Clone the repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd jobifygarden

2. Install PHP dependencies

composer install

3. Copy environment file

cp .env.example .env

4. Configure environment variables Edit .env and update the following:

APP_NAME=JobifyGarden
APP_ENV=local
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost

# Database (Sail uses these defaults)
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=mysql
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=jobifygarden
DB_USERNAME=sail
DB_PASSWORD=password

# Cache & Sessions (Redis)
CACHE_STORE=redis
SESSION_DRIVER=redis
QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis

# Redis (Sail default)
REDIS_HOST=redis
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

5. Start Docker containers

./vendor/bin/sail up -d

6. Generate application key

./vendor/bin/sail artisan key:generate

7. Run database migrations

./vendor/bin/sail artisan migrate

8. Seed initial data (optional)

./vendor/bin/sail artisan db:seed

9. Install frontend dependencies and build assets

./vendor/bin/sail npm install
./vendor/bin/sail npm run dev

10. Visit the application Open http://localhost in your browser.

Production Setup (Traditional Server)

1. Clone the repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd jobifygarden

2. Install dependencies

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
npm install
npm run build

3. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

4. Update .env for production

APP_NAME=JobifyGarden
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=jobifygarden
DB_USERNAME=your_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_secure_password

CACHE_STORE=redis
SESSION_DRIVER=redis
QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis

REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD=your_redis_password
REDIS_PORT=6379

5. Run migrations

php artisan migrate --force

6. Optimize for production

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache
php artisan optimize

7. Set proper permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache
chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

Production Deployment

See DEPLOYMENT.md for detailed production deployment instructions.

Required Services

Queue Worker (Required)

The application uses queues for background job processing. You must run a queue worker:

Using Laravel Sail (Development):

./vendor/bin/sail artisan queue:work --sleep=3 --tries=3 --timeout=90

Using Supervisor (Production with Supervisor): Create /etc/supervisor/conf.d/jobifygarden-worker.conf:

[program:jobifygarden-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /path/to/jobifygarden/artisan queue:work redis --sleep=3 --tries=3 --max-time=3600
autostart=true
autorestart=true
stopasgroup=true
killasgroup=true
user=www-data
numprocs=2
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/path/to/jobifygarden/storage/logs/worker.log
stopwaitsecs=3600

Then reload supervisor:

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start jobifygarden-worker:*

Using Cron (Production without Supervisor): If your hosting provider doesn't have Supervisor, see CRON_SETUP.md for detailed cron-based setup instructions.

Cron Jobs (Required)

Laravel's task scheduler must run every minute. Add this to your crontab:

Edit crontab:

crontab -e

Add this line:

* * * * * cd /path/to/jobifygarden && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

For Laravel Sail (Development):

* * * * * cd /path/to/jobifygarden && ./vendor/bin/sail artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Scheduled Tasks

The following tasks are automatically scheduled and will run via the cron job above:

Task	Schedule	Description
jobs:fetch	Every 2 hours	Fetch new jobs from all API sources
jobs:clean	Daily at 3:00 AM	Remove expired and old jobs
jobs:deduplicate	Daily at 4:00 AM	Remove duplicate job listings
cache:prune-stale-tags	Hourly	Clean up stale cache tags

Note: Job fetching intervals can be customized in app/Console/Kernel.php

Available Commands

Job Management

# Fetch jobs from all sources (automatically scheduled)
php artisan jobs:fetch

# Fetch from a specific source
php artisan jobs:fetch --source=indeed

# Clean expired jobs (automatically scheduled)
php artisan jobs:clean

# Clean jobs older than specific days
php artisan jobs:clean --days=60

# Remove duplicate jobs (automatically scheduled)
php artisan jobs:deduplicate

# Force dedupe even with different sources
php artisan jobs:deduplicate --force

# Enrich job data (categories, experience levels)
php artisan jobs:enrich

# Test API integrations
php artisan jobs:test-apis

Database Management

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Rollback last migration
php artisan migrate:rollback

# Fresh migration with seeding
php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

# Optimize database tables
php artisan db:optimize

Cache Management

# Clear all caches
php artisan optimize:clear

# Clear specific caches
php artisan cache:clear
php artisan config:clear
php artisan route:clear
php artisan view:clear

# Build caches for production
php artisan optimize

Queue Management

# Start queue worker
php artisan queue:work

# Process jobs with options
php artisan queue:work --queue=high,default --sleep=3 --tries=3

# List failed jobs
php artisan queue:failed

# Retry all failed jobs
php artisan queue:retry all

# Retry specific failed job
php artisan queue:retry {id}

# Clear all failed jobs
php artisan queue:flush

Project Structure

app/
├── Console/Commands/      # Artisan commands
├── Http/Controllers/      # Web and API controllers
├── Models/               # Eloquent models
├── Repositories/         # Data access layer
├── Services/             # Business logic
└── Traits/               # Reusable traits

database/
├── migrations/           # Database migrations
└── seeders/             # Database seeders

resources/
├── views/               # Blade templates
├── js/                  # JavaScript files
└── css/                 # CSS files

routes/
├── web.php              # Web routes
└── api.php              # API routes

API Endpoints

Public API

GET  /api/jobs                    # List jobs with filters
GET  /api/jobs/{id}               # Get job details
GET  /api/categories              # List categories
GET  /api/jobs/autocomplete/titles      # Title autocomplete
GET  /api/jobs/autocomplete/locations   # Location autocomplete
GET  /api/jobs/autocomplete/companies   # Company autocomplete

Technology Stack

Backend

• Laravel 13: PHP framework
• PHP 8.3+: Programming language
• MySQL 8: Primary database
• Redis: Caching, sessions, and queues
• Guzzle: HTTP client for API requests

Frontend

• Blade Templates: Server-side rendering
• Alpine.js: Lightweight JavaScript framework
• TailwindCSS: Utility-first CSS framework
• Vite: Frontend build tool

DevOps

• Laravel Sail: Docker development environment
• Supervisor: Process manager for queue workers
• Nginx/Apache: Web server
• Certbot: SSL certificate management

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Queue jobs not processing

# Check if queue worker is running
ps aux | grep "queue:work"

# Restart queue worker (Supervisor)
sudo supervisorctl restart jobifygarden-worker:*

# Or start manually for debugging
php artisan queue:work --verbose

2. Jobs not being fetched automatically

# Verify cron is set up
crontab -l

# Test schedule manually
php artisan schedule:run

# Check schedule list
php artisan schedule:list

3. Redis connection errors

# Check Redis is running
redis-cli ping

# For Sail
./vendor/bin/sail redis redis-cli ping

# Restart Redis (Sail)
./vendor/bin/sail down
./vendor/bin/sail up -d

4. Permission errors

# Fix storage permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

# For development (use your user)
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER storage bootstrap/cache
chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

5. Slugs not generating for new jobs

# Regenerate slugs for existing jobs
php artisan tinker
# Then run:
# \App\Models\Job::whereNull('slug')->chunk(100, function($jobs) {
#     foreach($jobs as $job) {
#         $job->slug = \App\Models\Job::generateUniqueSlug($job->title, $job->company);
#         $job->save();
#     }
# });

6. Cache issues

# Clear all caches
php artisan optimize:clear

# Rebuild for production
php artisan optimize

Performance Tips

1. Enable OPcache in production (add to php.ini):

opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=256
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16
opcache.max_accelerated_files=20000
opcache.validate_timestamps=0

2. Optimize database queries:

php artisan db:optimize

3. Use queue workers with multiple processes:

# Update supervisor config to use more workers
numprocs=4

4. Monitor slow queries:

# Enable query logging in .env
DB_LOG_QUERIES=true

License

This project is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

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