Job Alerts

With the Job Alerts plugin, registered users on your site can create job alerts based on searches (by keyword, location keyword, category) delivered by email daily, weekly or fortnightly.

Installation

To install this plugin, please refer to the guide here: https://wordpress.org/support/article/managing-plugins/#installing-plugins

Setup

To get this plugin working, create a page and call it something like “My Alerts”. Inside the page content, add the shortcode:

[job_alerts]

This will house the page where users set up and manage their alerts.

Once you set up your page, you can head to WP-admin > Job Manager > Settings > Job Alerts to configure the plugin’s settings.

  • Account Required – Configure requiring an account to create job alerts.
  • Brand Color – Customize link and button colors used in emails and shortcodes.
  • Alert Form Fields – Select which fields users can set up alerts for.
  • Alert Email Content – Customize email text with dynamic tags like {alert_name}, {jobs}, {alert_next_date}, {alert_expiry}, and {display_name}.
  • Alert Duration – Set expiration period for user alerts in days.
  • Alert matches – Enable “Send alerts with matches only” to send emails only when jobs match.
  • Alerts Page ID – Select the page containing the [job_alerts] shortcode.

Using Job Alerts

Creating an Alert

When visitors search for jobs on the page with the [jobs] shortcode, they see an ‘Add Alert’ link. Clicking this opens a modal to set email, frequency, and confirm subscription.

Receiving E-mails

Subscribers receive regular emails per their schedule. Emails contain new jobs only – those posted since the last email for that alert.

Managing Alerts

The my alerts page lists alerts and allows editing or adding new ones. Unregistered users see alerts for their email address via magic token verification.

Site Admin

Alerts can be moderated on the Job Manager -> Job Alerts screen. The alert_frequency field accepts values: daily, weekly, fortnightly, and monthly.

How Alerts Are Sent

Once created or enabled, a WordPress cron event is scheduled. When triggered, the alert sends and another cron is scheduled. This repeats while active.

Troubleshooting

“Add Alert” link is not displaying

Ensure you followed setup instructions and added a page with the [job_alerts] shortcode before the link displays.

Ensuring cron jobs are triggered for low traffic sites

WP Cron jobs trigger on user or bot visits. For more reliable triggering, consider setting up a real cron job.

Emails aren’t getting sent

Ensure WP cron is enabled in wp-config.php. Check for and remove or set to false: define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);