Bug: applicationFormRefereeLink condition always true when URLs are empty

Hi Gibbon Team!

We are setting up the job application on the landing page of our install and I found what looks like a bug.

In modules/Staff/applicationForm.php, the References section renders even when no referee link URLs are set.
The setting is stored as a serialized array
a:2:{s:8:"Teaching";s:0:"";s:7:"Support";s:0:"";}
but the condition checks
if ($applicationFormRefereeLink != '')
against the raw serialized string, which is always non-empty.

The References section therefore always appears on the public Staff Application Form regardless of whether referee links are configured.

Gibbon version: v30.0.01

Expected behaviour: References section should only appear when at least one referee link URL is set.

Suggested fix: Unserialize the value before checking, or check individual array values rather than the raw string.

Let me know if this isn’t a bug and I did it wrong or if you need more information!

Bump for @Ali

We are still hoping this finds it’s way into the next update and we had to modify the core code to get it working.