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CiviCRM success story

Posted Wed, 11/02/2009 - 08:43 by chris

While squatting in the civicrm irc channel the other day Andrew_Mallis was asking about a multisite install of civicrm and drupal. Apparently he got it working and given that there's a good chance I'll need to do this too, here is the forum thread with the answers. http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,6458.0.html

SugarCRM with Drupal

Posted Sat, 29/11/2008 - 10:18 by chris

A while ago we were charged with the task of using drupal with SugarCRM. Unlike CiviCRM, these 2 systems have never been designed to work together nicely. Rather than hack into core code to share a user table we decided to take advantage of the existing SOAP functionality that SugarCRM affords us.

Unfortunately we had to alter about 2 lines of SugarCRM's core code to get this to work. Also I don't think the code is as secure as we would like it. There is a point at which the password is sent (although encrypted) via a GET request. This would not be our preferred choice.

Things a Drupal Dev Should Know

Posted Tue, 18/11/2008 - 09:25 by chris

Where to begin? There's a lot of fundamental knowledge which helps the Drupal learning curve but I've found some rules that I stick as close as possible to, to help me through the day.

Respect the core

There's a good reason to not alter the core files. Its called maintenance. Drupal allows a developer to keep custom code in only one or two locations which makes replacing core files that much easier.

Drupal Ajax with JQuery

Posted Wed, 12/11/2008 - 08:53 by chris

Drupal is a fantastic CMS which I have been actively developing for, for some time now. Yesterday was the first time I had really ventured into the Ajax territory but I learnt a lot and hopefully this guide should help others.

Currently this example is Drupal 5.x only. I will update it for Drupal 6 in another post in due course.

I'm going to create a simple module to demonstrate the communication between client and server. There is already a module out there that does more or less exactly what this demo will do so I'd advise using that if you require the same functionality.

Open Source

Posted Tue, 04/11/2008 - 09:42 by chris

I use a lot of open source software for day-to-day jobs and in the same spirit as the software, I'd like to share some of my knowledge with the community.

So far I'll be covering drupal, sugarCRM and civiCRM among others. I seem to write hundreds of modules a year. Some for a specific purpose which would probably not help much but others extend the standard software in some pretty weird and wonderful ways.

If there's something specific that anyone needs, just shout and I'll have a look in the module library (see: collection of messy folders in hundreds of project files).

Upgrades are fun aren't they

Posted Tue, 04/11/2008 - 09:25 by chris

This site has now been upgraded to the latest Drupal 6 installation. I have been very lax over the last year regarding the content on this site despite telling clients that keeping content up to date was one of the most important aspects of a site.

I decided to upgrade my own site to drupal 6 as a testbed for the platform. I have had my eye on d6 for some time but it didn't seem ready to use for production sites at the time. I don't run many modules on my site as there is simply no need which means I have an ideal place to ease my way across to the new version.