NPO CRM solutions?

[larpo]

On a related note... is it possible to process gift-aid transactions?

[lobo]

support for membership et al is coming in a future release. You can find more details here:

http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... CiviMember

Recurring donations most likely will be supported in 1.4 (if we can figure out the appropriate support in the PayPal api's)

not sure what u mean by gift-aid transactions.

lobo

[lobo]

Hey folks:

we are making good progress towards a 1.3 release and will be releasing a beta version early next week.

In the meantime we'd appreciate your help in playing with our sandbox and testing the latest version of the code. (i just updated it and refreshed the db's earlier today)

The sandbox url's are:

http://sandbox.openngo.org/civicrm/drup ... ic?reset=1

http://sandbox.openngo.org/civicrm/drup ... ic?reset=1

(demo/demo)

At this stage please do file any bugs / issues in the issue tracker. We have a couple of issues still unsolved, but those are relatively minor.

The bug tracker is at:

http://objectledge.org/jira/browse/CRM? ... dmap-panel

thanx for your continued support

On a related note, we will try to include a real simple front end component in CiviCRM 1.3 for Joomla! which will expose the CiviCRM Profile functionality.

lobo

[cozimek]

Lobo,

1.3 is looking great!  Awesome work on the Contributions.

How would one be able to track or search for certain types of donations?  Let's say that I want to find a set of donations given by women, from 12/1/04 - 12/1/05, that were all from the state of California, and were greater than $1,000.

Is something like this available now in 1.3, where you can have your query spread across not just donations but also demographic information on contacts, and a third axis (i.e. time)?

Best,
Ryan

[lobo]

hey ryan:

thanx for the nice comments

How would one be able to track or search for certain types of donations?  Let's say that I want to find a set of donations given by women, from 12/1/04 - 12/1/05, that were all from the state of California, and were greater than $1,000.

Currently you can find all the donations given between 12/1/04 and 12/1/05 greater than 1000 using the UI. You cannot constrain it by demographics via the UI

Is something like this available now in 1.3, where you can have your query spread across not just donations but also demographic information on contacts, and a third axis (i.e. time)?

The functionality is available via the Search API, but we tentatively chose not to expose it via the UI. This decision was primarily made since we felt that the advanced search form was already sufficiently complex and we did not want to add yet another 10 or so more input fields to it. We need to figure out how to make it powerful but still keep it simple. I dont think our current advanced search model fits these requirements nicely

If folks have ideas / seen other systems that do a better job of constructing such complex queries, let us know and we'll investigate them

lobo

[lobo]

(note that the mambo/joomla zip file is for a NEW installation ONLY. This will not work in upgrading existing installations. For existing installations, you will have to follow a similar path as the one for drupal outlined below. Does anyone know if the zip file can be used to update packages? If so, how?)

We are happy to announce that our 1.3 Beta release is now available for download. This release includes phase 1 of CiviContribute functionality - with support for PayPal Website Payments Pro, PayPal Express, and Moneris.

This release also includes:
* Additional Profile features which make it easier to create any number of stand-alone input/signup forms and listings - and allow you to collect multiple addresses, phones, etc.
* Support for Yahoo Maps (in addition to Google Maps) - as well as Yahoo lat/long lookups
* Ability to extend Activities, Contributions, Groups, Meetings and Phone Calls using Custom Fields

You can read the roadmap release summary here: http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... viCRM+v1.3

... and see a complete listing of ALL changes and bug fixes here:
http://objectledge.org/jira/secure/Issu ... stId=10120

Many of the additions and changes were heavily driven by your feedback and requests - and we hope they solve many more of your CRM requirements....

*************************
Installing or Upgrading
*************************
If you are installing the beta from scratch, you will be able to use the 1.2 manual installation instructions. However, there are quite a few new configuration settings which are documented in the configuration file - so be sure to read through the inline documentation carefully.
http://objectledge.org/confluence/pages ... ageId=3989

If you are upgrading an existing 1.2 site (working with a copy of the site-of course), we have provided a database upgrade script. Instructions for upgrading are here:
http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... .2+to+v1.3

You can download the 1.3 beta tarballs for php4 or php5 here:
http://downloads.openngo.org/civicrm/latest_snapshot/

Tarball filenames include the 1.3 Beta label:  "...v1.3BETA-rev....tgz"

***************************************************
CiviContribute - Online Contribution Processing
***************************************************
If you plan on implementing online contribution processing - you will need to obtain an account with either PayPal or Moneris and follow the additional configuration guides here:
http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... figuration

*********************************
Integration With Other Modules
*********************************
Integration with other modules such as Volunteer and Massmailer MAY BE broken with this beta due to a few changes in our data model. We anticipate cleaning these issues up in collaboration with CivicSpace Labs in the next week.

*************
What's Next
*************
We look forward to getting your feedback on the release in the coming days. Bugs should be reported via our bug tracking system (linked on the bottom of every page). You will need to register as a user - this ensures that  we can follow-up with you on your bug reports if necessary. We will be updating the beta tarballs regularly over the next week or so - and we'll announce any major changes or fixes on this list.

We are targeting final release for 1.3 in approximately 2 weeks.

[larpo]

This sounds very exciting. Can't wait to give it a whirl! Can you outline what, if any functionality is in place for integration with the frontend of Joomla.

[lobo]

a good outline is what we have done for drupal and the integration there:

1. we can collect contat information directly on the registration form

2. when a user edits their drupal account information, this also includes civicrm information (what is exposed etc is decided by the civicrm admin and is configurable). More information at:

http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... RM+Profile

3. With 1.3 you can have multiple profile forms/list/search and tailor them for various needs

lobo

[lobo]

I'm in the process of figuring out what to expose in the frontend with regard to Joomla!. I'd like to do something fairly simple and quick in 1.3 (which is currently in beta), and then improve it significantly in 1.4.

A few questions with regard to what do folks expect to see exposed in the front end?

We are planning on having some support for exposing CiviCRM data to front-end (public) view and input for  v1.3 - which is currently in beta. It would help us if you could provide some more details as to your requirements in this area...

* Are you planning on limiting the user (contact) data fields that are exposed to 'the public'? For example - you've collected complete address, email, phone info - but perhaps you only want to expose City and State to public listings.

* Will all users be included in the publicly searchable listings? Or is there some segmentation or permissioning needed on this?

* What search criteria do you need/want to support?

* Would you want / need front-end 'signup form(s)' - so non-users could enter contact info into your DB?

Anything else you can share about your anticipated requirements in this area would be helpful - and the sooner the better as we are nearing the end of the 1.3 development cycle. Although we probably won't be able to support ALL your requirements - we hope to make some decent progress.

thanx

lobo

[trebso]

>I'm in the process of figuring out what to expose in the frontend with regard to Joomla!. I'd like to do something fairly simple >and quick in 1.3 (which is currently in beta), and then improve it significantly in 1.4.

>A few questions with regard to what do folks expect to see exposed in the front end?

>We are planning on having some support for exposing CiviCRM data to front-end (public) view and input for  v1.3 - which is >currently in beta. It would help us if you could provide some more details as to your requirements in this area...

>* Are you planning on limiting the user (contact) data fields that are exposed to 'the public'? For example - you've collected >complete address, email, phone info - but perhaps you only want to expose City and State to public listings.

yes, and I'd like to be able to make different information available to different types of user, eg:

public (ie unregistered): 'type of member' (eg staff, board member), descriptive text written by each person
registered: as above, plus contact details

I'd like each person in the listing to be able to specify what info they make available (eg work contact details may be shown to registered members, but home details only to admin)

>* Will all users be included in the publicly searchable listings? Or is there some segmentation or permissioning needed on this?

If by 'users' you mean 'people in the CiviCRM database' - No! Only those that fulfil certain criteria - eg staff, board member, alumnus etc

>* What search criteria do you need/want to support?

search by 'type' eg staff etc; location

>* Would you want / need front-end 'signup form(s)' - so non-users could enter contact info into your DB?

don't think so.

>Anything else you can share about your anticipated requirements in this area would be helpful - and the sooner the better as we >are nearing the end of the 1.3 development cycle. Although we probably won't be able to support ALL your requirements - we >hope to make some decent progress.

Photo?

Also I'd like different options for listing results of search eg:
staff 'table-style' list: name, job title, tel number
staff 'blog-style' list: name, job title, tel number, descriptive text - but set out so one can view this info for full staff list on one page, each entry to have 'more...' button to go to full record.

Link to email form (like in Mambo 'contacts') so people listed can receive emails without having to expose email address.


THis is exciting! Well done!

Osbert

[chay]

* Are you planning on limiting the user (contact) data fields that are exposed to 'the public'? For example - you've collected complete address, email, phone info - but perhaps you only want to expose City and State to public listings.

Yes. Some users we'd not expose to the public. If I could display select groups and select fields of those groups, this would be perfect, I think.

* Will all users be included in the publicly searchable listings? Or is there some segmentation or permissioning needed on this?

No. I'd like the public to be able to search selected groups, but not the whole d-base. Something simple would be great as we wait for Joomla to work out its ACL system (I sure wish...).

* What search criteria do you need/want to support?

On the front end, if we could search within a group by, say, location tags, that would be great.

* Would you want / need front-end 'signup form(s)' - so non-users could enter contact info into your DB?

Yes. For me, this is more important than front-end search.  I think I'd like a civiCRM log-in/registration with front-end update profile capability. With that and civiContribute (I need paypal standard without the $20/mos fee for a small non-profit to handle multi-level memberships and donations), you'd solve my current needs beautifully. I'd like my members to be able to maintain their memberships from their profiles.

On one site for the public, I have three membership groups I'd like to be able to list on the front-end. Something like the mediator directory here: http://www.adsa.ws/index.php?option=com ... =55.  I'd also like their custom profiles to be accessible from the table list if they choose, and if by their current membership they qualify, like this: http://www.adsa.ws/index.php?option=com ... &Itemid=55. I'd like for each qualifying individual to be able to maintain his or her profile.

For another site, I'm looking forward to Joomla! integration with a petition module (civiSpeak?).

I think you guys are fantastic.  I appreciate everything you're doing.  I'm aiming to set up a test site and teach myself some php so that I can be more helpful.  I also really appreciate your work with Joomla! Thank you, thank you, thank you.


Edit: A day later, I just found the specs for civiMember: http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviMember#CiviMember-Phase1Scope%2FAssumptions. Yes! If we had anything like this with an integrated front-end log-in and profile update...wow.

[larpo]

Edit: A day later, I just found the specs for civiMember: http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviMember#CiviMember-Phase1Scope%2FAssumptions. Yes! If we had anything like this with an integrated front-end log-in and profile update...wow.

Yup, civiMember is exactly what I'm looking for too. In the mean time it may be possible to rework civicontribute to largely the same thing.

My suggestions for joomla integration follow:

• better implementation of the upgrade process for joomla users
• option to expose ANY field from the users record to the user
• ability for the user to update any information held about them
• ability to expose any field to any particular user group
• options for how/where data is displayed (custom profile page, community builder perhaps, member list
• integration with Community Builder, or development of a similarly intuitive, tab based, flexible profile system
• with civiContribute - allow users to see their contributions, membership fees, donations etc.
• ...allow users to submit contibutions/membership payments and so on
• allow user to edit their email preferences, newlsetter subscriptions, html/plain text etc

I'm sure that more will come to me as I think on it.

Any thoughts, feedback welcome.

[lobo]

A few comments on the below list:

1. All user integration will have to wait till Joomla! 1.1

2. Larpo: Can u take a stab at documenting the upgrade process for Joomla!?

3. We will look at CB for ideas on interface etc. However we have no plans for integration

4. There will be front end create/view/list capability, but no update capability for now (since that depends on user integration, authentication etc)

In the meantime, we have put up our 1.4 candidate list at:

http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... viCRM+v1.4

comments/feedback on that also welcome

lobo

[larpo]

4. There will be front end create/view/list capability, but no update capability for now (since that depends on user integration, authentication etc)

lobo

Ahh... I see. I didn't realise that user integration/authentication wasn't being considered as integral from the outset... that's dissappointing. Without the abillity to create view AND update, a large part of the point is missing for me, and probably for others too... I need my users to be able to see the data we have stored on them and update/amend parts of it.

If user authentication/integration is not included, then even the 'view' part of the equation is quite limited, as otherwise how can a user see what information we have stored on them in a secure way? For example, how can I expose to a user what payments they have made through civiContribute, or what address details we have for them, without some kind of user authentication/integration?

[lobo]

David:

For your use case you have a few options:

1. Wait for Joomla! 1.1 and the followon CiviCRM release to take advantages of user integration and expose user fields in a controlled manner

2. Hire / Donate a resource to the project to build what u need / integrate with CB or your favorite component

3. Switch to Drupal which has some part of the functionality your are looking for right now (we dont expose contributions in 1.3)

This functionality is closely tied to the CMS view of editing user accounts etc, as such we are not inclined to reinvent the wheel in a different way to provide the functionality. I suspect (or hope) Joomla! 1.1 will be out early next year.

lobo

[low-fi]

Hi lobo,

I want to start by seconding chay's expression of appreciation for the work that y'all have been doing. Y'all are amazing. And we are deeply grateful for your work.

FYI, in the New Year we're looking at the possibility of hiring an online membership coordinator position. A big part of that person's job will be to be a coder and contribute to the ongoing work of the CiviCRM project. (Keep an eye out for the job description announcement).

As for your questions:

* Are you planning on limiting the user (contact) data fields that are exposed to 'the public'? For example - you've collected complete address, email, phone info - but perhaps you only want to expose City and State to public listings.

Yes. Absolutely.

* Will all users be included in the publicly searchable listings? Or is there some segmentation or permissioning needed on this?

We do not envision having our users publicly searchable. Segmentation or permissioning would be extremely useful.

* What search criteria do you need/want to support?

None in the front-end.

* Would you want / need front-end 'signup form(s)' - so non-users could enter contact info into your DB?

YES.

In our case, here are a few ways we'd like to use CiviCRM for Joomla!

1. to use our website to gather more "leads" - potential members/donors.

We plan on doing this by using campaigns to drive people to our site, then encouraging them to register with the site for certain "special" content. We would call those folks "registered" users.

This would give them access to certain parts of the site, as well as the ability to subscribe to our e-newsletter and sign up for e-action alerts.

Using emails, etc. we would then like to encourage those "registered" users to become "members" of our organization.

2. Membership management / contributions

All members should also have access to "registered" material, as well as the "members" sections of the website, as soon as sign-up and become a member.

We will be getting both online and snail mail memberships. (Snail mail material entered via the backend).

3. collecting contact data from online advocacy campaigns.

We'd like the contact information of those who participated in online action campaigns end up in the CiviCRM. (for more on this idea, see this post - http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,20551.msg148754.html#msg148754 ) Perhaps that means that people would have to "register" first to participate in a campaign? If so, how does that information connect to the campaign info?

Here's a scenario: we launch a campaign to have people contact a particular legislator, we have a "take action" form that will allow people to contact the legislator. Obviously, that form would require contact information to be meaningful. * If they enter their contact info in that form, how would that get to CiviCRM? ** If they have to register first, how does that info get into the form?

I'm sure that much of this will be dependent upon Joomla 1.1, but I thought I'd throw it out there to stimulate some thoughts.

Thanks again to all of you!

Cheers,
Devin

[lobo]

Thanx for all the replies on front end integration. We definitely will tweak our model to make sure we hit most of your requirements in future releases of CiviCRM

As always, we do appreciate any help in the form of programming / documentation resources . Looking forward to working with our new hire devin

1. to use our website to gather more "leads" - potential members/donors.

We plan on doing this by using campaigns to drive people to our site, then encouraging them to register with the site for certain "special" content. We would call those folks "registered" users.

This would give them access to certain parts of the site, as well as the ability to subscribe to our e-newsletter and sign up for e-action alerts.

Using emails, etc. we would then like to encourage those "registered" users to become "members" of our organization.

This should be possible using CiviCRM's Profile functionality which has been designed to fit the above case. You will have to fit the workflow and potentially write some custom code to match your organization process

2. Membership management / contributions
All members should also have access to "registered" material, as well as the "members" sections of the website, as soon as sign-up and become a member.

We will be getting both online and snail mail memberships. (Snail mail material entered via the backend).

This is more an issue for Joomla! and permissions. CiviCRM can be used to trigger certain permissioning related tasks which the CMS can then use to enforce restriction on content

3. collecting contact data from online advocacy campaigns.

We'd like the contact information of those who participated in online action campaigns end up in the CiviCRM. (for more on this idea, see this post - http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,20551.msg148754.html#msg148754 ) Perhaps that means that people would have to "register" first to participate in a campaign? If so, how does that information connect to the campaign info?

Here's a scenario: we launch a campaign to have people contact a particular legislator, we have a "take action" form that will allow people to contact the legislator. Obviously, that form would require contact information to be meaningful. * If they enter their contact info in that form, how would that get to CiviCRM? ** If they have to register first, how does that info get into the form?

I'm sure that much of this will be dependent upon Joomla 1.1, but I thought I'd throw it out there to stimulate some thoughts.

I suspect profiles will be used extensively out here too. We have a fairly rich api that can be used to integrate civicrm data collection forms with your own form elements etc. You can tie a form directly to CiviCRM. Check our CiviContribute demo for more details on this

lobo

[lobo]

Hi!

I'm pretty close to getting some limited frontend functionality for CiviCRM available in Joomla!

Here is the approximate plan:

1. Installing the component, also installs the front end
2. The front end allows teh administrator to expose civicrm/profile urls (this is easily changed if needed in a php file)

(here is where i need some help)
3. We were thinking of using the Menu to expose functionality at the front end. When i generate a component menu i get the following url:

index.php?option=com_civicrm&Itemid=27

i'd like this url to be:

index.php?option=com_civicrm&Itemid=27&task=civicrm/profile&reset=1&gid=1

i.e. i want to add a few more parameters to the url. How do i go about doing this?

any help would be much appreciated

thanx

lobo

[lobo]

I have a working version of CiviCRM 1.3 with simple Joomla front end integration. You can download from:

http://downloads.openngo.org/civicrm/

Note that the file is really big, so install from directory is your best option. This is for new installs only

Once you have a successful installation and a working backend, u can export profile links to the frontend using Joomla! Menu manager. For more details on profile check:

http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... RM+Profile

(this information is a for 1.2, we'll update for 1.3 soon, most of it is still relevant)

You can then use menu manager to create a Link URL like

index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/profile&gid=1&reset=1

lobo

[cozimek]

Lobo,

I've tried following the directions you have above to create the profile forms in the front-end for Joomla 1.0, and i'm reporting that it seems to be working well!  When I use this link:

index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/profile&gid=1&reset=1&Itemid=5

I get a search form and then the results of a search for users in the database.  Now, what link would i need to provide to make a simple data entry form for new users?

Best,
Ryan

[lobo]

The link to create users from a profile is:

index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/profile/create&gid=1&reset=1

note that the profile needs to include either firstname and lastname or email. (since those are the required fields for an individual)

lobo

[lobo]

Here is some documentation on how to create and use the front end functionality in Joomla!.

The main Profile Admin doc to reflect both Drupal and Joomla 1.3 behaviors:
http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... RM+Profile

A page with specifics for Joomla:
http://objectledge.org/confluence/displ ... ambo+Sites

Note that this stuff is still pretty simple and in the early stages, but a important step for us in integrating more functionality and power of CiviCRM in joomla!. Please keep the bug reports, feature requests and use cases coming in.

On a related note, might make sense for us to move all CiviCRM discussion to a new forum (CiviCRM for Joomla!) under components? so we have a central place (right now it is a bit more scattered than i'd like). Let me know if this makes sense and if so, i'll create a forum item there and we can start migrating the conversation there

lobo

[low-fi]

makes sense to me.

[lobo]

i'd like to move and centralize CiviCRM support at the following forum, so lets move the discussion there.

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,27346.0.html

thanx

lobo