The Definitive Guide to SugarCRM: Better Business Applications (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

SugarCRM is one of if not the leading Open Source CRM solution in the marketplace at 5.5 million downloads and growing and with nearly 17,000 registered developers and lots more users. This will be the official, definitive book written by SugarCRM and endorsed by SugarCRM. Also, this book would be also the only SugarCRM developer book which will address the platform related features since SugarCRM 5.0. Contents at a Glance......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 About the Author......Page 13 About the Technical Reviewers......Page 14 Acknowledgments......Page 15 Introduction......Page 16 The Company......Page 19 The Product......Page 20 SugarExchange and SugarForge......Page 23 Getting SugarCRM......Page 24 Summary......Page 25 What Is MVC?......Page 27 MVC the Sugar Way......Page 28 SugarApplication......Page 29 SugarController......Page 31 SugarView......Page 34 Entrypoints......Page 37 Bean Classes and SugarObjects......Page 38 Fields......Page 40 Indexes......Page 44 Relationships......Page 45 Database Layer......Page 47 Summary......Page 49 DetailView and EditView......Page 51 How the DetailView and EditView Classes Work......Page 54 SugarFields......Page 56 ListViews......Page 57 Defining Search Fields......Page 60 Field Overlays”......Page 62 Subpanels......Page 64 Summary......Page 69 What Are Web Services?......Page 71 Building the Connector Source......Page 72 Defining the Fields from the Web Service”......Page 76 Formatters......Page 77 Pulling It Together......Page 79 Web Services API......Page 80 SOAP......Page 81 Make a Connection......Page 82 Get Lists and Counts of Records......Page 83 Add a New Record......Page 84 Saving and Retrieving Attachments......Page 86 Relate Records......Page 87 REST......Page 88 Custom Web Services......Page 89 Provide an Implementation Class......Page 90 Summary......Page 91 User Management......Page 93 ACL......Page 95 Password Management......Page 97 Tracking User Actions......Page 98 Team Management......Page 100 Dashlets......Page 101 ListView Dashlet......Page 102 Chart Dashlets......Page 105 Iframe Dashlets......Page 108 Custom Dashlets......Page 109 Sugar Feeds......Page 110 Record Importing and Exporting......Page 114 Themes......Page 118 Logger......Page 120 Summary......Page 122 Starting with Studio......Page 125 Adding New Fields to a Module......Page 127 Customizing Edit and Detail Views......Page 129 Customizing ListViews......Page 131 Editing Labels......Page 133 Relationships, Relationships, Relationships......Page 135 Help! My Customizations Have Gone Awry......Page 137 Summary......Page 139 What Are Logic Hooks?......Page 141 Creating Your First Logic Hook......Page 143 Point and Click Logic Hooks with Workflows......Page 147 Creating the Workflow......Page 148 Defining Workflow Alerts......Page 154 Workflow Actions......Page 157 Managing the Sequence of Workflows......Page 158 Modifying the Bean Object......Page 159 Conflicting Logic Hooks......Page 163 Logic Hook Being Nullified by the Existing Code......Page 164 Logic Hook Weaknesses......Page 165 Summary......Page 166 Safety Lies in the Custom Directory......Page 167 Altering View Actions......Page 169 Changing the Metadata-Driven Views......Page 172 Adding New Custom Field Types......Page 177 Changing Language Strings......Page 180 Tweak vardef Definitions......Page 181 Custom Themes and Theme Customizations (Yes, They Are Different )......Page 182 Summary......Page 184 Using Module Builder to Build Custom Modules......Page 187 Getting Started......Page 188 Designing a New Module......Page 190 Fields......Page 193 Metadata......Page 196 Relationships......Page 200 Deploy to the Current Instance......Page 203 Publishing Your Changes and Installing Them with Module Loader......Page 204 Removing an Installed Package......Page 207 Summary......Page 209 Why Would You Do This?......Page 211 Construct Directory Structure......Page 212 Register Module with the Instance”......Page 214 Add Bean Class File”......Page 216 Build vardefs......Page 218 Build Any Metadata Templates......Page 220 Add Language Files......Page 227 Create a Dashlet......Page 228 Add Any Additional Views Needed......Page 231 Summary......Page 233 Designing a Complete Application......Page 235 Background of the Application......Page 236 Breakdown of the Various Components......Page 237 Accounts and Contacts......Page 238 Customers......Page 240 Supplies......Page 242 Vendors, Vendor Contacts, and Vendor Orders......Page 243 Custom Code......Page 244 Jobs......Page 245 Supplies......Page 249 Vendors......Page 255 Invoicing Hooks......Page 259 Final Touches......Page 262 Summary......Page 264 Index......Page 267

SugarCRM is a leading open-source customer relations management tool and development platform with nearly 5.5 million downloads, nearly 17,000 developers, and lots more users.

The Definitive Guide to SugarCRM is the first official SugarCRM book available to developers and users. This definitive book begins with a discussion of the SugarCRM platform components, namely MVC, Studio, Module Builder, authentication, and themes.

Next, you'll learnhow to customize the modules SugarCRM comes with out of the box in an upgrade-safe manner. The text then presents an example application that a typical business might use and shows how to build it using SugarCRM, using both existing functionality as well as newly added functionality.

What you’ll learn

• Understand how the SugarCRM platform works
• Customize the modules that come with SugarCRM
• Build new modules and functionality into SugarCRM
• Explore MVC architecture, users/authentication, built-in modules, and other platform features
• Use SugarCRM Studio for customizations, logic hooks, and overriding existing code
• Build on top of SugarCRM using Module Builder, custom modules, and existing/custom modules mashups
• Design a complete application

Who this book is for

Any business application developers and consultants looking to build or deploy a custom business application. CIOs and IT administrators will also be interested.

Table of Contents

1. What Is SugarCRM?
2. MVC Architecture
3. Metadata Layer
4. Web Services
5. More Platform Features
6. Easy Customizations Using Studio
7. Workflows and Logic Hooks
8. Overriding Existing Code
9. Using Module Builder to Build Custom Modules
10. Building a Custom Module Manually
11. Designing a Complete Application

SugarCRM is a leading open-source customer relations management tool and development platform with nearly 5.5 million downloads, nearly 17,000 developers, and lots more users. The Definitive Guide to SugarCRM is the first official SugarCRM book available to developers and users. This definitive book begins with a discussion of the SugarCRM platform components, namely MVC, Studio, Module Builder, authentication, and themes. Next, you'll learn how to customize the modules SugarCRM comes with out of the box in an upgrade-safe manner. The text then presents an example application that a typical business might use and shows how to build it using SugarCRM, using both existing functionality as well as newly added functionality.