Important: DrupalCon Copenhagen BoF session!
I am planning to arrange for a 'birds of a feather' session to go ahead on DrupalCRM, to be held at DrupalCon in Copenhagen. This needs your input in a variety of ways.
Firstly, when would you like to see this session held? I will suggest 25th as a good date, but it must not clash with any official sessions of any significance otherwise we will lose numbers.
Secondly, please bollock together some 'blocker' issues that you would like to see resolved at this BoF. This would include things like whether CRM records are users, whether we develop for Drupal 7 or 6, and whether we use Git or something else for revision control; that sort of thing.
I want to use DrupalCon to act as a springboard to start the ball rolling. Once we get going, we will have enough momentum. Also, we need to attract as many people to this BoF session who wouldn't otherwise know about this project, so please evangelise a little and if you end up speaking to anyone at or about the Con, do mention it.
If you will not be attending DrupalCon, please add your points below anyway, and I will make sure they are brought up on your behalf.
The bottom line is that we must agree on things to get the project moving forwards, so I would like to propose that we aim to resolve any 'blocker' issues by the end of this BoF, and let's get some code written soon afterwards!
Comments
> whether CRM records are
> whether CRM records are users
> whether we develop for Drupal 7 or 6
These have both been bikeshedded and resolved. Don't let's reopen them ;)
One thing would be to give Profile2 a spin and discuss the UI and API. It's the heart of any potential CRM on D7.
FWIW
>> whether CRM records are users
>> whether we develop for Drupal 7 or 6
>These have both been bikeshedded
That's not exactly fair -- bikeshed issues are issues that are ultimately of trivial importance, while those two issues are of central importance to the architecture of a solution.
If you feel there's consensus on these issues (and I think there probably is), then please document it as a child-page for Specifications so people can know where to go for answers to such questions.
I won't be at CPH, but I think our next major goal would be fleshing out our specifications, especially for the CRM module.
For example:
-Will CRM module provide it's own entity, or use a profile2 entity to represent contacts?
-Will CRM module provide any new field types? (a profile_reference field?)
-Will CRM module provide any Views?
-What other UI tools should CRM module provide?
> Will CRM module provide
> Will CRM module provide it's own entity, or use a profile2 entity to represent contacts?
profile2 entities can have bundles. Hence you build up a contact from several profile2 objects. So the question is more: what types do we need to add.
I would also say we need to look at the address entity module, and make sure that's in a shape to be used by both us and Drupal Commerce.
Talking to the Drupal Commerce guys is essential too -- ideally we want to be using profile2 as a common core for contacts/customers.
> -What other UI tools should CRM module provide?
If we want to replicate what CiviCRM calls 'profiles' we will need a powerful way of embedding pieces of one entity form inside another. That shouldn't be in CRM, as it'll be generic enough to be reusable, but it's a key component.
interested
I'm interested, though I am doing a session on OpenLayers, so I'll be there if it does not conflict with that.
In
I suggest that you launch a doodle poll or similar to pick a time a few days before the conference. I will get there the evening of the 20th.
Very keen to attend and get
Very keen to attend and get things rolling. Time shouldn't be a huge issue for me.
BoF session listing on DrupalCon site
I've put up a session listing at http://cph2010.drupal.org/sessions/drupalcrm-native-drupal-based-crm - please take any comments over there rather than here, so we can keep discussing and suggesting ideas in one place. Thanks.