I've been working through case configuration with a few clients over the last several months and have run into a few areas where I think the functionality could be improved. The core team asked that I outline it for the community to see if other groups experience similar workflows and would benefit from these changes.

The following notes were gathered from the CiviCon session on what the community would like to see in CiviCRM 4.0:

* Goals
* No new features
* Framework switch
* Not as major a rewrite as it looks
* Don't want to change many of the private APIs
* Want to switch away from pear
* Test unit coverage
* Better API hooks
* What users would like to see
* Continuous Integration
* Hudson - as you submit code runs through suite of unit tests to see what's broken
* Better decoupling
* Drupal Forms API

Several members of our core team just got back from a 3 day CiviCase meetup in beautiful Vancouver, Canada - hosted by Physician Health Program - BC (PHP-BC). Our main goals were:

• Get face-to-face feedback from PHP staff who are using CiviCase about what's working and what needs improvement in the existing implementation.
• Do some code sprints to get some quick wins for implementation within the current release cycle (2.2.3)
• Review the list of candidate features for Phase 2 in order to get a better understanding of the requirements, and discuss a range of implementation "solutions".
• Prioritize the Phase 2 list and come up with a scope of work and specifications for the 2.3 release.

The PHP-BC staff did a fantastic job of welcoming us, arranging logistics for housing and meeting space, and keeping us well fed (they hosted several incredible lunches and dinners)! We built an agenda that allowed us to get in-depth feedback on the current version, and then follow-up with time to code and share improvements and/or design ideas.

After more than 5 months of design, development and QA - the team is thrilled to announce the release of CiviCRM 2.2 Stable. You can download the release AND / OR try it out on our public demo site.

2.2 features a number of exciting new features, including...

• Personal Campaign Pages - add donors and constituents to your fundraising team
• Soft Credits for contributions
• CiviCase - Case management for human service providers (with thanks to Physician Health Program - British Columbia)
• Simplified configuration option for CiviMail
• Allow multiple custom field values for a given contact (e.g. "List the schools you attended, degrees earned and graduation dates")
• Powerful new hooks for integrators and developers who need to extend and customize existing features
• .... and 400+ additional improvements and bug fixes

You can find Release Highlights here.

A big round of applause is due to all the folks who downloaded, tested and submitted bug reports during the 2.2 release cycle. The alpha and beta packages were downloaded more than 4,000 times . Several hundred bugs and "improvements" were reported by community members and fixed by the team during the release cycle.

The fourth BETA release of version 2.2 - including CiviCase, Personal Campaign Pages, Soft Credits, Multi-value Custom Fields, cool new hooks for developers, and more - is now available for download. This release includes approximately 25 bug fixes. as well as some community-requested improvements:

• Allow a user to register multiple participants using the same email address, and allow additional participants to be added without requiring email addresses for them.
• Make it easier to explore CiviCase by including sample case types with configuration files in the codebase distribution (learn more...). You can also try out these sample case types - "Housing Support" and "Adult Day Care Referral" on the public 2.2 demo.
• Configuration option to "turn off" the double-opt-in process when users subscribe to a mailing list via a Profile form.
• Ability to Send Bulk Email from the Find Members search screen.
• New hook to discount event fees when a user is registering multiple participants (e.g. you get a 5% discount for each additional person you register).
• Option to completely replace CiviCRM dashboard content using the Dashboard hook.

You can use the automated upgrade script to upgrade from 2.1.x OR from any previous 2.2 alpha or beta release. This release will be fully upgrade-able to any additional beta versions as well as 2.2 stable. Please help ensure a quality stable release by downloading and testing 2.2 beta against a copy of your site and data.

... If this is your first look at 2.2, check out the 2.2 Roadmap for a good overview. Or you can review a compete listing of new features, improvements and bug fixes on the issue tracker.

The third BETA release of version 2.2 - including CiviCase, Personal Campaign Pages, Soft Credits, Multi-value Custom Fields, cool new hooks for developers, and more - is now available for download. This release includes approximately 40 bug fixes., as well as some improvements in the personal campaign page functionality under Joomla! We've also integrated a Configuration Checklist which should make it easier for site administrators to complete initial configuration tasks on new installations.

You can use the automated upgrade script to upgrade from 2.1.x OR from any previous 2.2 alpha or 2.2 beta 2. This release will be fully upgrade-able to any additional beta versions as well as 2.2 stable. Please help ensure a quality stable release by downloading and testing 2.2 beta against a copy of your site and data.

... If this is your first look at 2.2, check out the 2.2 Roadmap for a good overview. Or you can review a compete listing of new features, improvements and bug fixes on the issue tracker.

I was doing some other reading this week, and stumbled across this definition of case management:

The National Association of Social Workers Standards for Social Work Case Management (1995)defines case management as

… a method of providing services whereby the [professional] assesses
the needs of the client and the client's family … and arranges,
coordinates, monitors, evaluates, and advocates for a package of
multiple services to meet the specific client's complex needs. These
standards also emphasize interventions at micro-, mezzo- and

Introduction to CiviCase

Claire Sauve from Physician Health Program will be joining me in presenting an introduction to our new CiviCase component. The session will be an online web conference with phone dial-in, so participants can discuss interests and questions. No pre-registration is required - but drop me an email if you're planning on attending - dave at civicrm dot org.

When: Wednesday, February 4 at 11:00am PST
Toll Free Dial-in (U.S. & Canada): 1-866-740-1260
International Dial-in: click here for listings
Participant Access Code: 8467471
Web Conference URL: https://www1.callinfo.com/prt?host=readytalk&an=8667401260&ac=8467471

Depending on participant interest, topics will include:

We are excited to announce that the initial Alpha release of 2.2 is now available for download, AND to try out on our sandbox site. This release includes several major new features:

• CiviCase - case management component with configurable workflows (learn more...).
• Personal Campaign Pages - Allow constituents to create and promote their own personal fundraising pages in order to drive traffic to your organization's online contribution pages (learn more...).
• Simplified CiviMail Requirements - PHP-based option to handle return channel (bounces, replies ...) - replaces AMAVIS and simplifies installation and server access requirements.

... and scores of improvements. Check out the 2.2 Roadmap for a good overview. Or you can review a complete listing of new features, improvements and bug fixes on the issue tracker.

We strongly encourage folks to download and test the alpha release and help improve the final product. You can contribute significantly to the project by testing the upgrade process against a copy of your 2.1 data, as well as running your regular tasks on an upgraded site.

Coding has been completed for the phase 1 features of CiviCase - our new case management component, and we're deep into a quality assurance cycle as I type this. (If you haven't been following the evolution of this project, you can check out earlier posts here.)

One of the cool things about CiviCase is that it allows organizations to configure workflows for the different types of cases they handle. We're implementing these work-flows for "physicians' health" cases in collaboration with our sponsor for the project - Physician Health Program of British Columbia.

I'd also like to include sample configurations for several other case management settings when we release CiviCase as part of v2.2. For example, workflows for organizations who provide housing assistance, or family services or .... In order to accomplish this (in more than a half-***** way) - I'd like to hook up with folks who have some experience in one or more of these areas. If you work with an organization that could use a tool like CiviCase to help with their work - and is up for acting as a beta site - that would be even better.

If you have questions about whether CiviCase is a "good fit" your organization - please post them to the CiviCase forum board with as much detail as possible about your requirements. If you can help out with constructing sample configurations, please ping me at dave at civicrm dot org.