Blogs

A warning to CiviCRM Standalone users: Don't upgrade to PHP 5.3.0 just yet. It removes deprecated behavior that the OpenID library relies on. That means you won't be able to login if you upgrade to 5.3.0+. Going back to PHP 5.2.x fixes the issue.

I wasn't really sure when I wrote my first blog on accounts and CiviCRM whether it was a topic that would draw much interest but in fact I got a lot of really thoughtful comments and something of a blogathon took place. I have some ambition to write another piece summing up what I think has come out of the discussion - but in the meantime I want to pick up now on something Dave & I have talked about a little bit on the forums: invoice numbers.

I just uploaded the first version of the Perl client module for the CiviCRM REST API. You can download it from CPAN here. This means you can now create, edit, delete, and retrieve (most of) your CiviCRM data from Perl scripts and programs. I'm using it to provide integration between the Perl CMS WebGUI and CiviCRM.

The New York Meetup was a great success last night, as 33 people got a glimpse into upcoming releases, several case studies, and great open floor discussions. Dave Greenberg, core contributor, joined in via Skype video to provide insight into upcoming features and answering questions.

The day has come! We are excited to announce that our 3.0 ALPHA release is now available for download. You can also try it out on our sandbox site. Please remember it's an ALPHA release and it shouldn't be used on production sites.

This release introduces many new features, some of them really important, that's why we decided to start a new major number series in CiviCRM versioning. One of the most important new features is CiviReport, which is a completely new component for advanced reporting on your constituent data. Second significant change is a major user interface redesign with a goal of increasing usability. CiviEvent was also improved with waitlist functionality, pending status expirations, and an option for administrator approval for participants. A full list of changes, improvements and bug fixes in this release is available on the wiki and in the issue tracker.

We are finding that CiviCRM/accounts issues are becoming increasingly important for our clients, and Eileen's recent blogs and the discussion they are generating are a fantastic step towards helping find the best way for Civi to deal with financial transactions.

For example, I think it could be useful for Civi to ultimately develop functionality for maintaining simple bank accounts within CiviCRM, so that small organisations can maintain basic accounts without the headaches of integration with an external package.

This is my second blog on the topic of integrating with CiviCRM with an accounting system. Those of you who haven't just run screaming from the room or suddenly discovered an urgent need to polish the inside of your car exhaust, re-organise your tupperware or push needles into your eyes ... read on.