Blog posts by Dave Greenberg

The first BETA release of version 2.2 - including CiviCase, Personal Campaign Pages, Soft Credits, Multi-value Custom Fields and more - is now available for download. You can use the automated upgrade script to upgrade from 2.1.x OR from a 2.2 alpha site. 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.

 

Do you wish you could configure custom fields to store Employment History, Educational Background, Volunteer Skills or other types of information where you may need to enter multiple sets of values for a contact? Starting with CiviCRM 2.2, you can do just that. For example, if you need to collect Employment History - you might have fields for Job Title, Start Date, End Date, and Reason for Leaving. Enabling the "multiple records" setting in that custom data group will allow you to enter that information for multiple jobs. You can also set the maximum number of records which can be recorded per contact (you might only want data for the three most recent jobs).

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 a second Alpha release for 2.2 is now available for download, AND to try out on our sandbox site. We are working hard on making upgrades as painless as possible by providing an automated upgrade to this latest release FROM ANY VERSION of 2.1 as well as from 2.2 Alpha 1.

Starting with CiviCRM 2.2, your organization can take advantage of an online fundraising strategy that was previously available only to users of one of the large, proprietary (and expensive) online fundraising solutions. I've spent the last few days working with our new Personal Campaign pages feature - and I'm quite excited about the potential it has to help our users take their online fundraising to the next level.

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.

 

Joomla! Day UK is scheduled for March 13 and 14, 2009 in Kent. The organizers would like to include one or more CiviCRM-related sessions, depending on interest and availability of presenters.

If you are interested in or planning on attending OR if you are interested in helping to organize / present at a CiviCRM or NGO / Non-profit session - please post back to the forum topic.

The team has released version 2.1.4 with approximately 25 minor bug fixes. You can see a listing of the issues included in this release on the issue tracker. Download You can download CiviCRM 2.1.4 from our download page. Select from the civicrm-stable section. The filenames include the 2.1.4 label: civicrm-2.1.4…. Be sure and download the correct version for your CMS (Drupal / Joomla!). Select the Drupal download for Standalone upgrades.   Upgrading You can upgrade directly to 2.1.4 from 2.1.0, 2.1.1 or 2.1.2. We've also made a few changes to simplify the upgrade process a bit. Upgrade instructions are available on the wiki for Drupal, Joomla and Standalone. If you're still running CiviCRM 2.0 - "making the move to 2.1" has gotten a bit easier as well (we've eliminated a few steps in the upgrade). Of course you'll still need to upgrade from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 or Joomla! 1.0 to Joomla! 1.5. This could be a good time to look at requirements and support for any other components / modules you're using. Complete upgrade instructions for 2.0 sites are on the wiki for Drupal and Joomla!.

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.

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) published the results of it's first-ever Donor Management Software (DMS) Satisfaction Survey last week. Nearly 1,000 people participated in the survey - whose goal was to help nonprofits "find the DMS that is best for your organization". Regulars readers of this blog will recall that we were quite disappointed when the survey was announced - due to the fact that CiviCRM was NOT INCLUDED In the list of Donor Management Software solutions in the survey. The good news is that folks in our community stepped up nicely. Despite being a "write-in candidate" CiviCRM got the fourth highest number of respondents to the question "Please select the product that you consider your PRIMARY donor management system."