Google + Joomla! + CiviCRM

Google has once again continued their commitment to open source technology through the annual Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program. The program runs from April through September and awards students a stipend for working on and completing qualified open source projects. The program provides students a valuable opportunity to get involved in real-life development projects while introducing them to the world of open source. Google works with approved mentor organizations who in turn review and approve proposed projects and students. The organizations then assign mentors who will guide the student through the development process, serve as a resource, and review the student’s work at various stages. CiviCRM is excited to have two GSoC projects approved through Joomla!. Considering that Joomla! was awarded a total of 18 funded projects through Google, it is significant that two will involve CiviCRM integration. Many thanks to Elin Waring and others for their support of Joomla!+CiviCRM. I will be helping to mentor Nakul Ganesh through one of the approved CiviCRM projects. His project will seek to accomplish several things:

• The first focus will be an effort to improve the process of installing CiviCRM in Joomla! While significant improvements have been made in the last CiviCRM release to simplify installation, there are still some persistent problems primarily due to the size of the CiviCRM package and the resources required to run the installation on Joomla!
• Secondly, Nakul will be creating a suite of Joomla! extensions (primarily modules) that expose CiviCRM resources to frontend users while taking advantage of some of Joomla’s MVC based architecture. This will include such things as a list of upcoming events and module-based search tools. The goal is to provide more options for integrating CiviCRM into the frontend user experience.

Nakul Ganesh S is a 20-year old student from Mysore, India who is pursuing his Bachelors Degree in Information Science and Engineering at The National Institute of Engineering. Web design is his passion, though he is also a part time graphic designer. He has been involved with the Joomla! project for some time, including working on Joomla! media manager improvements through last year’s GSoC program. Music and football are among his other interests. Over the course of the project, Nakul may post to the blog or forums providing updates on the project development, soliciting input from the CiviCRM community, and seeking feedback once the project is at a beta stage.