Blogues

Thousands of feet in the air, halfway between my Washington, D.C. home and the cottage I shared with 20+ CiviCRMers for the better part of a week, I struggle to sum up the code sprint that has put ideas into motion like pinballs inside my head.

It may sound like a cliché but this Code Sprint gave me many more things than I expected. In Amnesty International (Spain), we started using CiviCRM only a few months ago. I am not an expert but we have a long way to run with CiviCRM. Before arriving, I thought it was going to be helpful and useful for me to spend some time coding. And so it was. But many more things happened.

We've started to look into changing how objects get persisted in CiviCRM and what can we do to make things easier for people extending CiviCRM. Part of our approach is to try and integrate Doctrine into CiviCRM.

Background

It's a beautiful day up here in Dalesbridge, with a low sun, rippling green grass, a bright blue sky, and rolling hills as far as the eye can see.

It's also a particularly beautiful day because Future First is proud to announce the public packaging and release of one of its extensions: UK Phone Number Validator 1.0.

After having fun and learning a lot from CiviCon London 2013. I decied to have more fun at Daleridge sprint where the weather is nice and the landscape looks wonderful and It is my 6th CiviCRM sprints!. This nearly the end of  the 4th day of the Dalebrdige sprint  (while I'm writing this blog).  

We are pleased to announce that a new course for trainer use has been released.

I first started coding with CiviCRM about three months ago.

I'd left my previous job to start working, for the first time, as the only Software Developer at a small London-based charity. Future First is an education charity that aims to help state schools mobilise their former students. This can involve (but isn't limited to) getting alumni to e-mentor current students, do presentations in school assemblies, meet students at open days, or provide donations, in much the same way that private schools have been doing for centuries. The results so far have been spectacular, having started in 2009 in London, Future First is now operating in schools throughout England and are soon to start in Wales. This isn't mentioning the pilot project in Kenya!

But big ambitions need a big database, which brings us to CiviCRM.

With the upcoming release of 4.4 and a series of "super extensions" like CiviHR, CivVolunteer and CiviBooking -  the power and importance of extensions in the CiviCRM ecosystem is on the rise.  A group of us met at the UK sprint today to discuss some of the improvements in the technical and human infrastructure to help ensure that more folks are aware of extensions, that more extensions are shared, and that extensions can be made available in multiple languages.

Last week during CiviCon in London I introduced CiviCooP to the audience. CiviCooP is a Dutch cooperative organisation (“coöperatieve CiviCooP UA”) which aims to help CiviCRM customers (mainly NGOs) with all aspects of CiviCRM.

As the first full day of the Dalesbridge sprint ends, I have no regrets about taking leave from work and flying halfway round the world to participate in my first CiviCRM sprint.