For Joomla users out there, you may be interested in a few new and updated 3rd party extensions that provide integration with CiviCRM. A semi-complete list of available extensions with their descriptions can be found here: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Joomla%21+Extensions+for+CiviCRM+%283rd+party%29
Of particular interest are a few for Joomla 1.6+ users:
CiviCRM 3.4.x and 4.0.x introduced API v3, a more consistent set of interfaces for integrating with CiviCRM using PHP, Smarty, Javascript, and REST. Building on this consistent core API, recent CiviCRM updates have introduced even more ways to manipulate your data -- such as chaining and CSV batch importing.
Thus, functions implemented according to the API v3 conventions can be invoked several different ways. If you would like to leverage this infrastructure for use with a new or customized API call, then download the latest release. With 3.4.6/4.0.6, external developers can expose API functions for new entities, new actions, and even generic actions.
As a freelancer, here are a few notes and an overview on how I solved a client's contacts consolidation when the data came from external sources:
My Use Case - Client had ongoing events and conferences over several years which meant there were databases and mailing lists all over the place (many of which had crossover). - I set up ongoing JSON exports of the contact data from the external sites, which could be queried by date range to get the latest changes.
The team is excited to announce the release of 3.4.6 and 4.0.6. This point release includes several exciting new "Make-it-Happen" features, along with 170+ bug fixes and minor improvements.. The new features include: Membership Price Sets - Does your organization have national, regional and local chapter memberships? Now you can offer self-service online membership signup and renewal for multiple memberships on the same online contribution page. Recurring Contributions and Auto-renewing Memberships with Google Checkout Previous / Next Navigation for Search Results - Now you can easily move through the contact summary pages within a set of search results! Just click the Next and Previous buttons.
Big round of applause to all the individual and organizations that helped MAKE-IT-HAPPEN for these features, including: International Mountain Biking Association, International Society for Bayesian Analysis, NSW Greens, Fuzion, Lighthouse Consulting and Web Design, New York State Senate, Powered by Action, Carmi Weinzweig, and Henry Bennett!
CiviCRM 3.3 introduced a new hook that allows you to interact with and alter dedupe queries. Unfortunately, it was something of a "hidden hook" as it lacked documentation for quite a while. But it can be quite useful and powerful, and thus deserving of a review.
If you are using Drupal 6, you have a vested interest in extended Drupal 6 support for CiviCRM 3.4 until spring 2012. If you are staying with Drupal 6 because of budgetary reasons or because Drupal 7 doesn't yet support all the modules you need for your site, this is vital for you. You will make sure your 3.4 CiviCRM/Drupal 6 setup remains healthy and safe.
Please donate here, if you haven't already.
Last Friday we had the first CiviCRM marketing meeting on irc. Nine people contributed and a couple more were unable to attend due to being on trains or planes. It felt like a good starting point and some encouraging thoughts came out of it. This is a quick synopsis.
CiviEngage is a Drupal module that (in the next release of CiviCRM) automatically configures CiviCampaign to make it easier to get up and running by setting many of the configuration tasks with sensible defaults.
