Blogs

One of the new features in version 2.2 of CiviCRM (in alpha release as of this posting) is a new contact import system. I'll delve into the technical details in a bit, but at a conceptual level, this new design should allow more flexibility in the import system down the road. The first hint of this in the 2.2 release is the new SQL Query data source option.

Some personal info to set the background: I have two kids who started kindergarden and pre-k earlier this year. We've also been involved with the KidZone Museum (in truckee, ca). Small schools and museums have a large part of their annual budget come in via live auctions. I did a bit of digging around and could not find any open source software that addresses this sort of fund raiser auctions.

I've started working with CiviCRM as I've been looking to build a new website for a NPO I work for, which does Youth Development onboard a Sail Training ship. One of the problems we face is the information we have being in multiple locations, so to get any critical information for our operations onboard (such as Passenger Manifests, Crew Transfers and other details) we have to go through the office. On top of this, alot of these things are STILL put together by hand via spreadsheets and what not, which can make for a slow process.

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 been focused on doing a pretty extensive QA cycle for the CiviCRM 2.2 release. We have approx 10 issues to resolve and another 10 issues to verify. 2.2 seems to be looking quite good so far :). The list of features, improvements and schedule is on the 2.2 wiki page

As the various localisations of CiviCRM get traction, the first localised versions of documentation pages begin to show up – and this brings us to the issue of how to internationalise these of the CiviCRM strings (texts) that contain links to documentation pages so that when a given string is translated to, say, German, it also refers to the German version of the documentation page (if such is present).