Tag Archives: civicrm

Technical

New Features in CiviCRM

Aside

The creators of open-source CRM software CiviCRM have released details of the new features coming in the next release of the free software.

2020Media is a leading UK web hosting provider of CiviCRM – details about our hosting service can be found at http://www.2020media.com/shared-hosting/civcrm-hosting

CiviCRM 4.7 Planned Features

  • Form Builder – First phase implementation of a new forms framework which will be designed to allow for easy customization of core forms.
  • Administrator Status Page – Provide CiviCRM site administrators with a single place to check for configuration problems including cron status, file permissions, MySQL permissions, invalid or sub-optimal PHP settings, etc. These statuses can also be queried via API to allow for automated status checks.
  • Administer Settings improvements – Provides a unified and searchable administrative interface for all configurable settings. Makes it easier for extensions to add settings to this interface.
  • Installer improvements – Streamlined install process for WordPress sites. Initialize newly installed sites with localization settings (language, currency, etc.) based on the users locale. 2020Media provide pre-installed CiviCRM so we’ll take care of this for you!
  • Payment processing improvements
  • Webform CiviCase integration enhancements (sponsored by Compucorp Ltd.) – Add case roles to a case in webforms and allow users to specify a case when creating an activity.
  • CiviMail Inline (pending code contribution from Veda Consulting) – Improves usability when composing and editing mailings based on templates by allowing the designer to create editable and non-editable regions.
  • Offline recurring payments (pending code contribution from Veda Consulting and API from JMA Consulting) – Manage recurring contributions that are initiated outside of CiviCRM.  Ensures that these Direct Debit or Standing Order payments are allocated to the correct contacts, and that the recurring details are fully accessible to CRM administrators.
  • Navigation / Menu Improvements (pending collaboration with Compucorp Ltd.) – Modernize the main navigation menu, provide vertical side-bar display options, include icons.

The target date for a stable release is Early October 2015.

Technical

CiviCRM events

Lots of great London based CiviCRM stuff coming up so thought we’d give you a heads up so you can get the dates in your diaries now.

CiviCRM is the market leading open source CRM application for the Third Sector. Robust and reliable, our hosting plans fully support both small and large CiviCRM deployments.

1. Meetups!

First off, the dates for the next two meetups are confirmed:

May Meetup: Wed 28th May – Register here

July Meetup: Wed 30th July – Register here

Both will be @ Compucorp in Shoreditch, London and start at 6pm.

Agenda

The meetups are designed for those looking to find out more about CiviCRM or considering it for their organisation. There is always a mix of experience levels represented and are a great forum for asking your questions or meeting current users, implementors or developers who can help with your project.

We’ll be following the usual format with an introduction to CiviCRM and one of the main CiviCRM modules followed by some other follow up sessions and whats new in the Civi world.

2. CiviCON!

Then the big one… the annual 2 day CiviCRM European conference held in London. Get your tickets now for earlybird discounts:

CiviCON London: Thurs 25th and Fri 26th Sept – Register here 

CiviCon London 2013
CiviCon London 2013

The full CiviCON website will be up shortly with details of sessions and speakers.

There will also be London based training before CiviCON:

London user and administrator training: Tuesday 23rd and Wed 24th Sept – Register here  

And the unmissable after conference sprint in the beautiful Derbyshire village of Edale:

Edale After CiviCON sprint: September 28th to October 4th – Register here

Look forward to seeing you there!

Opinion

What Happens at a CiviCRM Meetup?

people at CiviCRM meetup at techhub
A recent London CiviCRM meetup

CiviCRM is the CRM system designed for non-profits. Not only is it an Enterprise level bit of software, it’s also open-source and free to download and install. Investing in a CRM (constituent relationship management) for an organisation of any size is a major undertaking, as it will likely underpin all the actions that organisation takes in relation to its supporters.

Therefore it’s best to evaluate the shortlist of CRM software in as much detail as possible. One way of doing that with CiviCRM is to go along to a meetup – an informal gathering of people intersested in the software. Usually led by an expert, meetups can take different formats. Here we present a typical line-up at the London CiviCRM group.

“The meetups are designed for those looking to find out more about CiviCRM or considering it for their organisation. There are always a mix of experience levels represented and are a great forum for asking your questions or meeting current users, implementors or developers who can help with your project.”

Running Order

  1.  Introduction to CiviCRM
  2. Case study (often presented by someone non-technical from a organisation using CiviCRM)
  3. Community update
  4. What’s new?

The London user group is especially lucky in that it is attended by several of the core development team of CiviCRM so it’s a fantastic opportunity to talk with them.

We at 2020Media have attended CiviCRM meetups and found them refreshingly non-techie, friendly to all skill levels, with many newcomers at every meeting (so there aren’t of those cliques of old hands who eye suspiciously any new face!). Many of the developers who are there especially like to talk with actual users and implementors (as do we, as a specialist CiviCRM Hosting Service Provider).

Find out about the next CiviCRM event near you at https://civicrm.org/civi-upcoming-events

 

Technical

CiviCRM July Newsletter

The CiviCRM July Newsletter is hot off the press.

newsletter-cookbookView online at CiviCRM.org

There’s a new CiviCRM book out! The CiviCRM Cookbook covers a wide range of CiviCRM core and component topics with practical in depth recipes with accompanying screenshots.

The CiviCRM Starter Kit is a Drupal-and-CiviCRM-in-one bundle which makes downloading and installing a fairly standard instance of Drupal and Civi straightforward. It includes a sensible selection of modules and extensions to get you going.

2020Media will install this for you free of charge.

You’ve decided to use CiviCRM. Now what? This 45 minute episode will cover what you should (and should not) do before starting to use CiviCRM. First hangout – Tuesday, July 16th at 9am Pacific
Introduction to CiviCRM Mini-series: Before You Login Google Hangout link

Security News

Announcing the 6th stable release of CiviCRM 4.3, containing small bug fixes and two minor security updates to make your CRM more stable and secure.

This is a security release. You should upgrade your site immediately. If you are unable to do so and host with 2020Media, we’re happy to help.

Opinion

CiviCRM London meetup May 2013

1 Comment

The next London Meetup is just around the corner and it would be great to see you there. It will be taking place on Wednesday 29 May from 5:30pm – 8:30pm (talks starting at 6pm) at Wikimedia UK, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London, LON EC2A 4LT.

civicrm logo

For those interested in using CiviCRM these sessions are a great way to learn more about how it works and get feedback from those already using Civi. If you’ve previously been to a meetup or use CiviCRM then you already know how great it is but you can still learn more about the different modules of Civi and perhaps get some inspiration of what more CiviCRM can do for you.

Registration and more information can be found here: http://civicrm.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=308

The sessions are still to be arranged but this is the agenda so far:

  • Welcome & introductions (5 mins)
  • First Session – CiviCRM overview and introduction to a Civi module (15-20 mins)
  • Second Session – A CiviCRM case study (15-20 mins)
  • Break (15 mins)
  • Third session – Community update (10-15 mins)
  • Fourth Session – What’s new? (10 mins)
  • CiviCRM Open Workshop