CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi,

I would like to see an improvement for a rule based engine. I have noticed that the modules call functionality that is roughly shared amongst them, but cannot be influenced by the users. Examples are that when a user registers CiviEvent sends out an email, creates a contribution, creates an activity etc. CiviMember does similar things and so on. A user however cannot influence what each module does and which actions are taken. 

So here is my suggestion:

Every module should check when updating a record what actions should be taken. And it would be nice if this is checked against a rule based engine (RBE). An example: I change details for a certain customer. When saved CiviCRM should check with CiviRule what the action would be. In this case CiviRule determines that an activity should be created. Another example: A customer has registered for an event, but hasn't paid yet. The payment is received and a user updates the specific CiviEvent status. On save CiviEvent checks with CiviRule what the required actions are. CiviRule gets the event CiviCRM- Status 'paid' and determines that an activity has to be created (payment received), a contribution record has to be created and a confirmation email has to be sent.

Some example triggers:
- On save customer record
- On a certain date field in the customer record being true (e.g. birthday) -> to send an automatic email
- On CiviEvent, CiviMember or CiviCase reaching a certain status
- etc.

Some example options:
- Send email
- Create contribution
- Create activity
- Set status
- etc.

Obviously the above will quite a change for CiviCRM and unfortunately I cannot program a single line of code and am not in a position to give a nice grant to the project. However I do believe that creating such an engine will provide the users with a lot of flexibility and will create a foundation for a very flexibile and agile system.

I don't want to log a feature request for this just yet, but rather discuss it here what the functionality should be and if it is possible at all.