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Author Topic: Can CiviCRM do what I need?  (Read 2054 times)

Upperholme

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Can CiviCRM do what I need?
August 29, 2008, 05:38:34 pm
Hi

I'm pretty new to CiviCRM, but have been using Drupal for 3 or 4 years now. I'm building a site for a non-profit association that will include a register of individual contacts, and hold a range of data about those contacts, enabling them to maintain and add to the data. I think CiviCRM can do the job, but would welcome opinions from more experienced users, based on the following:

Each contact will need to add information about their employing organisation (can I enable contacts to add organisation contacts related to themselves?). As their employer might change over time, I'd like to be able to build up a career history for each contact. Can I do this?

The contacts will also be required to maintain a history of the training events they participate in. Again the contact will be adding new training events as they are completed, building up a history of the training they have undertaken. Not sure how to do this - perhaps using an activity? - can I enable a contact to create a specific activity for themselves?

The rest of the data held seems fairly straightforward, but as the above involve multiple records per contact I can't see any way - having read the documentation - of enabling multiple records per contact other than through the built in options (activities, org contacts, etc.) Maybe I'm missing something?

Any input would most welcome.

Thanks
Graham
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Donald Lobo

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Re: Can CiviCRM do what I need?
August 29, 2008, 06:16:19 pm

The CiviCRM data model should handle most of your needs. However as you've observed, the profile basically avoid dealing with "multiple" records per contact issue. One potential solution is to build a drupal module that writes to the civicrm db using the civicrm api / db queries to model your NPO needs]

More specific answers inline below

Quote from: Upperholme on August 29, 2008, 05:38:34 pm
Each contact will need to add information about their employing organisation (can I enable contacts to add organisation contacts related to themselves?). As their employer might change over time, I'd like to be able to build up a career history for each contact. Can I do this?

yes. However this is pretty basic and we expose only organization name. We create (or reuse) an organization record for that name and create a relationship (employer/employee) between the contact and the organization. If the contact changes the organization in the profile, we repeat the process create another relationship. We do not attach dates to this relationship (which might be a limitation for you)

Quote from: Upperholme on August 29, 2008, 05:38:34 pm
The contacts will also be required to maintain a history of the training events they participate in. Again the contact will be adding new training events as they are completed, building up a history of the training they have undertaken. Not sure how to do this - perhaps using an activity? - can I enable a contact to create a specific activity for themselves?

Assuming contacts do not have access to most of CiviCRM backend functions, this feature will need to be implemented as a drupal module. Depends on the "event" and number of events, you can use CiviEvent and get folks to sign up for each event as they finish it.
 
Quote from: Upperholme on August 29, 2008, 05:38:34 pm
The rest of the data held seems fairly straightforward, but as the above involve multiple records per contact I can't see any way - having read the documentation - of enabling multiple records per contact other than through the built in options (activities, org contacts, etc.) Maybe I'm missing something?

The drupal module writing to the civicrm db might be your best bet here

lobo
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Matt2000

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Re: Can CiviCRM do what I need?
August 29, 2008, 07:37:19 pm
Hi Upperholme,

I also think CiviCRM will be the best foundation for your project. This year I worked on a custom Drupal module that allows users to create records (Drupal nodes) about contract jobs they've worked on, with a field to associate the node with their currently employer. (Administrators can also create job nodes on behalf of the employer.) If the user changes changes employers, they no longer have access to manipulate the job node, but the record of their participation still shows in a custom tab for both the employer & the employee. It also supports multiple employers per user. CiviCRM's automatic relationship history suits this well. (An employee relationship can be active or not, and current or "expired", providing precise designation of an employees status). In this case, the Drupal module interacts with CiviCRM entirely by API - no direct database manipulation required.

So technologically speaking, you'll have the tools you need with CiviCRM and its API.

In my opinion, these are the questions you need to ask: What data is best stored as a drupal node? (possibly none) What's best as a CiviCRM record? What's best as a "light database object" or something else. How are permissions to add/edit/delete a record determined? (By virtue of relationship? By simple Drupal role-based Permissioning? By CiviCRM ACLs?)

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Matt
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Upperholme

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Re: Can CiviCRM do what I need?
August 30, 2008, 11:18:29 am
Thanks for the helpful response. I guess I need to identify a develop who can do the wrk required, or alternatively rethink my approach.

I have to say I think this is a fairly major shortcoming in CiviCRM, and I hope it will be addressed in the near future. Is this stuff on the roadmap?

Regards
Graham
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Matt2000

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Re: Can CiviCRM do what I need?
August 30, 2008, 01:16:31 pm
What exactly do you see as the shortcoming?

As I've noted, CiviCRM has everything you need. Multiple, date-based Relationships allow for tracking 'employment histories', and the robust API allows you to associate contacts with Drupal nodes, if you need some other kind of record besides the included Individuals, Organmizations, Events, Relationships, etc, etc...

My company provides Drupal+CiviCRm services. You can view our portfolio at:

http://www.NinjitsuHosting.com/portfolio

All the Best,

Matt
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  • CiviCRM Community Forums (archive) »
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  • Can CiviCRM do what I need?

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