CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hello Civi Experts,

I think it will be easier to simply describe what I'm up to (but for confidentiality i have to keep things broad). Here we go:

The goal is to construct a website where visitors can browse a list of proposed projects that need funding. Each project is to have a details page explaining what it is and how much the project needs to raise to meet it's funding goal, and have an area for visitors to donate directly to that specific project. Something akin to a "Funded Percentage" bar would be updated when a donation is received. Other features on the list: Newsletter signup, an events calendar - preferably searchable by region, and a way for those who've donated to be able to log in and view their donations... that's all i can think of right now other than some other strictly informational pages.

I read the following on another post:  "CiviCRM does not have a 'project' concept. However, it does have an 'event' and you can treat a 'project' as an event."
Maybe someone can expand on this specifically?

As for my programming abilities, I am intermediately skilled in PHP, really great with HTML, CSS, etc.. i'm new to Joomla and Drupal, but am comfortable customizing and skinning Zen Cart and Magento.

I've been going through the demo and documentation for a while and it seems that CiviCRM can handle almost all of the back-end stuff for staff to interact with, but i'm having a tough time understanding how extensible/customizable the front-end is with respect to my goals listed above.

Thanks so much in advance! 

Your response is much appreciated.

I've really been digging through documentation, installed and watched a couple tutorials on Views (as suggested to look into), and have been familiarizing myself with CiviCRM (quite a time-consuming task).

However, from a web development point of view, I'm struggling to understand how i can cohesively bring this all together. Please correct/help me here:

I cannot figure out how to simply create a Campaign/Campaign Page. Is this the same as the Personal Campaign Page?

Is there any way to have a visitor create a campaign (aka "Project") for approval by a moderator?

Also, to edit the templates/front end, i would do this via "civicrm/css" and "civicrm/templates/CRM" folders, correct? If so, would this make upgrading very painful? Are there any other key places i should be looking?

Thanks, again, for your help. I can build basic sites from the ground up, but the Drupal/CiviCRM setup is totally new to me.

BUT... I would probably create campaigns/projects as Drupal content types with CCK. You can link them to CiviCRM records with the new cckcivirelate module, and then use a bit of code to do all kinds of cool things.

This CCK Civirelate module you refer to seems to be a bit elusive. The only place i can find anything related to it is: http://www.rivervalleytechcollective.org/node/928

...does it have a normal module page on Drupal somewhere? It seems to not exist other than on rivervalleytechcollective.org, and that seems slightly...weird?

If i had to guess, a campaign object will be part of CiviCRM in a future 2.x release.

So, currently is the only way to create a Campaign/Project "Object" to use a Drupal content type with CCK and CCK CiviRelate (i'm still curious/reserved about the un-official-ness of this CCK CiviRelate module..)?

Do NOT use the version from rivervalley!!!

They wrote it for a specific project, and unless the code has changed significantly since I got it, it won't work anywhere else anyway.

I was mid-process of an extensive re-write when Lobo picked it up. It's in CiviCRM SVN now, and is expected to be part of the next release.

Perhaps the confusion is that it's now being called 'civicrm_cck'.

I think I still owe some work on it myself, but it is mostly functional right now. It only references contacts, at the moment, but I have old code somewhere for referencing events also, so I plan to get that in there too.

http://svn.civicrm.org/civicrm/trunk/drupal/modules/civicrm_cck/

Best,

Matt

civicrm_cck is a CCK field module. You still need the 'normal' CCK Drupal module. They work together.

Sadly, CiviCRM and Drupal approach custom fields in completely different ways, so you're going to have to learn two different systems. Hopefully, in the future, CiviCRM will use more of Drupal/Views/CCKs APIs to do things in a consistent way.

Ok! - Attached is my site map / flow chart for this project, which should help to confirm that what I'm up to is feasible. So, this is my rather incomplete understanding of how to logistically execute / program a site like this with Drupal 6 and CiviCRM 2.2.3:

Static pages, such as everything under the "About" section, can be created simply as a Drupal "Page" content type.

The whole "Projects" section of the attached site map i'm still not sure how to approach. So far i understand that i can make a new content type using CCK & civicrm_cck to put together a Project page..

Is there any way to track donations for each project?

Anyone able and willing to help me out in a more direct form of communication (via Skype, instant message, or coffee if you're in New York City) would be a VERY generous and welcome gesture. 

I would recommend that you hire someone from http://civicrm.org/professional/ to help you get started and clarify things for you etc.

lobo