Drupal Phonebanking

[Matt2000]

Hello,

I'm currently working on building tools for Phonebanking with Drupal + CiviCRM, so I'm starting this thread to facilitate community discussion.

The preliminaries: My tools will not do anything unique in terms of storing contact data. It will be entirely dependent on CiviCRM's existing contact records for that. Primarily my focus is on working with CiviCRM's existing framework of Activity records of the Phone Call type.

Essentially, my vision for the project is composed of 3 related Drupal modules, the first of which is now in beta release.

1.) CiviAssign - Beta Relased! http://www.ninjitsuhosting.com/files/civiassign-0.1-beta.tar.gz
This module will allow phone bank managers to assign Phone Call activities to phonebank staff en masse. It's a simple Drupal form with these fields:
  Subject - the subject to be given to each activity
  Group to Assign - A selector of CiviCRM groups, for designating the contacts who are to be Called.
 
  Then one or more of the follow fields:
     Individual - An autocomplete field for identifying an individual to whom Calls should be assigned. (TBA)
     Group - A selector of CiviCRM groups, for designating a group of Contacts to whom calls shoudl be assigned on a round-robin basis
     Role - A selector of Drupal roles, for designating a group of Contacts to whom calls shoudl be assigned on a round-robin basis (TBA)

  When combined with CiviCallScript (below) there would be an additional field for designating the Call Script to be used for the call.

On submit, the module will create all the necessary activity records.

2.) CiviCallScript - availability TBD / subject to additional funding ?
  This module will provide a Drupal node type for storing call scripts. The scripts can be simply a single node of text, or in combination with Drupal Core's book module, it can provide a hierarchy of Question/Response pairs for walking the Caller through a call step-by-step. Call scripts can be associated with a CiviCRM activity record. The module will also provide a Block which can display the associated script on the Activity page.

3.) CiviPhonebankPermissions - / Subject to additional funding?
  My newest problem under consideration is the issue of Permissions. What if we only want the Phonebank Staff to be able to access contact information for contacts which they have been explicitly assigned to call, which they would not otherwise be allowed to access? This module will address this problem. It might be as simple as providing a Block (much like the above) that displays on the Activity page, which circumvents CiviCRM's access control to show the required contact information for the activity.

Potential sponsors can submit inquiries via:
  http://www.ninjitsuhosting.com/contact

Community Discussion / criticism / feeback / donations / etc are encouraged. :-)

[businessbroker]

I like a lot your ideas!
A) point 2 look to be the more easy, i hope that while reding scripts the calling person have space also to write on screen, not only to read
B) these changes will be all totally only for druepal or at least some will be good also for joomla?

[Matt2000]

A) Yes, my idea was that the script block would appear on both the view & edit screens for the activity, so that the Caller can fill out the Activity form while they are reading the call script. But this is not a 'mission critical' feature, so it probably won't be completed with my current project.

B) I am implementing these as Drupal modules only. However, since most of the real work is being done by CiviCRM, a joomla developer could convert them quite easily, or I could undertake converting them with sufficient funding. :-)

[businessbroker]

- Your idea-projects are very nice to my eyes, anyway I'm probably not organized to finance and help you developing them.
- Your phone scripts module is a super idea! and if you could develop it also for joomla, I could help you with some money or how?
Do you have some sample also not yet connected to civicrm?
For example just some online samples, because for phone scripts, I have problems also to find paper samples for more complex phone scripts, and on google there is not so much.. so I hope I could help you more.. having more experience about it and with money and my knowledge and testing

[petednz]

Hey Matt - Drupal 5 or 6 - looks like it is going to be 5 based on your resume

[Matt2000]

Drupal 5, since a Drupal 6 version of CiviCRM has not been released yet. ;-)

But again, CiviCRM does all the heavy lifting, so an update should be easy.

And without further ado... here's an early beta of CiviAssign for Drupal 5:

http://www.ninjitsuhosting.com/files/civiassign-0.1-beta.tar.gz

It doesn't implement all the features I've mentioned, and I have more in mind that I haven't mentioned, but it does seem to be functional.

Please test and report bugs here.

Be careful, since you can easily create a huge number of activity records, and it would be a big pain if you had to delete them all manually. So if you aren't comfortable writing SQL to clean up after yourself, only test on a sandbox that you're willing to dump completely.

[Matt2000]

@businessbroker,

If you wish to financially sponsor the completion of the Call Script module and a port to Joomla, you can contact me via

http://ninjitsuhosting.com/contact

[businessbroker]

i have done this some hour ago, my email: matteoraggi AT gmail.com do you have skype?

[petednz]

Hi Mr Business Broker

I think you may have sent the message meant for Matt to me by error. I couldn't understand why I got it. This is what I received.

hi, thank for answer, I'm thinking to use joomla instead of drupal because:
1) I know joomla, instead drupal I have to learn..
2) I  don't find nice professional templates for drupal, now I'm working on this joomla template: www.horeca1.eu
3) I read that drupal is more difficult to use of joomla and joomla is more famous, but on civicrm this look to be opposite.. and civicrm will be my core..

Was it for me or Matt?

[businessbroker]

yes, also published is ok

[Matt2000]

@businessbroker,

The Drupal vs Joomla debate doesn't really belong in this thread, but in brief:

1.) Drupal does have a steeper learning curve, but it's generally worth it, IMO.

2.) There are many templates for Drupal (called "themes")
   http://drupal.org/project/themes is just one place to find them.
  For demos see: http://themegarden.org/
  For some nice themes that are highly customizable without having to write code: http://roopletheme.com/Downloads

  There's even a theme that allows you to use any Moveable Type CSS template with Drupal:
    http://drupal.org/project/gutenberg
    Such templates here: http://www.thestylecontest.com/

3.) CiviCRM has more feature on Drupal, though the Core team is moving toward more abstraction from the CMS. If CiviCRM is your primary usage, I highly recommend using Drupal. If web content management is your primary usage, and you are less-technically-oriented, and CiviCRM is just a secondary usage, Joomla might be a good choice.

[businessbroker]

you are right, soon as possible I have to find a template for drupal and learn it , soon as possible..
I strt oto learn drupal from now, I see simple scripts can install the versions from 5.1 till 6.4 which version i need to use for civicrm?

[Matt2000]

You should install the latest 6.x version, for use with CiviCRM 2.1-beta

[Matt2000]

However, my phonebank module(s) only work with Drupal 5 for now.

[businessbroker]

so I'm free to choose between 5.3 till 5.10 to use your modules?
Anyway I think to start using civicrm 2.1 with drupal 6.4  I sart tomorrow to do the first tests on http://www.ho-re-ca.biz
Apart phone script, I'll need your modules minimum from some month and if you will be not yet ready for the 6.x I think and hope to support you with cash, best regards