CiviMail using Joomla Data in Tokens

[theitd]

Here's a workaround which allows you to include Joomla data to be used as custom tokens in CiviMail.

The problem I was having involved encouraging donors to log on before renewing their memberships - and without them having to know their usernames and/or passwords. The process of donating had to be made as simple as possible.

The solution was to use a View in MySQL in the place of a custom_data table, and then use the {contact.custom_XX} tokens in CiviMail message templates. The steps were as follows:

•   Install and test the Joomla AutoLogin extension from here
•   From the CiviCRM menu, create a Custom Data set (for example, called 'DONOTEDIT') with 2 fields (user & passw).
•   Make a note of the field IDs, as described here
•   In MySQL, DROP the table 'civicrm_value_CUSTOM-DATA-NAME_X'
•   For the autologin example, I used the following query to create a VIEW in MySQL:

Code: [Select]

SELECT civ_uf_match.id AS id,
civ_uf_match.contact_id AS entity_id,
jou.username AS user_XX,
jou.password AS passw_YY
FROM jos_users jou
JOIN civicrm_uf_match civ_uf_match
ON jou.id = civ_uf_match.uf_id;

•   It's now possible to include a link in a bulk email made up of custom tokens which contain data taken from a Joomla (user) table:
  
  http://www.example.org/index.php?user={contact.custom_XX}&passw={contact.custom_YY}
  
  

There may well be a simpler solution, in which case I'm all ears. But the documentation on customising tokens/hooks seems to be Drupal specific.

It may go some of the way, though, to answering these empty threads:
http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,18196.msg75530.html#msg75530
http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,14817.msg63237.html#msg63237

[Donald Lobo]

Note that hooks are not drupal specific. Check:

http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC40/CiviCRM+hook+specification#CiviCRMhookspecification-Proceduresforimplementinghooks%28forJoomla%29

The hook concept originated from drupal (for us) but we've modified it so joomla folks can also use it!

The way you've gotten around it is qutie creative and cool

lobo

[theitd]

Hi Lobo,

Thanks for that. I entirely missed it!
I'll have a go at doing it that way instead (!) and let you know.

Cheers,
Ben.

[dwfriederichs]

theitd, I tried what you suggested and can't seem to get it to work.  I posted my questions at http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,22899.0.html.  If you can help I'd appreciate it greatly.

Thanks!


Dave Friederichs

[dwfriederichs]

I figured it out.  My test site was pointing to the production database and thus didn't see the changes.

Thanks!