By Ashish Dwivedi
An amateur to SuiteCRM industry but have no clue from where to start with? You landed in the right place. In this Blog, we will help you to understand in-depth about SuiteCRM installation, Types of Modules, Package and its types, etc. Let’s dig in-
- First off, get latest version from their site i.e. suitecrm.com
- Now Get ready with wamp / xampp , with right set of PHP / MySQL. As for writing this blog, PHP 7.1 and MySQL 5.7 are working combo.
- Your next step is to copy your SuiteCRM zip over web folder and Unzip it then it will throw you to install, fill up all info. Now SuiteCRM latest version is finally installed.
- Now Login with the Credentials.
There are 2 main Tools to start with:
By customizing Existing Module i.e. Studio and by Developing New Modules i.e. Module Builder.
Module Builder is a right tool to start with. Before developing new modules you should know a few things.
How many Types of Modules are there?
- Basic
- Company
- File
- Issue
- Person
- Sale
If a module is going to store information like Email Address / Phone number or any personal info, it should be related to a person or company. In the same way if you want to store amount, it should be “Sale” type.
What is Package?
Package aids users to create end number of modules in SuiteCRM. A user need to create separate package for each module.
- Types of Package-
- Deploy – The custom module will appear in Studio. You can make further customization from the Studio.
- Publish – The Publish button allows you to migrate the custom module package to a different instance by creating a zip file, which can be installed. In order to use the custom module after it is published, you will have to upload and install the package using Module Loader. Once the custom module is loaded, the module will appear in Studio but not in Module Builder. You can make additional configurations to the custom module in Studio once the package has been installed. The package can be uninstalled via Module Loader at any time.
- Export – Create a zip file containing the custom module package to be saved on your local machine. The custom module package will be visible in Module Builder once it is installed via Module Loader. Further customizations can be made to the custom module via Module Builder before deploying it in the instance.
While you are thinking to develop 5 packages in a single module each then you should keep these things in your mind-
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- Keep them separate.
- Each type of module in each package.
- Each type of module in each package. Once ready deploy one by one.
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- It is quite necessary to understand each module comes with a different set of fields, e.g. when a Person based modules come with Primary and Alternate address, An Company based module comes with Billing and Shipping addresses. Because of their nature in handling data sets, it is very important to understand that what type of field comes by default..
- Now we will understand about relationships i.e. one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many. It Depends upon your needs and relationship between your modules. Suppose if you have Two modules i.e. A and B, In one to many kind of relationship, B will comes in Sub-panel of A’s Detail view. On the other hand, A will come as Relate fields of B’s Edit view/ Detail View.
- If you want to go for Many-to-Many relationships between A and B modules then both will come under Sub-panels in each Detail Views.
Keep Going Changes and Develop several modules. After deploying, you need to Move for “Studio SuiteCRM Tutorial” for further Customization.
For Best practice just keep these little things in your mind-
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- Never re-deploy a package in a production environment because re-deploying a package will remove all Customizations related to your module.
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- Each package should have only one module inside it.
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- After deploying, it should further customize with “Studio”. Studio is a subset of “Module Builder” for further ongoing customization.
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- The relationship between 2 modules must be defined only once. So keep your eye on their nature of relationship before saying it is 1-M or M-2-M.
Keep yourself busy in developing several packages and play with relationships. Adjust Editviews , DetailViews , ListViews , Popups , Searches, Dash lets etc.
Studio is a best part to make it.
As this is just Day 1 SuiteCRM Tutorial, keep your eyes in learning screens, fields, types, layouts, etc.
Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow!
Watch this video to get more help.
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