Hi all. I'm now just joining this group and wish I had been at DrupalCon Copenhagen to see its inception. I am inquiring as to the status of this project. I see that there's been much discussion on its architecture (http://groups.drupal.org/node/89779) and goals (http://groups.drupal.org/node/92294), and issues raised regarding whether this should be a collection of modules or an actual API to achieve basic CRM functionality. But has there been a consensus reached as to which direction to take, and has any development been done so far? I am very interested in participating in this project and seeing it completed.
Before discovering this group, I personally envisioned a Drupal CRM as being a collection of existing modules, packaged as a profile, that achieves the same functionality as a basic SugarCRM or CiviCRM install. While an API may be the most elegant solution, implementing that could take a while and we may not see a usable version for at least several months.
There really is no one CRM that will work for all businesses, and taking the former approach would allow any basic Drupal developer to easily customize and extend the CRM for their company without having to know an additional API. However, an API would most surely promise longevity.
It just seems that activity in this group has dropped off, and I'm hoping to give it a kick in the rear :)
Comments
That would be great
Getting going on this would be great.
I have a client that may be able to fun some of the development IF we can make it 100% blind accessible. We are potentially going to work with them to get a grant to work on this or oh cleaning up CiviCRM.
Thanks,
Steve
Owner and Lead Consultant
Denver DataMan
Hi Steve, Some funding for
Hi Steve,
Some funding for the project does sound promising. I have two concerns that perhaps you might be able to address. I have no experience working to create blind-accessible software, and I would imagine most developers are in a similar position. Also, the project should still be focused on creating the best possible Drupal-based CRM, which happens to be fully blind-accessible rather than the best possible blind-accessible CRM. Do you think either of these factors might be an issue?
I'd be keen to hear the thoughts of others involved in this project also!
The great thing about writing
The great thing about writing for screen readers is that in general your adding and not subtracting and what you add is not that hard to do. It means that when there are icons you always use alt tags, you always have labels on fields and text that explains a link well. It also means that you write code that degrades well in different browsers so that functionality is always available with text.
I am going to have a lot of learning to do with this project as well. There is an accessibility tag that I know has been used with Drupal 7 and I know this has been worked on.
You can do great design in ways that are accessible (http://wave.webaim.org/report?view=icons&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse...) and it does not mean you do not use pictures.
If anything creating an accessible CRM will force us to make it better for everyone.
Hope this makes sense.
-Steve
Owner and Lead Consultant
Denver DataMan