Sign In Start Free Trial

Book Overview & Buying
Table Of Contents

CiviCRM Cookbook

4.7 (6)

CiviCRM Cookbook

4.7 (6)

Overview of this book

CiviCRM is a web-based, open source, Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software geared toward meeting the needs of non-profit and other civic-sector organizations.Organizations realize their mission via CiviCRM through contact management, fundraising, event management, member management, mass e-mail marketing, peer-to-peer campaigns, case management, and much more.CiviCRM is localized in over 20 languages including: Chinese (Taiwan, China), Dutch, English (Australia, Canada, U.S., UK), French (France, Canada), German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Swedish.CiviCRM Cookbook will enhance your CiviCRM skills. It has recipes to help you use CiviCRM more efficiently, integrate it with CMSs, and also develop CiviCRM.This book begins with recipes that help save time and effort with CiviCRM. This is followed by recipes for organizing data more efficiently and managing profiles.Then you will learn authentication and authorization and managing communication with contacts.Then you will be guided on using the searching feature and preparing reports. We will then talk about integrating Drupal and CiviCRM. You will also be taught to manage events effectively. Finally, learn about CiviCampaign, Civimember, and developing CiviCRM.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Setting Up CiviCRM

1. Setting Up CiviCRM

Introduction

Setting up a CiviCRM theme in Drupal

Setting up cron using cPanel

Adding items to the CiviCRM navigation menu

Refreshing the dashboard

Changing display preferences

Replacing words

Setting up geocoding

Autofiling e-mails

Creating new activities

Adding custom fields

Using Scheduled Reminders for activities

Using CiviCase to create an HR system

Installing languages and localizing CiviCRM

2. Organizing Data Efficiently

2. Organizing Data Efficiently

Introduction

Adding contact types

Adding a time-limited relationship

Using tag sets to quickly organize data

Using tags and groups to segment data

Changing option lists

Creating and updating a smart group

Using Google Refine to prepare data

Importing into CiviCRM using an import script

Using external identifier deduping rules to update contacts

Using Google Refine to create a unique ID

Importing relationship data

Exporting related data

Batch updating using profiles

3. Using the Power of Profiles

3. Using the Power of Profiles

Introduction

Speeding up data entry

Using URLs to change profile displays

Creating a membership directory

Controlling the search result columns using profiles

Using the Profile Pages and Listings setting to improve usability

Setting up reCAPTCHA for user profiles

4. Controlling Permissions

4. Controlling Permissions

Introduction

Integrating profiles into Drupal user accounts

Restricting access to custom fields

Using CRM profile permissions correctly

Creating permissions for administrators

Managing event registrations using CiviCRM Access Control Lists

5. Managing Communications

5. Managing Communications

Introduction

Setting up a bounced e-mail account using Gmail

Creating mail templates for CiviMail

Creating mail templates for CiviMail in Drupal

Using tokens in templates

Creating custom date tokens

Scheduling CiviMail

Throttling mailings to comply with hosting restrictions

Creating newsletter subscription services using profiles

Creating newsletter subscriptions using URLs

Creating a standalone newsletter subscription form

Getting a CiviMail report

Mailing attachments in e-mails and CiviMail

Allowing users to update information without logging in

6. Searching and Reporting

6. Searching and Reporting

Introduction

Creating a membership mailing list using Advanced Search

Using Search Builder to create a smart group

Adding the external identifier to full-text searching

Adding custom fields to a report

Adding an extra display field to a report template

Creating a dynamic relationship report using Drupal Views

7. Integrating CiviCRM with Drupal

7. Integrating CiviCRM with Drupal

Introduction

Enabling Drupal Views

Creating user accounts from contacts in CiviCRM

Mapping contact data

Using Webform CiviCRM to update relationship data

Creating user accounts on the fly with CiviCRM entities

Combining CiviCRM contacts with Drupal content using CiviCRM entities

8. Managing Events Effectively

8. Managing Events Effectively

Introduction

Using jQuery to control form elements

Using jQuery to show and hide form elements by user choices

Using CiviDiscount with CiviEvents

Collecting data for a paid event registration with Webform CiviCRM

Using a shopping cart and Drupal views for event registration

9. Using Campaigns, Surveys, and Petitions Effectively

9. Using Campaigns, Surveys, and Petitions Effectively

Introduction

Using activities for campaign planning

Designing campaign dashboards in Drupal Views

Using surveys effectively

Recording survey results

Using get out the vote effectively

Using petitions effectively

10. Working with CiviMember

10. Working with CiviMember

Introduction

Creating a membership directory using Drupal Views

Updating memberships by bulk data entry

Effective membership communications using reminders

Using price sets for complex memberships

Using CiviCase for membership induction

11. Developing for CiviCRM

11. Developing for CiviCRM

Introduction

Setting up a local development environment

Finding developer resources

Exploring Drupal hooks

Exploring the CiviCRM API

Developing a CiviCRM Drupal module

Exploring CiviCRM extension development using Civix

Index

Index

Autofiling e-mails

Interactions between your contacts and your organization are many and complex. A lot of these interactions will involve exchanges of e-mail. You may want to keep a record of these exchanges for each of your contacts. This is particularly useful in situations where you are dealing with a contact and you need to see a history of correspondence relating to the contact and other members of your organization. CiviCRM lets you do this by filing e-mail correspondence as an activity on each contact record.

How to do it…

We will set up an e-mail account that will act as a "dropbox" for messages that we want to file, and link this to CiviCRM.

Set up an e-mail account. You can use Gmail or an account provided by your hosting provider. In this recipe we will use an account called [email protected].
Navigate to Administer | System Settings | Enable CiviCRM components, and make sure that CiviMail is enabled.
Navigate to Administer | CiviMail | Mail Accounts.
Click on the Add Mail Account button and complete the details for each account you are adding. Getting this right can sometimes be a matter of trial and error. Leave the Source field blank.
Create a test e-mail message in your e-mail client, and Bcc it to [email protected].
Navigate to Administer | System Settings | Scheduled Jobs, and execute the job titled Process Inbound Emails.
Click on the View Job Log link to see the log entry. If the log error message is Failure, this is highly likely to be a connection problem, so you must go back to Administer | CiviMail | Mail Accounts, and make the necessary changes.
Navigate to Reports | Contact Reports | Activities. You will see that CiviCRM has recorded e-mail activities for the sender and the recipient of the e-mail.

How it works…

Each time CiviCRM processes inbound e-mails, it checks the e-mail account you had set up. It then processes each message. If the sender or recipient e-mail address is not held within CiviCRM, it will create a new contact record for each, and will file the e-mail activity.

If the contacts do exist, it files the e-mails as an activity for the sender and an activity for the receiver.

See also

You can find detailed guidance on configuring CiviMail accounts at http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC43/Autofiling+email+activities+via+EmailProcessor

CONTINUE READING

83

Tech Concepts

36

Programming languages

73

Tech Tools

Unlimited access to the largest independent learning library in tech of over 8,000 expert-authored tech books and videos.

Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.

50+ new titles added per month and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.

CiviCRM Cookbook

Search

Your notes and bookmarks