I recently wrote a new article on IBM developerWorks entitled “Being RESTful with SugarCRM“, which talks about the new REST support in the Web Services framework in SugarCRM 5.5. The article talks about what REST is and how it works, and then goes on to show examples of interacting with SugarCRM using REST web services. The article also has the source code used for the examples available at the end of the article as a downloadable zip file.

Stay tuned as there will be another SugarCRM article on developerWorks coming shortly….

I just added a post on my blog talking about my upcoming talk at confoo.ca entitled “Making software management tools work for you“, that attempts to be that “next step” talk in making management tools compliment your processes and vise-versa. While I’m there, I hope to meet up with any SugarCRM developers and users in the area or planning to attend, as there’s lots of exciting stuff coming soon that I’d love to hear feedback on.

Sugar Community Edition
Version 5.5.1 – Release Candidate 1
Thursday, January 7, 2010

The first Release Candidate (RC) of Sugar CE 5.5.1 is now available to test.

Preview Sugar 5.5.1 RC 1 Now!

Download the Sugar CE 5.5.1 RC 1

NOTE: Upgrade files are available to test upgrading from previous versions to 5.5.1 RC 1. We highly recommend that you test the upgrade on a copy of your production instance. Upgrade files from the 5.5.1 RC 1 to the final Generally Available (GA) release will be provided at the time of release of the GA.

While testing Sugar 5.5.1 RC 1, if you encounter any issues, please let us know through submitting a bug in the Bug Tracker. You can also use the the Sugar 5.5.1 forums to discuss your experience.

To date, we have addressed nearly 300 bugs related to Emails, Email Templates and Inbound Emails in Sugar 5.5.1. A full listing of the bugs and features addressed in Sugar 5.5.1 RC 1 can be found in the Bug Tracker.

Details about the new and enhanced features can be found in this forum thread and in the Release Notes and Application Guides, are posted in the Documentation area on sugarcrm.com.

We plan to release the next GA-candidate in the upcoming weeks. Please check for release schedule updates in this forum thread.