If you missed our first Dev-User Group session, please visit the tutorials section under customizations for more information. Sugar Lead Architect and Master Module Builder Majed Itani walks through dramatic upgrade-safe customizations. Here’s your chance to see how far Sugar’s flexible architecture can be taken.
Day 2 of SUGARCON 2008 ended with dinner at Testarossa. The winery was originally built in 1888 by Northern Italian Jesuit Fathers and Brothers from the college at Mission Santa Clara (now Santa Clara University) as a means to fund their new seminary college built on the grounds the same year. The original 19th Century, three-floor, gravity-flow winery is still in use today to make Testarossa wines.
The entertainment for the night brought a pleasant contrast to the old-fashioned interior. SugarCRM’s very own Martin Schneider, Sadek Baroudi, Julian Ostrow and Carolyn Doolittle put on quite a show with enigmatic energy that penetrated their initially shy audience. John Roberts joined the band for a couple of songs including a Sugar favorite, “Sugar the Blue Sky.”
In his talk titled “Open Source, Microsoft, and Making SugarCRM Great with Windows, IIS and SQL Server,” Bryan Kirschner, Microsoft’s director of Platform Community Strategy, shared his company’s perspectives on open source and the importance of community collaboration.
Looking Back
Kirschner brought a historical perspective on software by pointing to the unprecedented growth of personal computers and Internet users since 1995. A growth unthinkable in the late 60s when the “Software Crisis” phrase was born, reflecting the fear that software had hit a wall.
In 1995, we saw the first release of what has now become Apache, MySQL was founded, and soon after, SourceForge came to existence. The introduction of the Internet along with the increased number of PC users around the world gave birth to a culture of online collaboration. Software rose to the challenge and endless lines of codes came together to create great applications.
History Repeats Itself
With endless lines of code out there, will another “Software Crisis” immerge now that software seems to have reached becoming all it can be? With open source collaboration increasing across the world, commercial developers are tapping into the collaborative ideas open source offers. Windows is a platform for applications whether they are open source or not, a reflection of a vision about participation, and an aspiration for even more growth.
Looking Ahead
Partner businesses are increasing internationally because in order for commercial software developers to succeed and grow they must employ collaboration, open source strategy, and open business. Today, Microsoft is taking initiatives in the open source community and working with SugarCRM to make Windows Server, IIS, and SQL Server outstanding platforms for shared customers.
Check out this new addition to the Developer Start section for a design and implementation description of release 5.0 MVC and Metadata UI framework. The SugarCRM Wiki article also offers some guidance on how to customize your application in this environment. Be sure to visit the Developer Start section frequently for updates and new useful resources.
SugarCRM introduced the momentous Sugar 5.0 release yesterday. After a long development cycle, Sugar 5.0 is worth the wait: with do-it-yourself features like the Module Builder, non-technical users can build new modules from pre-defined templates or create a brand new module from scratch.
Sugar Module Builder allows companies to track information them without having to make costly customizations. With Module Builder, companies can extend their CRM systems to capture all important information to users and managers.
Looking ahead, SugarCRM envisions Sugar as more than just a CRM, but as a development platform. To build competitive advantage, a company needs a CRM system that will meet its exact requirements across marketing, sales and support. Sugar 5.0 CRM platform capabilities provide the ability to customize Sugar to match how a specific company does business.