SugarCRM Developer's Manual: Customize and extend SugarCRM

SugarCRM is the world's leading commercial open-source customer relationship management (CRM) software for companies of all sizes. SugarCRM easily adapts to any business environment by offering a more flexible, cost-effective alternative to proprietary applications. SugarCRM's open-source architecture allows companies to more easily customize and integrate customer-facing business processes in order to build and maintain more profitable relationships. SugarCRM offers several deployment options, including on-demand, on-premise and appliance-based solutions to suit customers' security, integration, and configuration needs.

This book will help you to customize the SugarCRM code. You will get learn about the database and application architecture. The book provides you with a module development tutorial, showing the essential steps for hooking your module into the SugarCRM infrastructure. You will learn about common customizations that can be performed against the codebase.

This is a developer's manual for SugarCRM. It focuses on customizing SugarCRM. It provides an overview of the architecture of the application and the database, and covers the essential steps for hooking your module into the SugarCRM infrastructure.

• Customize your SugarCRM application
• Add your own components in the form of module tabs and dashlets
• Modify the look and feel of SugarCRM
• Add new fields to SugarCRM
• Develop, test, and use SugarCRM in a safe environment
• Incorporate third-party modules into your site
• Develop your own modules from scratch
• Develop a custom workflow within SugarCRM
• Optimize the performance of SugarCRM implementations

Chapter 1 is a smooth introduction to customizing Sugar CRM.

In Chapter 2, you will start to customize the SugarCRM application itself, and you will be able to add your own components in the form of module tabs and dashlets.

In Chapter 3, you will learn how to modify the look and feel of SugarCRM. This chapter also shows how to add new fields to SugarCRM.

Chapter 4 looks at the interfaces, and how to use them effectively in your customizations.

Chapter 5 includes database schematic diagrams, showing the relationships between each table in the database and the other tables.

Chapter 6 covers complete database schematics for the SugarCRM application, providing full details on each table.

In Chapter 7, you will learn how to develop, test, and use SugarCRM in a safe environment using a development server, a test server, and a live server.

In Chapter 8, you will learn to incorporate third-party modules into your site and develop your own modules from scratch.

Chapter 9 deals with developing a custom workflow within SugarCRM.

In Chapter 10, you will see various techniques for optimizing the performance of a SugarCRM implementation, and a few
more ways of extending the application.

The book is structured as:

•     An overview of the architecture of the application and database, how it all fits together
•     A module development tutorial, showing the essential steps for hooking your module into the SugarCRM infrastructure
•     A section of common customizations that can be performed against the codebase

The book is for PHP developers working with SugarCRM, who want to extend its capabilities. Readers should have a basic knowledge of SugarCRM as the book does not cover installation and usage of SugarCRM. This can be gained from Implementing SugarCRM.