SugarCRM

REST Bindings for SugarCRM!

SUMMARY:

A less clunky way to interact with SugarCRM via REST.

FEATURES/PROBLEMS:

  • Works with all v2 API calls

  • Supports Rails 2 and 3

  • ActiveRecord style finders and objects

  • Supports creation, saving, and deletion of SugarCRM specific objects

  • Flexible extension framework

  • Validations, typecasting, and serialization of boolean, date, and integer fields

  • Query, update and delete records from collections

  • Access API methods directly on the SugarCRM.connection object

SYNOPSIS:

require 'sugarcrm'

# Establish a connection
SugarCRM.connect("http://localhost/sugarcrm", 'user', 'password')

# Enable debugging on the current connection
SugarCRM.connection.debug = true

# Reload the environment (will make the gem classes reflect changes made on SugarCRM server, such as adding fields)
SugarCRM.reload!

# Get the logged in user
SugarCRM.current_user

# Show a list of available modules
SugarCRM.modules

# Retrieve a User by user_name
users = SugarCRM::User.find_by_user_name("admin")

# Return a User instance's SugarCRM URL (also works for any other module instance)
users.url

# Update a User's title
u = SugarCRM::User.find_by_first_name_and_last_name("Will", "Westin")
u.title = "Sales Manager Central"
u.save

# Check if an object is valid (i.e. if it has the required fields to save)
u.valid?

# Access the errors collection
u.errors

# Show the fields required to save
u.required_attributes

# Delete an Account
a = SugarCRM::Account.find_by_name("JAB Funds Ltd.")
a.delete

# Retrieve all Email Addresses assigned to a particular User.
SugarCRM::User.find_by_user_name('sarah').email_addresses

# Retrieve all Email Addresses on an Account
SugarCRM::Account.find_by_name("JAB Funds Ltd.").contacts.each do |contact|
  contact.email_addresses.each do |email|
    puts "#{email.email_address}" unless email.opt_out
  end
end

# Add a Meeting to a Contact
c = SugarCRM::Contact.first
c.meetings << SugarCRM::Meeting.new({
  :name => "Product Introduction", 
  :date_start => DateTime.now,
  :duration_hours => 1
})
c.save!

# Add a Contact to an Account
a = SugarCRM::Account.find_by_name("JAB Funds Ltd.")
c = SugarCRM::Contact.new
c.last_name = 'Doe'
a.contacts << c
a.save # or a.contacts.save

# Check if an Account has a specific Contact associated with it
c = SugarCRM::Contact.find_by_last_name("Doe")
a = SugarCRM::Account.find_by_name("JAB Funds Ltd.")
a.contacts.include?(c)

# Remove a Contact from an Account
c = SugarCRM::Contact.find_by_last_name("Doe")
a = SugarCRM::Account.find_by_name("JAB Funds Ltd.")
a.contacts.delete(c)
a.save # or a.contacts.save

# Retrieve the number of accounts in CRM with 'Inc' in their name
SugarCRM::Account.count(:conditions => {:name => "LIKE '%Inc'"})

# Look up the Case with the smallest case number
SugarCRM::Case.first({
  :order_by => 'case_number'
})

# Retrieve the first 10 Accounts with a zip code between 10000 and 10500
SugarCRM::Account.all({
  :conditions => { :billing_address_postalcode => ["> '10000'", "<= '10500'" ] },
  :limit => '10',
  :order_by => 'billing_address_postalcode'
})

# Retrieve all Accounts with a zip code
SugarCRM::Account.all({
  :conditions => { :billing_address_postalcode => "<> NULL" }
})

# Retrieve all Accounts with 'Fund' in their name
SugarCRM::Account.all({
  :conditions => { :name => "LIKE '%Fund%'" } # note that SQL operators must be uppercase
})

# Use block to iterate over results: print all account names
SugarCRM::Account.all{|a| puts a.name } # note: this method will be much quicker than SugarCRM::Account.all.each{|a| puts a.name }
                                        # because records are passed to the block as they get fetched from SugarCRM (whereas `each`
                                        # will fetch all records, and only then pass them to the block). This will make a major difference
                                        # in resource use and execution time if you're dealing with many records.

# Create a document instance and upload a file
file = File.read(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__),"test_excel.xls"))
doc = SugarCRM::Document.new
doc.active_date = Date.today
doc.document_name = "test_excel.xls"
doc.filename = "test_excel.xls"
doc.revision = 0
doc.uploadfile = SugarCRM.connection.b64_encode(file)
doc.save!

# Look up the fields for a given module
SugarCRM::Module.find("Accounts").fields

# Look up the relationships for a given module
SugarCRM::Module.find("Accounts").link_fields

# Use the HTTP Connection and SugarCRM API to load the Admin user
SugarCRM.connection.get_entry("Users", 1)

# Retrieve all Accounts by user name (direct API method)
SugarCRM.connection.get_entry_list(
  "Users",
  "users.user_name = \'sarah\'",
  {
    :link_fields => [
      {
        "name"  => "accounts",
        "value" => ["id", "name"]
      }
    ]          
  } 
)

USING THE GEM WITH RAILS 3

Note: this gem works with Active Support >= 2.3.10, but is optimized for Rails 3.

  1. Add the sugarcrm gem to your Gemfile (sugarcrm gem version >= 0.9.12)

  2. Run ‘bundle install`

  3. Run ‘rails g sugarcrm:config`

  4. Edit the configuration file in ‘config/sugarcrm.yml` to match your environment

Example apps:

USING A CONFIGURATION FILE

If you want to use a configuration file instead of always specifying the url, username, and password to connect to SugarCRM, you can add your credentials to one (or more) of

  • ‘/etc/sugarcrm.yaml`

  • ‘~/.sugarcrm.yaml` (i.e. your home directory on Linux and Mac OSX)

  • a ‘sugarcrm.yaml` file at the root of you Windows home directory (execute `ENV` in Ruby to see which directory should contain the file)

  • ‘config/sugarcrm.yaml` (will need to be copied each time you upgrade or reinstall the gem)

  • a YAML file and call ‘SugarCRM.load_config` followed by the absolute path to your configuration file

If there are several configuration files, they are loaded sequentially in the order above and will overwrite previous values (if present). This allows you to (e.g.) have a config file in ‘/etc/sugarcrm.yaml` with system-wide configuration information (such as the url where SugarCRM is located) and/or defaults. Each developer/user can then have his personal configuration file in `~/.sugarcrm.yaml` with his own username and password. A developer could also specify a different location for the SugarCRM instance (e.g. a local testing instance) in his configuration file, which will take precedence over the value in `/etc/sugarcrm.yaml`.

Your configuration should be in YAML format:

config:
  base_url: http://127.0.0.1/sugarcrm
  username: admin
  password: letmein

An example, accompanied by instructions, can be found in the ‘config/sugarcrm.yaml` file. In addition, a working example used for testing can be found in `test/config_test.yaml`

USING THE GEM IN A CONSOLE

  1. Type ‘irb` in your command prompt

  2. Require the gem with ‘require ’sugarcrm’‘ (Note: Windows users might need to `require ’rubygems’‘ before `require ’sugarcrm’‘.)

    • if your login credentials are stored in the ‘config/sugarcrm.yaml` file, you have been automagically logged in already ;

    • if your login credentials are stored in a different config file, just call ‘SugarCRM.load_config` followed by the absolute path to your config file. This will log you in automatically ;

    • if you don’t have a configuration file, you can still call the basic ‘SugarCRM.connect` and give it the proper arguments (see documentation above)

  3. You now have full access to the gem’s functionality, e.g. ‘puts SugarCRM::Account.first.name`

  4. If you make changes on the SugarCRM server (e.g. adding a field to a module), you can call ‘SugarCRM.reload!` to rebuild the gem’s modules and gain access to the new fields

EXTENDING THE GEM

If you want to extend the gem’s capabilities (e.g. to add methods specific to your environment), you can either

  • drop your ‘*.rb` files in `lib/sugarcrm/extensions/` (see the README in that folder)

  • drop your ‘*.rb` files in any other folder and call `SugarCRM.extensions_folder = ` followed by the absolute path to the folder containing your extensions

WORKING WITH SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS

This gem allows you to work with several SugarCRM session simultaneously: on each ‘SugarCRM.connect` call, a namespace is returned. Make sure you do NOT store this namespace in a reserved name (such as SugarCRM). This namespace can then be used just like you would use the `SugarCRM` module. For example:

ServerOne = SugarCRM.connect(URL1,...)
ServerOne::User.first
ServerTwo = SugarCRM.connect(URL2,...)
ServerTwo::User.first

If you have only one active session, calls to SugarCRM are delegated to the active session’s namespace, like so

ServerOne = SugarCRM.connect(...)
ServerOne::User.first # this call does
SugarCRM::User.first # the exact same thing as this one

To replace your session to connect with different credentials, use

ServerOne.reconnect(...)

Then your session will be reused (SugarCRM modules will be reloaded).

To disconnect an active session:

ServerOne.disconnect!

REQUIREMENTS:

  • activesupport >= 2.3.10

  • i18n

  • json

INSTALL:

  • sudo gem install sugarcrm

Note: Windows users might need to ‘require ’rubygems’‘ before `require ’sugarcrm’‘.

TEST:

Put your credentials in a file called ‘test/config.yaml` (which you will have to create). These must point to a SugarCRM test instance with demo data. See an example file in `test/config_test.yaml` (leave that file as is).

Note on Patches/Pull Requests

  • Fork the project.

  • Make your feature addition or bug fix.

  • Add tests for it. This is important so I don’t break it in a future version unintentionally.

  • Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history. (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)

  • Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.

Copyright © 2011 Carl Hicks. See LICENSE for details.