(Familiarizing w/ Sugar) Reporting and User Limits

[paeremarkt]

Hello,
I am a brand new to SugarCRM (opensource) and have a few questions I would like to ask before diving in head first. I just downloaded and installed the package for the first time last week and have had only a little bit of time to tinker with it.

My first question is: I have seen a few posts about the software being "customizable" and "scalable". I understand that it is open source, however are these tasks accomplished with some ease or is there quite a bit of coding involved. Customization is really key, and can it look like a white label solution when finished and is this a common practice?

Next: Is there a limit to the number of users or size for which the application can be used. I acknowledge the its regiestered under GPL but wondered if any knew those limitations?

Finally: This question in about reporting. I was entering some sample information a couple of days ago to attempt to try to use the reporting function in the dashboard using "dashlets". I.e. "pipeline by sales stage" and "all opportunities by lead source" with no avail. It seems that I cannot get any of this information to populate. Did I read properly that these features are only functioning in the paid version? For our company, reporting, tracking, & analysis are all key to our sales sucess. So if this is the case, does any one know of any 3rd party solutions or add-ins that I can use as a possible work around?

Lastly: I installed SugarCRM on 1&1 servers. The initial install was only a little bit tricky only because of a couple of server permission errors, but I think changing all of (2) lines of code corrected this issue. Other than this, does any one forsee any issues by continuing to run it on 1&1 servers? Currently everything seems to be running just fine, but its safe to say we've only just begun to really use it. Again, I am brand new to Sugar, so any insight, ideas, best practices, or helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to any information, I greatly appreciate the help, and look forward to contributing and sharing with the community once we get up and running!

Regards
Cortez-

[Angel]

1. The product is highly customizable. Often times the question of "can I do ....?" is asked and the answer to it is usually "yes." I can't really think of something that can't be done.

The challenge you are most likely to encounter is making those customizations in a manner that we refer to as "upgrade-safe," meaning, they won't be overwritten when you upgrade your installation. That, however, doesn't mean you can't make modifications in other ways, and sometimes it is necessary. It just means that if you don't make it upgrade-safe, your upgrades may require some manual work.

Of course, the other factor to consider is how much time/money you want to invest. Some customizations are very easy, while others require some programming expertise.

As for the white label part, it is certainly possible, although you do have to retain the "Powered by SugarCRM" note at the bottom of the page.

2. No practical limit. Your hardware would be the bottleneck more so than the software. MySQL itself can handle databases 4 GB in size and higher. I've seen and heard of installs supporting anywhere from a couple dozen to couple hundred users.

3. Yes and no. The dashboards/dashlets that you reference should definitely work. The reporting that is only available in the paid for versions refers to a full blown reporting module that allows for the definition of data relationships and filters, etc, as well as the output format. Many Community Edition users use ZuckerReports as a substitute for that functionality.

4. Hard to say. For one, one should never need to modify code to install. That alone would make me nervous as to the state of the system.

Like you stated, you've only begun to use it, it could very well be that you have not yet encountered the area of the application that is affected by whatever it is the installer was instructed to ignore. That aside, all QA work is performed using environments where all the necessary components are in place. Giving you an answer as to how it might behave should one of those components be missing is nearly impossible, especially without knowing what it is that was modified in the code. For all we know, that might explain why your dashlets don't work.

[paeremarkt]

Angel,
Thank you very much for the rapid response. I greatly appreciate it. I will certainly take everything you had to say into consideration, I found the information very helpful!

To touch a bit more on the "dashlets". The only thing I changed was in the config.php file, I changed line 164 "'dir_mode' => 1528," to 1520 just so that I could complete the install. Now everything seems to function, although when I refresh the dashlets it returns "No displayable data".

Who knows may I just haven't entered information in the proper locations. I have entered new 'leads', 'accounts', 'opportunities', & 'contacts' and still can't seem to get anything to populate?

[Angel]

Adding data to the Opportunities module should have changed the behavior. Do the opportunities that you entered have a Stage defined?

[paeremarkt]

Angel,
They do all have a stage defined. I tested some at "needs analysis" and others at "negotiation/review" and even "closed won". When I return to the dashboard it returns, "No Displayable Data".

Best-
Cortez

[salesagility]

Angel,
They do all have a stage defined. I tested some at "needs analysis" and others at "negotiation/review" and even "closed won". When I return to the dashboard it returns, "No Displayable Data".

Best-
Cortez

Have you looked at the dashboard parameters?

Click on the pencil on the dashlet ... and look particularly at the date parameters ..

[paeremarkt]

So I looked at the parameters and all were selected. Still "No Displayable Data". This afternoon I was feeling over zealous and decided to delete everything and start over! Allow me to tell you what I encountered along the way.
So Starting from the point of clicking install in my web browser to initate the installation. After clicking install and watching Sugar do it magic, the screen returned the following errors:

"Perform Setup
Creating Sugar configuration file (config.php)

Creating Sugar application tables, audit tables and relationship metadata

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Creating default Sugar data

Creating default users... done
Creating default scheduler jobs... done

Populating the database tables with demo data (this may take a little while)


Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 32768000) (tried to allocate 207 bytes) in /homepages/31/d251999226/htdocs/crm/modules/UserPreferences/UserPreference.php on line 95"

To Correct this: I went over to my handy PHP editor and pulled up the "config.php" file. I went to line 164 and changed the following from 'dir_mode' => 1528, to "dir_mode' => 1520.

I can then log in to my Sugar CRM.

Now when I move about I have the following errors at the top oy any page:

"Warning: Please upgrade Chart Data Cache using the upgrade in the administration panel"
"Warning: Please upgrade htaccess using the upgrade in the administration panel"

When I got to administration, I first clicked "Rebuild .htaccess File". Still this error does not go away.

Next in administration to address the "Chart Data Cache" I don't see any thing with the words "upgrade" as indicated above.

I am confident that these are the issues in why I cannot get the charts to populate any information. Any thoughts??

[Angel]

Looks like you need to set the permissions on the /crm folder, its subfolders and files.

Do you have shell access? Or can you ask your provider to make sure that the entire directory and contents are accessible to the web user?

[eggsurplus]

I just ran across this issue a couple of weeks ago. If you are getting that no displayable data message in your opps dashlet it usually means that the file permissions are not set correctly.

[paeremarkt]

So all files at this point have "Read", 'Write" and "Execute" all enabled on all directories and sub-directories.
Still the following errors:
Warning: Please upgrade Chart Data Cache using the upgrade in the administration panel

Warning: Please upgrade htaccess using the upgrade in the administration panel

and "No Displayable Data".