Hi everyone, now that 4.2 has been released for the better part of a month, it's time to catch the next release train: Sugar Suite 4.5.

Targeted as our mid-year release, 4.5 is already shaping up quite nicely. The Sugar Dev Team has been heads down in 4.5 development for a while now building great new functionality, some of which is summarized here:



  • Internationalization -- Support for multi-byte character set (MBCS) and UTF-8 ensures that international users can store and retrieve data based on the format of their choice, making SugarSuite a truly multilingual application. Release 4.5 ensures compatibility for ASCII characters while providing support for complex character representations like Kanji
  • Studio modifications -- Improvements to the Studio layout tool for code-free customizations. This next generation Studio provides powerful enhancements for layout modifications with enhanced error handling and recovery mechanisms for easier upgrades and faster and more robust customizations.
  • Usability enhancements -- Screen flows and navigation are tailored to specific user workflows. Support center agents, for instance, have immediate access to all the relevant information for increased productivity. This improves customer satisfaction. Personalization of the home page using AJAX technologies avoids screen clutter and improves user adoption rates.
  • Data merge -- Easier identification and cleansing of duplicate records to improve data quality and improve sales efficiency.

So, you can see we're pretty busy here at Sugarland. Over the next few weeks, as other capabilities are committed, I'll update this posting. But we're only getting started. We're also turbocharging our overall release communication process.

In the Release 4.5 cycle, for instance, you can expect at least one Community Preview and a beta cycle as well. These will be managed by a team of resources dedicated to this process. Additionally, we plan to implement pre-releases: special forms of the Community Preview process where new functionality will be made available via Module Loader. This allows you to run new stuff on your existing system well in advance of the formal release. Look for the first of these (for the new Studio) to be available in the coming weeks.

Wait ... there's more! Look for newsletters and webinars in the coming weeks tailored to users and developers alike. These will allow us to communicate to you very clearly what you can expect with Sugar 4.5.

Sugar is dedicated to providing world-class commercial open source CRM. Our goal is to ensure your success by refining the entire release process.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!!