SugarCon 2010 - Best Practices for Creating Custom Apps in Sugar

4/14/10
©2010 SugarCRM Inc. All rights reserved.
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Best Practices for Creating Custom Apps in Sugar
John Mertic
SugarCRM
4/14/10
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The golden rules of customizations
Use Module Builder/Studio for customizations if possible
Otherwise, put your code inside the custom directory
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Why do this?
Module Builder/Studio changes are well supported and easier to manage
Customizations are separated from the shipped code
Allows you to manage your customizations via version control ( SVN, Git, etc )
Files in here aren’t disturbed by any Sugar upgrades
Exception – sometimes we will try to fix metadata templates on upgrades for new/removed fields.
Makes your app “Upgrade Safe”
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Exceptions to this…
New modules need to be under modules/ directory.
Bean class customizations to OOTB modules need to be on the original bean file.
We’ll look at using logic hooks and other techniques to avoid this for many use cases.
Will need to manually manage this during upgrades, so best to avoid.
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Let’s see what we can do
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MVC Framework
MVC stands for Model View Controller
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MVC Framework – The anatomy of a request
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MVC Framework – SugarApplication
Bootstraps the application
Loads many of the default application settings
Language
Theme
Session
Handles User Authentication
Loads the controller
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MVC Framework - SugarController
Manages all the actions of a module
Contains logic for handling requests that don’t require a view
Example: Record saving
Maps all other requests to the correct view
Logic for mapping an action of one name to a view of another
Can detect if we should be using MVC or classic views
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MVC Framework – SugarController API
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MVC Framework – Controller Example
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<?php
class ExampleController extends SugarController
{
public function action_hello()
{
echo "Hello World!";
}
public function action_goodbye()
{
$this->view = 'goodbye';
}
}

MVC Framework – Controller-less mapping
If your module doesn’t need to have any controller logic, use action mapping insteads.
Create file named action_view_map.php with the following contents:
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<?php
$action_view_map['goodbye'] = 'goodbye';

MVC Framework - SugarView
Contains the display logic for the action
Uses a metadata backend for Edit, Detail, List, Popup views
And Convert Lead in Sugar 6.0
For other views, you write the code for the view and put it in modules/modulename/views/view.viewname.php
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MVC Framework – SugarView API
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MVC Framework – SugarView API
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MVC Framework – View Example
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<?php
class ViewExample extends SugarView
{
public function preDisplay()
{
if ( !is_admin($GLOBALS["current_user"]) )
sugar_die("Not an Admin");
}
public function display()
{
echo "Hello Admin!";
}
}

MVC Framework – ViewDetail Example
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<?php
require_once('include/MVC/View/views/view.detail.php');
class ContactsViewDetail extends ViewDetail
{
public function display()
{
$admin = new Administration();
$admin->retrieveSettings();
if(isset($admin->settings['portal_on'])
&& $admin->settings['portal_on']) {
$this->ss->assign("PORTAL_ENABLED", true);
}
parent::display();
}
}

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Where do I put my customizations?
Controllers
/custom/modules/Modulename/controller.php
class CustomModulenameController extends SugarController
Views
/custom/modules/Modulename/views/view.viewname.php
class CustomModulenameViewViewname extends ModulenameViewViewname
If that class doesn’t exist extend from ViewViewname or SugarView

Metadata Layer
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Kinds of metadata
editviewdefs.php / detailviewdefs.php / quickcreatedefs.php
Wireless variants: wireless.editviewdefs.php, wireless.detailviewdefs.php
subpaneldefs.php
listviewdefs.php
wireless.listviewdefs.php
searchdefs.php
wireless.searchdefs.php
SearchFields.php
popupdefs.php
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editviewdefs.php
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<?php
$viewdefs[$module_name]['EditView'] = array(
'templateMeta' => array(
'maxColumns' => '2',
'widths' => array(
array('label' => '10', 'field' => '30'),
array('label' => '10', 'field' => '30'),
),
),
'panels' =>array (
'default' =>
array (
array (
'name',
'assigned_user_name',
),
array(array(
'name' => 'date_modified',
'customCode' => '{$fields.date_modified.value} {$APP.LBL_BY} {$fields.modified_by_name.value}',
'label' => 'LBL_DATE_MODIFIED',
)),
),
array(
array (
'description',
),
),
),
);

subpaneldefs.php
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<?php
$layout_defs[$module_name] = array(
'subpanel_setup' => array(
'contacts' => array(
'order' => 20,
'module' => 'Contacts',
'sort_by' => 'last_name, first_name',
'sort_order' => 'asc',
'subpanel_name' => 'default',
'get_subpanel_data' => 'contacts',
'title_key' => 'LBL_CONTACTS_SUBPANEL_TITLE',
'top_buttons' => array(
array('widget_class' => 'SubPanelTopButtonQuickCreate'),
array(
'widget_class'=>'SubPanelTopSelectButton',
'mode'=>'MultiSelect’
),
),
),
),
);

searchdefs.php
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<?php
$searchdefs[$module_name] = array(
'templateMeta' => array(
'maxColumns' => '3',
'widths' => array('label' => '10', 'field' => '30'),
),
'layout' => array(
'basic_search' => array(
'name',
array('name'=>'current_user_only', 'label'=>'LBL_CURRENT_USER_FILTER', 'type'=>'bool'),
),
'advanced_search' => array(
'name',
array('name' => 'phone', 'label' =>'LBL_ANY_PHONE', 'type' => 'name'),
array('name' => 'address_city', 'label' =>'LBL_CITY', 'type' => 'name'),
array('name' => 'email', 'label' =>'LBL_ANY_EMAIL', 'type' => 'name'),
array('name' => 'assigned_user_id', 'type' => 'enum',
'label' => 'LBL_ASSIGNED_TO',
'function' => array('name' => 'get_user_array',
'params' => array(false))),
),
),
);

SearchFields.php
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<?php
$searchFields[$module_name] = array (
'name' => array( 'query_type'=>'default'),
'current_user_only'=> array('query_type'=>'default',
'db_field'=>array('assigned_user_id'),'my_items'=>true,
'vname' => 'LBL_CURRENT_USER_FILTER', 'type' => 'bool'),
'assigned_user_id'=> array('query_type'=>'default'),
);

popupdefs.php
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<?php
global $mod_strings;
$popupMeta = array(
'moduleMain' => 'Account',
'varName' => 'ACCOUNT',
'orderBy' => 'name',
'whereClauses' => array(
'name' => 'accounts.name',
'billing_address_city' => 'accounts.billing_address_city',
'phone_office' => 'accounts.phone_office'),
'searchInputs' => array('name', 'billing_address_city', 'phone_office'),
'create' => array(
'formBase' => 'AccountFormBase.php',
'formBaseClass' => 'AccountFormBase',
'getFormBodyParams' => array('','','AccountSave'),
'createButton' => $mod_strings['LNK_NEW_ACCOUNT’]),
'listviewdefs' => array(
'NAME' => array(
'width' => '40', 'label' => 'LBL_LIST_ACCOUNT_NAME', 'link' => true,'default' => true,),
),
'searchdefs' => array(
'name',
array('name' => 'assigned_user_id', 'label'=>'LBL_ASSIGNED_TO', 'type' => 'enum', 'function' => array('name' => 'get_user_array', 'params' => array(false))),
),);

Subpaneldefs
custom/Extension/modules/Modulename/Ext/Layoutdefs/NameWhateverYouWant.php
Need to run ‘Quick Repair and Rebuild’ after changes are made
Everything else
/custom/modules/Modulename/metadata
Watch for Studio blowing out your changes.
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Logic Hooks
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Logic Hook Types
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Logic Hook Types (cont)
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Logic Hook Types (new in 6.0)
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logic_hooks.php
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<?php
$hook_version = 1;
$hook_array = Array();
$hook_array['before_save'] = Array();
$hook_array['before_save'][] = Array(1, 'AccountHooks',
'custom/Accounts/AccountHooks.php','AccountHooks', 'getParentAccountIndustry');
Parameters for Logic Hook Definition
Parameter 1 - Sorting index used to sort the arrays of logic hook definitions before they are processed.Parameter 2 - A string value to identify the hookParameter 3 - Path to the PHP file to include which contains your logic hook codeParameter 4 - Name of the PHP class the logic hook method is inParameter 5 - Name of the PHP method to call

AccountHooks.php
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<?php
class AccountHooks
{
public function getParentAccountIndustry(
SugarBean $bean,
$event,
$arguments
)
{
if ( empty($bean->industry)
&& !empty($bean->parent_id) ) {
$parentAccountFocus = new Account();
$parentAccountFocus->retrieve($bean->parent_id);
if ( !empty($parentAccountFocus->id) )
$bean->industry = $parentAccountFocus->industry;
}
}
}

Application Level Logic Hooks
/custom/modules/
Module Level Logic Hooks
/custom/modules/Modulename/
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Themes
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Theme Directory Layout
css/ - contains all css files
images/ - contains all images
js/ - contains any js files.
tpls/ - smarty templates
themedef.php definition file.
12/30/08
36

Themes can inherit from other themes
Theme Inheritance Model
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Allow upgrade-safe modifications to themes
All themes can be modified by putting the replacement or overriding file in the custom/theme/<themename> directory
Image, HTML template file overrides are used as a replacement of the previous file
Example: an image custom/theme/<themename>/dog.gif would be used instead of theme/<themename>/dog.gif
CSS and Javascript files are combined in order of inheritance
Uses cssmin and jsmin to help reduce file size
No further code changes are required – changes are picked up automatically when themes cache is rebuilt.
12/30/08
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Resources
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http://developers.sugarcrm.com
Buy my book!

Thanks for coming!
4/14/10
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SugarCon 2010 - Best Practices for Creating Custom Apps in Sugar

by John Mertic

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