1. Flexing Sugar Platform
Change the World Using the Sugar Platform

2. Steve Johnson
Consultant
#mojocode www.mojocode.com
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3. Introduction
 Steve Johnson: software developer & consultant
 You can change the world using Sugar as your
development platform!
 Two case studies
 Along the way, we’ll talk about
My experience developing with Sugar
A little about building our modules and some specific
customizations we’ve done
The setup we use
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4. Who’s here?
 Developers?
 Users?
 Management?
 Others?
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5. Two case studies
 Praxis: flexible manufacturing, contract packager
Warehouse
Production Control
HR & Timekeeping
Orders
Shipping
 ReadAsia: International non-profit
Data collection
Project data
Field data
Field reports
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6. Why is Sugar a great development platform?
 Choice:
open source or hosted/cloud service
free or fee
 The guts of a great multi-user web platform are
there (you get to focus on the business problem)
Security; users, roles, login
MVC; Model, View, Controller
Views; ListView, DisplayView, EditView
Functional; Search, Export, Import, Timezone support,
table/field driven, data change log
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7. Why is Sugar a great development platform?
 Flexibility:
Module Builder (user/developer)
Customization (user)
Custom code (developer)
LAMP/WAMP/XAMP (software runs anywhere)
 Help from the Sugar community; SugarForge,
SugarExchange
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8. Gotchas?
 Data gets a little mixed with code (pull downs)
 Not as version control friendly as it could be
 As you extend things past normal limits, the defaults
need tweaking (2,000,000 pallets as the default
search result? Sorted on a non-indexed field? Yuck.)
 Stay out of the core, if you can… stay upgrade safe!
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9. Benefits of using Sugar?
 Rapid Design
 Rapid Prototyping
 Rapid Deployment
 Rapid Customization
 Rapid Re-deployment
 “Easy quality”
 Consistent UI with built-in patterns
 Support a lot of active users out-of-the-box
 All the usual benefits of web-based applications
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10. Which just means…
“Solve the problem,
not the plumbing.”
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11. The Setup: Development, Test, Production
 Development platform:
Hardware: Laptop with Windows 7 running XAMP etc.
IDE: Eclipse
Version control: SVN
SugarCRM: pick a release
Test data: snapshot of latest system backup
Other: cygwin, dual backup (cloud and image), phpmyadmin
 Test platform:
Hardware: virtual server (VMWARE ESXi)
VM: Ubuntu Linux
SugarCRM: same release
Test data: snapshot of latest system backup
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12. The Setup: Development, Test, Production
Production
 Praxis:
Hardware: 4 cores, 2 gb memory, 100 gb disk raid5
O/S: Ubuntu LTS
SugarCRM: Version 4.5.x
Users: ~100 (24 x 7 operations)
Other: warm backup server, daily snapshots (H->V), daily backups
 ReadAsia:
Hardware: Rackspace Cloud Server @ $170/month
O/S: Ubuntu LTS
SugarCRM: Version 6.x
Users: ~40 (10 hours US, 10 hours India)
Other: daily snapshots, daily backups, offsite & cloud backups
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13. The Setup: Development, Test, Production
 Project Management:
Projects are managed with http://www.trello.com (manage
lists of lists)
Bugs are managed with Mantis (open source bug tracker)
Documentation built with mediawiki
Process flow documented with viso
No other diagramming or database design tools
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14. PraxisPackaging.com
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15. Praxis Fast Facts
 Contract packaging
 Flexible manufacturing
 Three plants; 130k sq
ft, 30k, mobile
 Customer inventory
 Certified: FDA, DEA,
Dept of Ag, Kosher,
HACCP, SQF Level III
 Clean Room
 350 full-time employees
 ~20 different runs/day
 350 full-time employees
 24 x 7 operations (SugarCRM running ~99.999% uptime since Feb
2008 [15 minutes to move the server to another rack in 2009])
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16. Praxis’ Systems
 Barcoded pallet tags
 Handheld laser scanners
(50’) running a browser
 Badge scanners
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17. Praxis’ Systems
 PCs; desktops, laptops
 Tablets (iPad)
 Handheld (iPhone)
 Touchscreen
Production PCs
 IE7+ w/Scriptx
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18. Praxis’ Systems
 Status displays
Line status
Employee status
Efficiencies
Large LCD
iPhone
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19. Praxis Modules
 Pallets
 Locations
 Parts
 Orders
 Materials
 Order Parts
 Order Materials
 Employees
 Timecards (export to Paychex)
 Produces all the paperwork needed by customers
and government bodies including controlled forms
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20. Why customize for Praxis?
 Extremely vertical without industry solutions
 Custom solution offers a competitive advantage
 Special specs:
We receive product before we know what the customer
wants us to do with it and we have to track it anyway (how
do you find something when you don’t know what it is?).
We don’t own the inventory, the customer does.
Parts are per unit (each), but really processed by pallet.
Custom production tracking statistics.
A single line may reconfigure 4+ times in a shift.
Must meet all governmental regulations and agencies’
needs.
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21. Praxis “Wow”?
 45 man-days from concept, to spec, to system, to go-
live (inventory tracking)
 Ongoing changes added weekly
 We don’t stop anything to make changes; a little like
changing tires on a moving car, sometimes
 ~99.999% uptime, even with ongoing changes, since
Feb 2008 (1065 days of uptime)
 The more we do, the more requests come in for new
functionality
 The system is so impressive to customers, it is used
in promotional/sales materials
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22. Benefits that changed the world?
 Shift costs from inventory management to production:
10 mule pullers ($80/hour cost) are now doing
production work ($x/hour profit).
 Better planning, production, and staffing.
 Received 1st 100% on a customer inventory audit 60
days after system implemented (the audits that took 4
days now take 2 hours).
 Reduced paperwork allows more time for supervision
and training by Line Techs (25% more productive).
 Praxis was able to increase production resulting in
more business with more full-time jobs and greater
profitability.
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23. ReadAsia.org
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24. ReadAsia Fast Facts
 Non-profit
 Project-based fund raising
 Literacy taught in 22 languages
 Formerly paper-based system
 $30 per person to go from
illiterate to 5th grade education
in 52 weeks
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25. ReadAsia’s Systems
 Paper forms
 Digital cameras used for volunteer
photos, reports, and site visits
 Scan paper to PDF
 PDF and photos attached to a
skeleton project
 Data entry from PDF (editing and
correction) in India
 Rackspace cloudserver in Chicago
 Field data accessed by international and US staff 24x7
 Field data used for sponsorship marketing and donor
reporting
 Chrome browser (as PDF viewer, too)
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26. ReadAsia Modules
 Projects
 Project Managers
 Teachers
 Pictures
 Documents
 Project Reports
 Field Related Info
 Photo embedding
 Workflow
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27. Why customize for ReadAsia?
 Custom forms (direct paper replacement)
 Custom workflow (original document, data entry,
approvals, acceptance, changes)
 Rapid development schedule (7 months from concept
to deployment)
 Feeds a custom Filemaker Pro marketing database
 Support future development:
Tablet-based field capture (store and forward) photos,
projects, visits, and reports
Project’s field progress workflow
International back-of-office
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28. ReadAsia “Wow”?
 ~3 months from concept to design
 ~4 months from design to reality
 Previous attempted project to do this took years and
never delivered (client-server, .net)
 Forms and processes were being changed as we
developed
 Did it with one part-time project manager and one
mostly full-time software developer
 Ongoing development is supporting users across
timezones
 Better data security and transmitted electronically
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29. Benefits that changed the world?
 More $ raised by offering sponsorships in clear terms
to donors by showing the actual people doing the
work and where it is being done. This changes the
conversation from just a concept to real people.
 Reduced costs associated with information transfer
frees up funds for projects.
 The lives of thousands of illiterates are changed
daily.
 “Each one teach one” at the end of the 52 week
program extends the results to the community and
acts as a multiplier.
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30. Advice
 Set up a full development environment with sandbox,
test box, and production box.
 Use version control, but don’t worry about
“releases”—go, go, go!
 You can do the basics with the module builder, but
you’ll need someone that can dig into the code to pull
off the extra mojo.
 Keep your “first launch” straightforward and clean—
get the users using it, then build more (change is
easier than other technologies you’re used to).
 Build something users won’t let you take away.
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31. Summary
 SugarCRM is a platform
 Extend it quickly and easily with custom modules and
upgrade-safe customizations
 Build better systems with fewer resources
 Keep building and extending them
 Make a difference!
 Q&A
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33. #SCON12
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