SugarCRM is a leading open-source customer relations management tool and development platform with nearly 5.5 million downloads, nearly 17,000 developers, and lots more users.

The Definitive Guide to SugarCRM is the first official SugarCRM book available to developers and users. This definitive book begins with a discussion of the SugarCRM platform components, namely MVC, Studio, Module Builder, authentication, and themes.

Next, you'll learnhow to customize the modules SugarCRM comes with out of the box in an upgrade-safe manner. The text then presents an example application that a typical business might use and shows how to build it using SugarCRM, using both existing functionality as well as newly added functionality. What you'll learn Understand how the SugarCRM platform works Customize the modules that come with SugarCRM Build new modules and functionality into SugarCRM Explore MVC architecture, users/authentication, built-in modules, and other platform features Use SugarCRM Studio for customizations, logic hooks, and overriding existing code Build on top of SugarCRM using Module Builder, custom modules, and existing/custom modules mashups Design a complete application Who this book is for

Any business application developers and consultants looking to build or deploy a custom business application. CIOs and IT administrators will also be interested. Table of Contents What Is SugarCRM? MVC Architecture Metadata Layer Web Services More Platform Features Easy Customizations Using Studio Workflows and Logic Hooks Overriding Existing Code Using Module Builder to Build Custom Modules Building a Custom Module Manually Designing a Complete Application

In the crowded field of customer relationship management (CRM) systems, SugarCRM stands out--not only for its modular design, but also for the ease with which you can develop, customize, and extend your CRM applications. This concise book provides a thorough overview of the development tools and APIs available in SugarCRM 6.2, showing both developers and nondevelopers alike how to use them to build a sample application step-by-step.

You'll learn how to bend and twist SugarCRM's extensible MVC framework to create custom applications, including solutions for automating your business that go beyond traditional CRMs.Learn how SugarCRM modules interact with one another through data relationships Build your CRM application with SugarCRM's GUI developer tools--without touching code Use built-in design templates with Module Builder to design new CRM modules Customize modules with the Studio tool to add new fields or additional relationships between modules Automate common and tedious tasks within your application, using custom PHP code with SugarCRM's powerful API Integrate external applications into your CRM solution through SugarCRM's web services API