Project of the Month - March 2009

Candy Wrapper

Description of project

CandyWrapper is a .NET 2.0 class library which simplifies the process of using the SugarCRM SOAP API. The wrapper will do the behind the scenes work to handle calls, then return output in a more normalized .NET format, such as string or arrays.

Trove Info

Why are you a leading contributor in the SugarCRM community? What are the benefits that you experience from your involvement?

I have been an open source advocate for a number of years, dating back to my first experiences with Linux in the Red Hat 5.1 days and a couple of years after me being introduced to the CRM World. When I started to follow SugarCRM a few years ago, it seemed like a great project that simultaneously was a great marriage of those two aspects of technology that had been such a major focus of my attention for a number of years. The combination made it very appealing to me and motivates me to do what I can to make it succeed.

As for the benefits, I've always enjoyed helping people and my involvement with the community provides a great venue to do that. Conversely, that same interaction allows for someone like me to expand on my own knowledge of the application and its supporting technologies. It is very complimentary in that way.

What other projects have you been involved with on SugarForge.org?

A couple of minor projects, one a .NET Class Library that is a very simple .NET translation of the create_guid() function SugarCRM utilizes to generate ID values and secondly, the Phone Formatter module which adds formatting to phone numbers when entered.

What inspired you to create this project?

Mostly out of my own needs for integration projects, but also to assist other Windows based developers, especially those that are new to the open source World. Over time, I had written some .NET classes that made my life easier when having to interface with SugarCRM, but I never took the time out to clean them up and consolidate them into something a bit more useful. While I was busy working with my classes, I would regularly see .NET developers in the community struggle to understand all the nuances of how to interact with the SugarCRM SOAP API, and unfortunately for them, there are far more PHP developers in the community than are .NET developers, so resources are a little scarcer for them.

It didn't seem right to just sit back and watch others re-invent the wheel or bang their head against the wall trying to figure out the same nuances I had figured out some time back.

What business pain points were you solving specifically?

Mainly I was trying to solve the problem of integration and centralization of data. CRM systems have a tendency to become hubs of information wherever they are deployed. Ultimately, that is one of the goals you hope to attain with a CRM system as it indicates the system is being used for its intended purpose. The problem is that the more it becomes a hub and central location of all data, the more it becomes necessary to get other systems to talk to it, whether it be a simple web capture process or a more sophisticated bi-directional synchronization routine with an ERP system. All of this is further complicated by the fact that SugarCRM's platform support is pretty universal and there are many Windows/.NET developers whose first hands-on experience with LAMP technologies is SugarCRM.

In my opinion, simplifying and diversifying the ways in which these pieces can be glued together is critical.

Is there anything that the users should know about? Something hidden/new in this project? Think of this as an opportunity to describe how it works to a user.

The goal of the wrapper is to make it as easy as possible for .NET developers to quickly interface with the SugarCRM SOAP API. At the same time, another goal is to make it simple enough that even a novice .NET developer will be able to utilize it. When time permits I will enhance it to leverage slightly more advanced features of the C# language which more advanced programmers might prefer, but for now the main goal is to get as many .NET developers up and running as quickly as possible by providing a very simple interface.

What would you say to encourage additional community participation?

All of us have specific expertise that is useful to the community and all of us are in it together. Someone that is technically apt has a number of obvious options to contribute. For others, the desire may be there, but the options may not be as obvious. The way I would look at it is much the same way I and others approach the technical side: if I needed this, chances are someone else might too. If the more technical side is not your thing, helping write a manual or a tutorial might be more in line with your skill set. Perhaps a use case on how you utilize a specific tool in your business, such as the Opportunities module. Point being, your contribution doesn't have to be a technical one. They are all equally valuable. The more the product succeeds, the more the community benefits as a whole.

What do you want to build next for Sugar Suite?

We've got a few projects in BETA right now and we will be sharing more information about them shortly, perhaps even before this gets published. In general, we are always floating ideas around. Sometimes that can be a bit frustrating because we'll never have time to do all of them and we have to pick and choose, but I've been told repeatedly that an excess of ideas is a nice problem to have.