By netvigator on

If I should be asking this question somewhere else, please let me know.

The Drupal web site describes CiviCRM as a "module":

http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/civicrm

Problem is we have Drupal and CiviCRM, but they are totally NOT integrated -- we have a Drupal database and a separate CiviCRM database.

Theoretically, all our members can contribute content to the web site, so all members in CiviCRM have lots of info that is duplicated in Drupal.

Getting the duplicated data in sync has been a challenge that we have not mastered so far.

I suspect we have paid a consultand for writing all new code to attempt getting two databases in sync, but I am not sure.

Some reports require querying both databases. One example: WHEN a member joined is not stored in CiviCRM (the member database), but is stored in Drupal (the web site content database). (Is this madness?!?)

Permit me to exaggerate a bit: This is a disaster!!!

Does using Drupal and CiviCRM together have to be this hard?

If so, are the disclaimers and warnings on the Drupal web site?

Or did we get off on the wrong foot somehow?

I would appreciate some comments and guidance!

Thanks,

Comments

steve hanson’s picture

steve hanson commented

If this was all installed properly it should just work. When people create a Drupal account, they'll be put into your CiviCRM database. On the other hand, you may have people in CiviCRM that don't have Drupal accounts, but that's by design.

Now it is true that CiviCRM is a little on the non-Drupal-Like side - but it does integrate pretty well with Drupal if it's set up properly. Did you read and follow the parts in the docs about creating a CiviCRM profile?

Otherwise I'm not sure what you mean about them being totally not integrated.

Steve Hanson
Principal Consultant Cruiskeen Consulting LLC
http://www.cruiskeenconsulting.com

Steve Hanson
Publisher Eye On Dunn County
https://eyeondunn.com

pwolanin’s picture

pwolanin commented

There is a CiviCRM module that bridges the CMS to Drupal - make sure you got and installed the latest version of CiviCRM from their site (I don't think the download on drupal.org is current):

http://civicrm.org/download

This download includes the Drupal bridge module.

---
Work: BioRAFT

lobo’s picture

lobo commented

and your design. It also depends on what modules you used and how they link / talk with each other. If your member data is stored in drupal, i suspect your consultant used a drupal member module rather than CiviMember. You might want to talk to him/her and get more details

lobo

http://civicrm.org/
http://civicrm.org/blog/
http://wiki.civicrm.org/
http://lobostravel.blogspot.com/

netvigator’s picture

netvigator commented

lobo,

What questions do I ask?

This system went live in January. From the beginning, we were told not to "experiment" by pressing buttons like "Edit", because doing so could corrupt the data. (A manual was sent out that actually said never hit the "Edit" button to edit, instead hit "View".) People wrote that there were two databases to keep in sync, and there were lots of problems. Last week I was told by one of the people involved that many features are still not working right, and he was not sure about what was working and what was not.

I did not believe the part about two databases until recently. I volunteered to create some reports, as I have some experience with SQL queries. When I was given access to the database, I found there really were two databases. For one report, I need a count by group of how many people have not been promoted to member for a week or longer. I started asking questions about where the data was located that I needed, and I found out that WHEN someone hits "Join" is stored in the Drupal database, but when (and whether) they have been promoted to member is stored in the CiviCRM database.

1) Querying two databases for one report is beyond the scope of what I know about SQL, and 2) the php interface through which I access the database only allows me to access one database at the time. I freaked!

In short, I do not know much about Drupal or CiviCRM. If you could feed me the questions, I could obtain the answers.

Thanks,

netvigator aka Rick Graves

venkat-rk’s picture

venkat-rk commented

I will let Lobo answer your questions in detail, but from your description, it sounds like you may have been short-changed on your civicrm consultancy. Either that, or there was one huge communication gap. What, somone actually said you shouldn't hit the civicrm edit button to edit the stuff? Unbelievable!!

CiviCRM is used by many, many organisations including the Drupal Association, if I remember right. And, if you look at the wiki, it describes many, many ways to run CiviCRM and Drupal as an integrated set up. There is even a CiviNode module that exposes civicrm data to drupal CCK fields etc.

Don't let your problems so far deter you from using them together.

----
Previously user Ramdak.

netvigator’s picture

netvigator commented

Venkat-Rk,

Just in case someone might wonder whether I was making this up for dramatic effect, I opened the PDF manual, took a screen shot, and put the screenshot here:

http://www.advanced-app.com.hk/MiscJunk/Dont-Click-Edit-to-Edit.png

netvigator

ericg’s picture

ericg commented

as far as the "don't click edit" issue, I can't comment. It sounds like something is not working right. This could be an issue of your consultant's experience, a change of spec mid-project, budgetary constraints or any number of other things, so it's impossible to assign blame based on the info you posted.

But, to help you with the two database issue, I see two solutions: with a little effort you should be able to merge the civicrm db and the drupal db so you can do any reporting you want or you can do cross-database joins if you have a db user that has access to both, for example:

SELECT civicrm.tablename.fieldname1, drupal.tablename.fieldname1 FROM civicrm.tablename LEFT JOIN drupal.tablename on civicrm.tablename.fieldname3 = drupal.tablename.fieldname2;

lobo’s picture

lobo commented

and get a better idea of what they did and how, and if possible the why

This thread does not give me enough info to ask any reasonable questions since i have no idea what the site does / is supposed to do, what the original goals were etc. Asking folks not to hit edit is definitely a bit strange (IMO).

We do allow folks to keep their civicrm db separate from their drupal db. We do this all the time in development, since we can recreate the civicrm db much faster if it is in its own db. For larger client installs, we tend to keep it separate (this is more of a personal preference). However most/all user related data is in the CiviCRM db and only the user table in the Drupal db

You might want to continue this conversation in the civicrm forums (our preferred support location)

lobo

http://civicrm.org/
http://civicrm.org/blog/
http://wiki.civicrm.org/
http://lobostravel.blogspot.com/

netvigator’s picture

netvigator commented

Lobo,

I signed up in the civicrm forums, but it is not clear to me which board this discussion should come under.

Pre-installation Questions
Installing CiviCRM
Upgrading CiviCRM
Using CiviCRM
Documentation
Internationalization and Localization
Feature Requests and Suggestions
Alpha and Beta Release Testing
General Discussion (please no support requests here!)
CiviCRM Showcase
Developer Discussion
Professional CiviCRM Services
CiviCRM Jobs

Please let me know which board and I will post there.

> You'll need to sit down with the consulting firm and get a better idea of what they did and how, and if possible the why.

I could ask the consultant "What did you do and why?" That seems a bit general. Can you prime me with more specific questions?

Thanks,

lobo’s picture

lobo commented

this would come under general discussion

with regard to questions to ask, here are a few basic ones:

1. what modules are being used and how
2. what are the various workflows
3. what will go wrong if someone edits

lobo

http://civicrm.org/
http://civicrm.org/blog/
http://wiki.civicrm.org/
http://lobostravel.blogspot.com/

commonpike’s picture

commonpike commented

We do allow folks to keep their civicrm db separate from their drupal db. We do this all the time in development, since we can recreate the civicrm db much faster if it is in its own db. For larger client installs, we tend to keep it separate (this is more of a personal preference).

I am considering to build a setup exactly like this, mainly for security reasons. The web DB has a different lifecycle, a different maintainance model, etc.
I prefer to have one DB for the web, one DB for the CRM. So what are the pros and cons ? Can you tell me about your experience ?

Information about organisations or events might be stored on both sides. So in the end, I foresee telling my client 'not to click the edit button' on either one of the two sides, either the web db or the crm db :-D

*-pike

*-pike