The initial installation of CRM Core happens much the same way as it does for any other module for Drupal. Download CRM Core and it's dependencies through any of the standard methods.
- You can download a copy from Drupal.org and enable it through the modules page.
- You can use drush to download a copy from Drupal.org and manually enable it.
- You can use a makefile to download a copy and enable it.
In addition to CRM Core itself, you will need to download it's dependencies, and will probably want to download some other modules to make it easier to work with contact records. CRM Core depends on the following contributed modules to work:
- entityreference
- views
- ctools
- entity
- relation
- name
... and it works best when the following contributed modules are enabled on your site:
- date
- field_group
- cck_phone
- link
- addressfield
Once you have a copy of CRM Core downloaded, you will probably notice it actually comes with a lot of modules of it's own. First time users will want to enable all of them in order to get acquainted with the basics of the system. More advanced administrators may want to be selective about what is enabled.
Here's a breakdown of the modules, categorized by the kind of things they do in the system, to help you understand how they all work together.
Required Modules
- CRM Core: the only required module. Holds everything else together.
- CRM Core UI: provides some necessary interface components for other modules. Enable this if you want any of the other UI modules to work.
Modules for Tracking Information
These modules are mostly concerned with storing information in the system.
- CRM Core Contact: tracks contact information. Makes contact entities fieldable and what not.
- CRM Core Activity: tracks information about interaction with contacts.
- CRM Core Relationship: tracks information about relationships between contacts.
Modules for Managing the Interface
These modules are mostly concerned with creating the UI for working with contact information.
- CRM Core Contact UI: provides an interface for working with contact records.
- CRM Core Activity UI: provides an interface for working with activity records.
- CRM Core Relationship UI: provides an interface for working with relationships.
Modules for Managing the Interface
These modules are mostly concerned with making CRM Core simpler to use and addressing common tasks for most Drupal websites.
- CRM Core Report: provides an interface for displaying reports that can be generated in the system.
- CRM Core User Sync: provides tools for linking user accounts with contact records.
In case you hadn't noticed, everything in CRM Core is optional. If you don't like the way it does activities or relationships, feel free to turn them off and build your own. If you don't like the interface for managing contacts, turn it off and build your own. If you don't like anything about the UI or the entities at all, turn them all off and build your own.
But it's best to stick with what's there. Most of the UIs are built so that the defaults can be easily customized using web-based administrative tools in Drupal. The ones that aren't can be easily overridden through simple code.