With the world going digital, keeping track of all the client communication and commitment have become a crucial part of the new digital-only business world. And to achieve this businesses are implementing CRM in one form or the other. But no CRM solution can fit the requirements of all the businesses. Business processes are specific to the business houses, and it demands CRM to be capable of adapting to these processes to get the best of 2 worlds.
SuiteCRM is one of the commonly used platforms for small to mid-sized companies to streamline and automate the processes of sales and CRM. One of the many features offered by SuiteCRM for the business-specific customization is the use of EntryPoints.
What are EntryPoints
The basic architecture of the SuiteCRM requires that all the activities directed from user to the system should an action request towards one of the modules, and the system will look for the procedure to be executed and will execute the procedure if all the preconditions are met.
However the same is not true for all the customization requirements for the business. There are scenarios where a procedure should be executed free of the modules and action requirement but the procedure can be initiated only by authorised personnel. To fulfil such requirements EntryPoint feature of the SuiteCRM comes handy.
Why use EntryPoints
- To execute procedures, initiated by authorized users but independent of modules.
- While integrated with 3rd party applications to the SuiteCRM system, EntryPoint can be manifested to trigger business logic.
- Based on the type of the page(User Logged-in or publicly accessible page), SuiteCRM loads Guest or Complete environment, so out of the box SuiteCRM handles the security for EntryPoints.
Entry Point Applications
- Entry point can be used to show a Contact US form where the user can fill the data and will be able to create leads in SuiteCRM
- Entry Point can be used to trigger events such as unsubscribing from the automated email or marketing campaigns.
- Entry points can be used by external applications like MailChimp, Alavara, etc to make the changes in the SuiteCRM by applying business logic.
- EntryPoints can be used to receive encoded trigger messages from an authorized 3rd party application
- EntryPoints can be used as triage points for multiple webhook from multiple applications.
Create a custom EntryPoint in SuiteCRM
Following is step by step procedure to create a custom EntryPoint to display a ‘Hello World!’ message, when triggered from the web browser.
- List the custom EntryPoint to the Extension Registry.
- Go to the folder location
- Create a new file at the location with file name of own choice
Just try to keep the file name as unique as possible, minimizing chances of overwriting someone else’s code
- Register the entry point by adding a unique identification key in $entry_point_registry. It accepts file and auth as configuration properties.
- file: This should contain the relative path of the file from the custom folder. The file will be executed on call of the entry point.
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- auth: This is a boolean attribute, if set to true then the authentication of the user is required and if set to false then the page is publicly accessible.
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- To keep the custom code upgrade safe, one should create the file in a custom folder if the entry point should be registered for the whole application else can create at module specific folder if entry point is for the module.
- Go to the file path you have added at the ‘file’ key of the $entry_point_registry, and add the following code.
- Which will have the newly created custom entry point as well as the other entry points. If the Entry point is failed to show up in this file then there is some issue with the registration.
- Users will be able to access the public Entry Point in their instance by using the below URL. If authentication is required then it redirects to the login page of SuiteCRM.
A requirement for the customization and integration with other 3rd party applications is ever unavoidable. The only thing you can do is equip your business with a robust CRM system. A system capable of adapting to your specific business requirements.
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