First, Maria downloads the latest version (5.02j at the time of writing) of SugarCRM Community Edition from http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/download/sugar-suite.html. She previously set up the machine with the following required software:

The program is downloaded in the form of a ZIP, extracted to a directory, which will be served by the web server. This directory is the one used to access the application, so Maria chooses to name it sugarcrm. Maria then completes the installation with the setup wizard available at the URL http://localhost/sugarcrm/install.php.

During setup, Maria selects the following options:

After completing the installation, thanks to the creation of the demo dataset, SugarCRM already contains data which can be used to test the integration. For example, the following screenshot shows the address book which appears when someone logs in with the name Sarah:

Now that Maria has set up the staging environment, it is time to discover how to connect it with Funambol. The answer is a community project called the Funambol-SugarCRM Connector, which is an open source project hosted on the SugarCRM forge website at http://www.sugarforge.org/projects/sync4j.

The packaged version of the connector can be downloaded from the Download section of the project site. At the time of writing, the latest version is distributed in a ZIP file called funambol-sugarcrm-connector-7.0.1.zip, whose content is illustrated in the following file system view:

Maria can use the Funambol SugarCRM Connector Quick Start Guide as reference for the installation of the connector, but before starting this task, it is worth learning a bit more about third-party Funambol connectors.

With reference to the architecture illustration of Chapter 2, Funambol uses a connector architecture so that developers can connect the Funambol Server to any kind of backend without knowing anything about devices and synchronization concepts.

Funambol has an out of the box implementation of a PIM connector that accesses PIM data stored in a database. The SugarCRM connector replaces the Funambol PIM Connector with a module that contains the logic to access a remote SugarCRM instance, as illustrated in the following figure:

This can be accomplished because SugarCRM exposes an HTTP-based API that can be used by external software to interoperate with the CRM system.

Maria is now ready to install the connector, following these steps:

The last step launches an installation procedure that requires Maria's input. Basically, all modules are refreshed and Maria is asked if the database for each module must be created. Maria does not need to recreate the database for any of the modules, except the SugarCRM connector. When the installation displays the following output, Maria can press Y so that the connector installation will register the module inside Funambol.

[echo] funambol-sugarcrm-connector-7.0.1 installation...
[echo] Database installation for module funambol-sugarcrm-connector-7.0.1 on hypersonic (/opt/Funambol.sugar/ds-server)
[iterate] The Funambol Data Synchronization Server installation program can now create
[iterate] the database required by the module funambol-sugarcrm-connector-7.0.1 (if any is needed).
[iterate] You can skip this step if you have already a valid database created
[iterate] or the module does not require a database.
[iterate] If you choose 'y' your existing data will be deleted.
[iterate] Do you want to recreate the database?
[iterate] (y,n)

The SugarCRM Connector is now installed. When the server is running, it appears in the connector list in the Funambol Administration Tool:

The final step for Maria is to use the Funambol Administration Tool to configure the new SugarCRM SyncSources to connect to the SugarCRM server.

Maria now needs to create the SyncSource to access the staging installation of SugarCRM. To do so, Maria double-clicks the SugarCRM Calendar SyncSource, opening the following form and inserting the information as shown in the screenshot:

Similarly, Maria creates a SugarCRM Contact SyncSource with the following information:

Finally, Maria must tell the Funambol server to authenticate the users on SugarCRM. To do so, she double-clicks the server settings tree, opening the Server settings panel and sets the Officer field to com/funambol/server/security/SugarcrmOfficer.xml.

This is a section of the website that Maria is already familiar with. As seen in the previous sections, Maria has used this service to download all the necessary software. It contains all the latest packages of Funambol, plus additional information on community projects and additional packages such as the source packages.

Each download can be completed anonymously, although it is appreciated when people provide optional background information in the download form. This information helps Funambol improve the software.

Open source Funambol software relies on the dedication of developers and the experience of users. Sharing of knowledge is essential, as are user comments and contributions. Funambol's success can be greatly attributed to the global community of Funambol users that support each other.

At the same time, Maria has access to a great source of help and an opportunity to contribute to the growth of the community in a positive feedback loop that results in higher quality software.

In this area of the Forge (https://help.forge.funambol.org), Maria can find online documentation, information on each project (Funambol or community), and links to the discussion forums.

There are two main discussion forums for the core Funambol software:

Once Maria has created a forge account, she can access these forums using a web interface or e-mail, as an old-fashioned e-mail list.

Other important sources of information are the Top Answers and the Frequently Asked Questions, accessible from this section of the Forge website.

This section of the Forge explains how to participate in the development of Funambol. People can participate in different ways. Contributing code is the most common way of participating, but non-developers can contribute with testing, helping other people, translating the software in different languages, and so on.

Funambol, and its community members, agree to honor the Funambol Open Source Project Social Contract, which is reported in the next list (the latest version can be found a https://www.forge.funambol.org/participate/socialcontract.html):

Contributes code and documentation to the project.

Provides the forge and generates the binaries:

Provides vehicles for community interaction such as discussion services:

Resolves bugs when they are identified.

Integrates feature requests.

Supports the community and responds promptly to requests.

Helps grow, inform, and unify the community:

You may use the software as you see fit, following Funambol open source licensing norms.

You may also develop, extend, and create bug fixes following open source license norms. Read about licensing to understand more. Also, Funambol pays for extensions of the code base via the Funambol Code Sniper Program.

It is requested that you provide your e-mail address when you download, though it's completely optional.

Many people choose to post questions and answers to the mailing lists. For developer-oriented issues, participate in the developer mailing list. If you've discovered a work-around or fixed a bug, please post it.

Another important way to participate in the Funambol community is by submitting bugs. This is done using a tool called bug tracker which, for historical reasons, is not part of the Forge. Therefore, if Maria finds a bug, she can go to http://forge.ow2.org/tracker/?atid=100096&group_id=96&func=browse, search if the issue has already been reported and, if not, file a new issue.

There are many ways to stay in touch with Funambol. The Forge homepage summarizes the most recent news from different sources. Another channel is Twitter (http://twitter.com/funambol). Also, when downloading Funambol software, the user can sign up for the Funambol e-newsletter. The discussion boards are also a powerful source of information and news about the software and community.

It is a convenient way for Maria to create a personalized workspace so that she can have all she is interested in about Funambol in one place. This can be done after creating an account on the Forge and then clicking on the My pages link. This brings her to a customizable page, as illustrated in the following screenshot, where she can follow her projects, news, and discussions:

One of the most important features of the Forge is that it is a powerful tool to host community projects. A community project can be started and maintained by potentially anyone in the Funambol community. There is no direct intervention by Funambol personnel or core developers. Funambol simply provides the tools to facilitate the community to develop the project. This means providing a way to store and share the code through an online Subversion repository, communication through discussion forums, and documentation through a dedicated wiki. Each community project has its own space and set of tools.

If Maria wants to start a community project to develop a connector to a backend that is not natively supported by Funambol, all she needs to do is create a Forge account and suggest a new project from her personal page.

At the time of writing, the Funambol Forge hosts the following projects:

Some projects have subprojects. A project of this type is a container of other projects, each with its own space. The most important collection of projects is "core", which contains the majority of all Funambol core components. The subprojects of the core project are:

Funambol maintains a wish list of additional software components that community members would like to have. To encourage community members to work on these components, Funambol offers bounties to the developers who deliver certain projects. It's a great way to learn more about mobile software and to help other community members, while being economically rewarded for their work.

One of the goals of the the program is to broaden interoperability of Funambol to connect with as many useful, widely-requested applications and services as possible (based on feedback from the Funambol Community). This is not only interesting for developers, but also for Maria because she knows that she may find what she needs as result of this program (as seen earlier with SugarCRM). Another possibility for Maria is to propose to add new sniper projects.

Another important goal of the Code Sniper is to recognize community members who developed connectors, sync clients, and so on, with the aim of encouraging the start of new projects that the community can take over, improve, and maintain.

Finally, the Code Sniper is a great way to influence the direction and reach of the Funambol project through direct contribution of open source code.

Lion Sniper is a community program that is intended to make Funambol's mobile sync and push e-mail more accessible for non-English speakers. The name Lion Sniper is a play on the term L10n, which is a technical nickname for localization that uses the number 10 between the letters l and n. The Funambol Lion Sniper program provides a bounty to community members who want to localize Funambol Mobile Sync and Push E-mail open source clients into other languages.

Maria works for a multinational company, so she may need clients in different languages. Some of these clients may already have been supported, but if this is not the case, she has the opportunity to make the translation internally and contribute it to the community for the benefits of all users.

The Lion Sniper is designed to:

One of Funambol's greatest strengths is its broad support of many mobile devices, including SyncML, Windows Mobile, and Java ME-based handsets. The Phone Sniper program rewards community members by offering to pay them for testing their mobile devices with Funambol to ensure compatibility.