Since Target Integration released CiviSync – CiviCRM Outlook Synchronization Addon in April this year, I have seen a lot of people asking about it and thanks to those who tested it and provided their feedback. Initial CiviSync was developed for CiviCRM version 2.2 and Outlook 2003/2007.
Based on your feedbacks and the updated requirement from our clients it is time that we need to update the component again but as we all know that CiviCRM has changed big time since version 2.2. The REST API has matured very well and is now very much available to test and use which will ensure that we don’t need to put/include nuSOAP in the latest version. Also, Outlook 2010 has been released as well. Outlook 2003 and 2007 development was based around Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) Version 3.0 but new Outlook 2010 doesn’t work with the older version and it needs VSTO version 4.0. There were other problems with the first version of CiviSync which I am not going to talk about in this post as the new version will be a complete re-write (almost) of the code base.
We are planning to bring in the following:
- Compatibility with CiviCRM Version 3.2 on Joomla and Drupal
- Compatibility with Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007/2010
- Authentication with Joomla/Drupal Users
- Two way synchronization of contacts, groups and tags
- Option to select the groups and tags for synchronization (Similar to IMAP folders)
- Sending Email from Outlook and attaching it to CiviCRM Contact
This cool feature set is the starting point only, we are planning to extending CiviSync to further in to other Microsoft Office© applications e.g. Word for mail merge etc.
Of course this development is going to cost and the cost in this case is going to be the Open Source License of CiviSync. We are planning to make CiviSync commercial but to make it accessible to everyone, the plan is to keep the cost at a very affordable rate of Euro 15 per license, out of this Euro 5 will be donated to support the development of CiviCRM. This will allow organisations and individuals equally to support the development of the addon and CiviCRM.
I would like to know what is the general feedback about the above idea and of course let us know of any features that you think should be included in CiviSync.
