Sometimes the best things in life (and on the web) take a little effort. As is very clear, CiviCRM is not a "upload & install" 1 click. I have many successful installations of CiviCRM on Windoze & Linux being used daily by NGO's & commercial users. Don't bother trying to install if you dont know what a custom php.ini or htaccess file is, get a pro to do it...or learn. I don't normally review extensions but CiviCRM is excellent and I need to balance the 1 stars...The CiviCRM forums & documentation are excellent and obviously a whole lot of work has gone into it over the years. Can't even imagine what a commercial system of this power would cost! c'mon people, Joomla is not just for the point and click beginners!

For it's functions Civicrm is a very useful extension for non-profit organizations. Like many wrote before: it's not well enough developed as a Joomla component. You can't make it work without the help of your hosting provider. You'll probably need their help while installing but also for example if you want to use the mailing system.
Civicrm is bigger than Joomla and is far more difficult to configure. Unlike Joomla you need IT professionals to get it working.

Hi,

I finally figured out how to install CiviCRM. I used version 2.0.4 on Joomla! 1.5 Legacy mode....so far so good.

Install steps:
1. Download zip file to computer and then Upload it to
yourjoomladirectory/administrators/components/com_installer

2. Use Joomla! Xplorer to unpack it. After unpacking,it should be here:
yourjoomladirectory/administrators/components/com_installer/com_civicrm

3. Go to Install from Directory and enter your ENTIRE path. If you don't know what that should be (which is what my problem was) go to the Help>System Info>Configuration Path and scroll down to $log_path. This is the ENTIRE path you should be adding when using Install from Directory.

Your path will probably look something like this:
home/yourserver/yoursite.com/administrator/components/com_installer/com_civicrm

4. The actual install process may take five or so minutes.

Good Luck!!!

The software as we all know is great! This is just what my non-profit needs to complete the site and manage its operations comprehensively. CivicEvent is the answer to lots of our prayers/requests, and I prefer the Joomla! administration panel to that of Drupal.

Hope this helps.....CiviCRM Rocks!!

To start with the functionality of civiCRM looks great in the documentation. I could really use this, but...

It is not ready for Joomla. I tried for 2 days to get civiCRM installed without success. I tried with 2 different hosting services. I had the services make the necessary php changes and am still not able to get it installed. The forums have many posts of others have have experienced similiar problems trying to get civiCRM installed with no real solutions, easy to implment soultions.

This tool is not ready for Joomla. Before adding any new functionality the development goal should be to make the install straight-forward and simple.

I have done several websites using Joomla and have never experienced as much frustration or as many issues trying to install a component. Save yourself hours to days of frustration and avoid civiCRM until install issues have been fixed.

Surly CiviCRM is great, and I love it, but it is too hard to install on a normal server. CiviCRM is not Joomla friendly!

The file is too large and the installation takes too long so several timeouts are reached in the PHP. The workaround is to increase the timeouts before installing and decreasing them after the install. This you can only do if you have your own server or the hoster gives you access the php settings.

I recommend that the team behind CiviCRM rethink the installation – perhaps install the core of CiviCRM and move the rest to a second installation (like for example done in the JCE plugins, not said that the JCE plugins are demanding), perhaps with the use of Ajax so the execution timeout is not reached.

It is true that it takes some time to get to the point where you are actually able to use it (I couldn`t upload the zip-file via component installer and had to upload it via FTP and then install from folder) but once the install is done this component really rocks. The fact that they offer this component for free is AMAZING!!!

I can't believe all the whiners ragging on CiviCRM here. I installed and configured 2.0b3 on a Joomla 1.5.1 site (which is not officially supported) and only had a few minor problems, most of which were of my own doing. The software works great and is incredibly flexible and powerful. This might be what is giving some people headaches, CRM software is NOT simple and can be almost too configurable.
Initially the documentation can be a little overwhelming and is a little short on concepts, but is getting better and is CERTAINLY better than Joomla's documentation (which really sucks).
All in all this package integrates as well as it can within Joomla (due to the total lack of Joomla User ACLs and API hooks) and does what it is supposed to. The only thing I wish was different is that CiviCRM would have allowed me the option of using a separate SQL database instead of piggybacking on the Joomla DB.

I found CiviCRM an excellent Extension but i do have a couple of issues with it.
1. The Documentation is woeful and leads you from page to page without giving clear instructions
2. The Admin section is slow and hard to understand

These two issues aside, once you have a grasp of how the extension works and you write your own procedures. The it does exactly what it advertises.

Unsure what others problems were with this extension, but I followed the instructions in the CiviCRM wiki and everything works fine. Which is great because the component I paid for did not work so I was left struggling to find something that would.

The community is great as well and I am confident that with a bit of reading through their wiki and help from the forums anyone can get this extension working.

It took me about a dozen attempts to make this work. The first thing I noticed is that the Joomla install must be compiled with PHP5 enabled. For some hosting services this requires a few lines added to the .htaccess file. The next thing I noticed is that you must extract and upload the entire package to another directory, then install from the directory you uploaded it to. This is important because the package is 10+ MB and most webhosts limit the uploads to 2 MB or time-out while trying to upload such a large file.

Once this is done the application works like a charm. However, the front-end integration still needs some work to make it as functional as the back-end is.

The functionality is superb, the CivicCRM people are very nice, and they've got a great community. I positively ached for this application to work for us.

However, all those people who claimed they were able to install this on Joomla 1.0.X are blowing smoke. We are long-time Joomla integrators who have installed nearly 200 different extensions of every stripe, and this is the FIRST that simply doesn't install. We followed every step correctly (more than once) tried every variation of unpacking the install file from localhost, offline/ftp, etc. and nothing worked. Followed every suggestion of the CiviCRM boards (even the senior developers, who are all Drupal people BTW). Changed permissions in every possible combination, ensured no throttle on uploads, modified php.ini and htaccess for every conceivable suggestion. IT DOES NOT INSTALL completely, and if you believe otherwise, you will waste your time.

Sorry to report this, the demos and community are wonderful, but this is NOT a Joomla extension, and I ask any of those who gave this more than two stars to prove version 1.6.8217 installs on PHP 5.2 MySQL 5 on a Joomla 1.0.12 or 1.0.13. Unless you have a magic wand.

My sincere hope is that even one senior person in the CiviCRM community was familiar enough with Joomla to make a credible install procedure. When that happens, I'll come back and give it five stars.

CiviCRM is awesome and powerful...but not for Joomla.

It is not a Joomla component at all, but a full featured CRM application. The designers are diligent, responsive, and very active. Except for that they pay much more attention to the Drupal side of things.

Most features do not work with Joomla out of the box. Some examples:

- You need php 5x WITH SOAP libraries installed to use the CiviMail portion. That's not a typical configuration on a shared server (which many Joomla implmentations are). There was no way I was going to compile my own PHP just to get that to work.

- The default configuration doesn't play well with Joomla either. There is a front end session issue that I never was able to fix, despite numerous forum posts on the CiviCRM website (although the developers are responsive...they couldn't fix my problem). Basically, the CiviEVent and CiviContribute forms worked fine in the backend, but experienced fatal errors in the front end.

- I tried very hard to stick it out with CivCRM, including contacting some professional support people I found on the CiviCRM website....except they were all Drupal -- not Joomla -- experts.

- One of the developers suggested I do a clean install of Joomla and CiviCRm and see what happens. Sorry...but we utilize our Joomla install for *many* other things, so it was not an option.

Give CiviCRM some time and it will ROCK. Or, if you like the potential features that much, check in to using it with a Drupal implementation.

In the meantime, I've found a handful of other Joomla plugins that work out of the box and accomplish the same things...Including MosList Messenger, Attend Events, and Community Builder.

I would have like to rate it higher....but it's just not ready for prime time with Joomla.

To the previous poster... check the civicrm support forums. The issue is not their software, but more than likely your upload limits on your web server. Download the software directly from/to the server or use ftp and put it in the local install component install directory and you shouldn't have any problems.

To the others, yes it is very complex but very powerful and is a great package for which it was intended (grassroots organizing). You won't find anything better in the OS world. Joomla and Civicrm are a great combo.

Why make it a Joomla component when it doesn't even have a proper working front end. This was hard enough to install let alone now I have to copy and paste URL's to make it work with my Joomla site.

Please make a proper Joomla front end, using Joomla modules and components that actually work out of the box with no additional work by me.

Also, it is pointless being a Joomla component if I still have to Sync all my users from Joomla into CiviCRM. It should be transparent.

The documentation is great. But it needs to have a better index with page numbers and standardised headings for sections that also form the header of each page. Some people still print documentation and this documentation is not friendly for those people. I spent more time flipping through the darn doco than actually printing it. Dont' get me wrong it is certainly good content, but I takes to long to long flipping through to find it.

This may be a good CRM and outside of Joomla I'm sure it works great, but I'm pulling teeth here. I'm now on my third day of trying to configure this. I've NEVER had to spend so long on a Joomla component in the past.

If it is supposed to run under Joomla it should just work with minimal config.

This component is exactly what I was looking for...being in need of an app to manage online donations and membership mailing for a small non-profit orchestra.

The functionality, though quite complex to set up properly, seems to be top-notch (having demo'd several other NP fundraising systems which weren't web-based).

HOWEVER, IMHO, this should NOT have been created as a component, but as a stand-alone w/ a bridge. The installation is a NIGHTMARE - I've been working a solid week and still can't get it to install w/o hiring a professional (which I shouldn't have to do for a component). It did, however, install flawlessly on my local JSAS - and I didn't even bother to check memory limits, execution times, MySQL versions, or anything. GO FIGURE.

I'm torn about my rating, but given the choices listed, I had no option but to rate it below average.

Sorry, guys at Civi...it's just WAY over the heads of 90% of the people who use Joomla...the whole point of components is to add functionality w/o a lot of fuss.