While it has the potential to be a powerful application for managing a NFP organization it has many inherent problems. The database structure is a total mess. It is NOT restorable with JoomlaPack or other applications. Even direct SQL dumps are questionable due to the complexity of the database structure

It will not install on some commercial web servers - If you are planning to use it on a commercial host check with them 1st and save your self some trouble (godaddy shared hosting - forget about it)

The application is quite complicated and not for the faint of heart. If you have a problem digging into php and mysql this is likely not the application for you.

One other thing the developer community is very unabashedly bias toward "another cms" so keep that in mind while looking for support

While this is the right application for many organizations and has a great feature set be forewarned is is a bear to administer.

I'm really admired by CiviCRM and very thankfull to all developers. Firstly it seems a bit complex and there are some tricks to learn, but I found all answers in the support documentation and forum. It makes me believe we're living in 21st century =)

The initial install went pretty smoothly and despite some other reviews, I found it fairly easy to set up. Kind of rigid in ability to configure/customize though.

When I moved the site to production, the application broke horribly (using absolute path rather than relative from joomla root?)

Then, when I went to remove it, it left a boatload of crap in the database, making it impossible to re-install.

Promising, but sloppy design in its current state. They have forums but no direct support to be found and the developers do not seem to participate in the forums... so no real support unless you're ready to fork over some cash.

So I rated it "average"... typical joomla app that is flaky with no support.

This is a fully featured CRM, and therefore its big, and requires a lot of configuration. Bear with it: use their forums (which are busy, and have good answers provided quickly in my experience) and you will get a component which is excellent. A lot of the installation woes people - myself included - have are as much to do with their hosting not coping with a demanding package as with CiviCRM itself.
As others have said, this is really a Drupal module that works on Joomla, and there are times when it shows - but again, Drupal has an ACL system that works, and Joomla 1.5 doesn't - doubtless when J1.6 finally surfaces CiviCRM will start getting more positive comments here.

Definately worth using this module, but don't expect to have it all working perfectly in only a couple of hours.

I read the many bad review of this product, but decided to give it a try anyway. Boy was I surprised! Sure the product takes a bot of configuration, but anyone who can read a simple tutorial can be up and running in no time. I run a small non-profit, and this component lets me keep my donors and contacts integrated and simple. From a simple donation form to a complete survey with simple option to donate & mailing lists, CiviCRM is great!

I have been looking for exactly this. I love it. You can store all your contacts and its extremely easy to use with a but load of options. I will definitely donate.

Once installed this is a feature rich program. However I have had difficulty installing, mostly due to the fact that I needed MySQL 5.x for the latest version. Uninstalling the tables on the database is also difficult.

This is a extraordinary extension with hard work behind, BUT the size is HUGE, 11Mb. Sorry but I had to pass it after I tested it. It's larger than Joomla and VirtueMart together. Thanks

We had issues to install CiviCRM on our GoDaddy hosting (had to install it on DreamHost hosting we had, and copy over the files and tables to our GoDaddy hosting).

Other than that, we are very happy with what CiviCRM provides. The other so-called "CRMs" in this category on this extensions.joomla.org don't even come close to what CiviCRM provides.

We use:
> CiviEvent to create online event registrations - customize the registration form to our needs
> Donation payment system with builtin PayPal (it has others too) payment processors - we just had to configure it with our paypal info
> Member/Volunteer registration with customized fields - our Joomla account creation link redirects to the CiviCRM member account registration page (btw, CiviCRM also creates a Joomla user account for each registration if we want to)
> Volunteer management to assign tasks to volunteers, etc.
> Maintain contacts

We researched many other systems, but none had what CiviCRM provides.

Oh, did I tell you that the support is great, yes it is. :)

Yes, it can be a challenge to install. But this is a very feature-rich extension package that does a lot more than the above description. Once you get beyond the installation challenges, I have found it to work very well with Joomla. I am not an experienced developer - in fact I incorporated CiviCRM into the first website I designed with Joomla (which was only my second site).

While the extension is tilted towards Drupal, I have detected a strong desire and willingness among the CiviCRM development community to make it more Joomla friendly. In my opinion, the best way to do that would be to make it compatible with JoomlaPack, which would go a long way to solving the installation headaches (use of Foreign Keys in the CiviCRM database seems to prevent this - I don't pretend to understand the details behind this).

If you have the time to configure the installation, it is well worth the effort.

CiviCRM ver. 2.1stable on Joomla 1.5.7
I researched this component quite extensively! While it did take some time in the forums to even get it installed on Joomla, I did finally get it done. I then took on the task of using it. While there are many features that are quite appealing in this component it isn’t integrated very well into the Joomla interface.
Most of the “how to” documentation is directed towards the Drupal users and the component itself is better suited to Drupal.
I did try it in Drupal and I wish it was as well written for Joomla. Since I prefer the Joomla interface for my websites I’m going to have to ditch using CiviCRM until they make it more Joomla friendly, which I really hope is soon! Until they write it to be more Joomla friendly, they should reconsider listing it as a Joomla module.
So, unless you have extensive programming knowledge to get this to work on Joomla (which if I did I would just write my own component), I recommend looking elsewhere until CiviCRM is rewritten to integrate better for Joomla. While I do consider myself more than just a point and click user, I can’t seem to get this component to work like it should (like it does in Drupal anyway), much less teach a client to use it.

The new version runs well on Joomla 1.5 (native)

This is a perfect fit for non-profit organizations that would like to extend the capabilities of Joomla CMS to a CRM. CiviCRM is not a simple component, is a whole CRM system so you need to be patient with the installation process.

I was able to import over 9,400 contacts from over 3,000 organizations. The learning curve is not so bad (it may take you a couple of weeks) and the support is superb.

Event Registration will allow you to customize registration fields and the user can keep a record of all the events that he/she attended. There is also an option to synchronize your events with an iCalendar, so you get the flexibility of displaying the events in different formats.

From the administrator point of view you can collect information for many different internal lists. The records can be exported or imported from CSV. This CRM is just great but be aware that is not for beginners.

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.