CiviCRM installation process

Pre-requisites: Ubuntu packages: php5-ldap php5-sybase. Restart apache afterwards.

Install drupal 7 (currently 7.15)

Install and configure the drupal-ldap module.

Install drush 5.7

Install civicrm 4.2 (currently 4.2.2)

Add localisation, to allow for English (UK) language: relevant l10n file for civi version.

Then follow additional localisation instructions at: ​http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC40/CiviCRM+Localisation

Log in as the site administrator account, and go to /sites/all/modules/civicrm/install/index.php

Provide details of civicrm database connection and other pre-install configuration.

Full details of the installation step here: ​http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC42/Drupal+Installation+Guide+for+CiviCRM+4.2+-+Drupal+7

Run 'Synchronize contacts to users' to ensure that cid=1 is set to the site admin user.

Then use the configuration checklist within the CiviCRM module.

In 'Address settings', in both the address format boxes, shift the supplemental_address_1 field ABOVE the street_address field. Change 'contact.state_province' to 'contact.state_province_name'. In the 'address editing' section, turn off 'post code suffix', 'county', latitude, longitude, street address parsing.

In 'Display Preferences', under 'editing contacts', untick IM, OpenID and Website. Also untick 'Notify activity assignees'. In the 'contact dashboard' section, tick 'Assigned activities'.

In 'Outbound Mail' set the mail type to SMTP and the server to smtp.xuhl-tr.nhs.uk port 25. Authentication is not required.

in Administer >> System Settings >> Enable Components, disable CiviContribute, CiviMail, CiviMember, CiviPledge, CiviEvent, CiviGrant and CiviCampaign. Enable CiviCase and CiviReport only.

Change date and time representations to UK format using Administer >> Localization >> Date Formats.

In Administer >> Settings - Directories set the 'templates directory' to the drupal base path + "sites/all/civicrm_templates" - this is essential for the CiviCase XML files to be read.

In Administer >> Customize Data >> Word Replacements set "CiviCase" -> "Study Management", "Case Types" -> "Research Studies", "Case Type" -> "Study", "Open Case" -> "Enrol into study", "Case Subject" -> "Enrolment Label", "Case Statuses" -> "Enrolment Statuses", "Case" -> "Study Enrolment", "case" -> "study enrolment", "Client" -> "Participant".

Finally, install the lcbru module to configure the GENVASC case sructure and other customisations specific to the LCBRU, the GENVASC label printing module and the ICE messaging module. Also enable the 'CiviGroup Roles Sync' module.

Issues

CiviCRM Documentation

Configuration of CiviCase: ​http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC41/CiviCase+Configuration#CiviCaseConfiguration-ConfiguringCiviCase

Notes on Drupal and LDAP configuration - used to create user accounts, and associate the user accounts to the 'LCBRU staff' group.

PDF generation

Better performance in PDF generation is offered with the wkhtmltopdf library - which can be installed on Ubuntu using apt-get. Then in the CiviCRM admin menu you can point to the executable (which is usually at /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf so that's easy) and CiviCRM will use that.

Mail merging, tokens, etc

The {contact.state_province_name} token works in the display screens but not in the mail merges. There's a replacement token supplied using hooks in the LCBRU module, along with other tokens useful for various purposes, in the civicrm_hooks.php file.

Upgrades

Remember that upgrades require dependent modules to be disabled during the upgrade process. This can take a little while, as you have to disable them in order of dependency.

Upgrade from 4.2.x to 4.3.5 worked smoothly on localhost test machine