SugarCRM Module Builder – Deploying A Module Craps Over Other Modules

The bugs and limitations in SugarCRM Module Builder are infuriating, and the support that the company provides (and I don’t mean free one-to-one support) is appalling.

I am finding that building more than one module at the same time in Module Builder is a big no-no. When you deploy a module, it will remove some parts and some relationships of other modules that have been previously deployed. So you go back and deploy those module again, and it breaks the first. You are kind of stuck yoyo-ing between modules that you cannot deploy without breaking stuff.

And the support – bleh! Don’t get me wrong – I don’t expect to be given anything for nothing. The CE version of SugarCRM is an Open Source project. Such projects work when there is a community that are involved and working on the thing. Unfortunately the company behind SugarCRM seems to like breaking up that community at any opportunity – it feels like a lack of respect to those that work hard to make SugarCRM a better product.

If you raise bugs, there is seldom much feedback, if any. Usually it amounts to “fixed” with the ticket closed – not a clue what the problem was, or any hints on how to regression test it. That will only lead to a lower quality product.

The discussion forums ought to be a great place for developers, users and other people interested in SugarCRM to hang out and discuss the product. People can help each other, which is what people in a respected Open Source project will do. Instead, everything posted to the forum has to be “moderated” by a “manager” before it can be seen. That is taking days to happen at the moment. I have been registered with the forum since 1997, and my posts still go to the moderation queue to be ignored.

This action alone is breaking the community completely. There is nowhere to share issues, share solutions, and ask quick questions.

The company behind SugarCRM may be trying to play all their cards close to their chest – deciding exactly what is and is not discussed, deciding what to do with bugs without any discussion at all, and – it feels – keeping developers who may end up being some semblance of competition to them, but in the end they are losing all the skills and help the community would be providing. They are pissing people off, and the result is the shit parts of the product will remain shit for many years to come.

It’s such a shame. Reminds me of how OSCommerce was run a decade ago, when it had a the marketplace to itself for so many years and could have grown and improved so much. But it didn’t. It didn’t like to deal with the community in a respectful way, and it never moved forward.

It is frustrating. There is so much wrong, so much that can be fixed and improved, but it seems the project just does not want to know.

One Response to SugarCRM Module Builder – Deploying A Module Craps Over Other Modules

  1. jasonjudge 2013-02-11 at 16:58 #

    I suspect the reason for the main issue (Module Builder misbehaving) is that when a module is deployed from Module Builder, the process of deploying will write bits of that module all over the place – in the modules area, in the custom area, in the Extensions area. IMO it shouldn’t, but it does. In doing so, it is a little too liberal in what it deletes – it will clear out whole directories so that it can deploy the module, and sometimes there are bits of other modules in those directories.

    I am hoping, once a module is “published” (exported to a zip file then installed) and the module is deleted from Module Builder, that this provides code that is a lot tidier – all in the modules directory, so unlikely to get overwritten by any other module.

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