SuiteCRM 7.10 preview

We’re working on SuiteCRM 7.10 and I’d like to share some of the key points for this release.

Although we can’t always provide a proper response to all request and feedback, we ARE listening to you, and finally with 7.10 we have a chance of addressing a few things that have been longstanding Community concerns:

  1. It will be a release directed at stability, aiming to merge as much of our PR backlog as possible (this means: no new unnecessary features)

  2. Reworking the SuiteP theme spacing to make it more compact.

  3. Providing a choice of colours for SuiteP Theme. For 7.10, this will be a menu with a handful of Colour Schemes for all tastes. Later, a more detailed editor can be added.

  4. Establish automated testing and unit testing.

We really hope these improvements will contribute to the quality of SuiteCRM and will be a great preparation for the future 8.0 Release that will follow.

[size=5]If anybody wants a peek at the work our designer is making for the new Colour Schemes, check out these mock-ups (the spacing is still not changed, just the colours):[/size]

You’re welcome to give us some feedback but this is a work in progress … the time for real feedback will be in a couple of months. But we’ll give you regular updates and try to keep everyone in the loop.

The process for this release will also be the most ambitious we’ve tried yet in terms of Community involvement. We know our limited resources slow us down, and growing our team takes time. But we also know there are thousands of you out there, willing to help.

We’re adding some automated tests, but for a product this big, test coverage will not be complete initially. So we’re also aiming to do much more human testing, since our objectives for PR merging will touch virtually all areas of the app. All the PR’s we’ve been hesitant to merge because of the limitations of our test processes, we’ll try to get into this Release, and make sure this one is tested especially thoroughly.

We will have a Beta 1, a Beta 2, and a Release Candidate, but we will try to keep some control on exactly who’s downloading and who’s testing which parts of the app, so the end result is more guaranteed (lesson from 7.9!).

Some time in September or October we will open a Registration for Community Testing for Beta 1 & 2 Testers. We’re still getting this organized and I’ll provide more details later. Of course we’ll have to make a proposal to the Community and then hear what sort of contribution you think you can provide.

I also want to let you know Ashley (samus-aran) will be on leave for the next few months but we look forward to having her back early in 2018.

7.10 will be our most Community-based Release yet, and hopefully is a sign of the maturation of this project:

  • goals come essentially from Community feedback
  • merged code finally gets many Community contributions into the product
  • Community involvement in testing makes it possible to try an audacious release

As I wrote elsewhere, we are growing up in public. Nobody in SalesAgility has led an open source project before. We are learning as we go. I thank you for your patience, contributions and encouragement. I hope this release proves that what you tell us makes a difference.

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Fantastic! exciting! Do we have any release date for 7.10?

Where should suggestions be posted?

On this thread … but remember … this is an early preview.

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The new screen mockups are looking great!

Just my two cents/pence worth :-

  1. If possible, involve a user experience/user interface person in any theme re-design process, to ensure that screen functionality is optimized, in consultation with some actual SuiteCRM users.

  2. If possible, re-think the concept of “theme” …

a) Provide several out-of-the-box colour/font size/spacing variations … i.e. “THEMES” … and give each one a name (e.g. “BLUE”, ”MIDNIGHT”, “PAD_1, “SMARTPHONE3”, etc.).

b) Then, make these themes customizable … colours, font sizes, font weights (i.e. contrast), spacing/padding, etc. … by System Administrators and savable under suitable theme names.

c) As the “ideal” screen spacing/padding depends on the device being used (desktop, pad, smartphone, etc.), make the above themes user-selectable at time of login.

USER: JOHNSMITH
PASSWORD: **********
THEME: MIDNIGHT [a dropdown list of available themes]

USER: JOHNSMITH
PASSWORD: ********
THEME: PHONE_2

USER: JOHNSMITH
PASSWORD: ********
THEME: LARGE_FONT

This would relieve SA of trying to please everyone … and would avoid the a “Suite P B*tch and Moan”!

d) Store the above theme parameters in separate text files (filename = theme name) within a specific SuiteCRM folder. It would then be possible for System Admins to install new “themes” simply by exchanging and adding these files to their SuiteCRM instance (then a quick Repair and Rebuild).

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@paullm I particularly like your idea of selecting theme at logon, to match whatever device you’re logging in from.

The rest of the considerations about UI - I believe for this version we’ll be getting only a better spacing and a few color palette options. The UI redesign (which is, in fact, necessary) will be for 8.0 or later. This is probably wise because there we don’t want to delay the immediately necessary fixes and be left waiting for a BIG project to conclude…

@salesagility I really appreciate the direction this release is promising and I am confident it will be a very significant step forward for the project. Even if you can’t deliver on 100% of what’s promised here, the 80 or 90% you achieve will be great news.

The automatic tests currently being set up on GitHub are looking great (at least, a great start). Let’s try to get this community testing thing working, let’s get those larger (riskier) technological improvements into the code.

You can certainly count on me to help testing and debugging.

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I find the idea legal, but I do not consider it ideal.
We have to think that the suitecrm must always favor the majority before the minority.
Lean, fluid and complete at the same time.

Fantastic, great news!

please add 100% accessibility in the objectives, we do have blind people using SuiteCRM and most are very productive with it.

We will like to participate in the beta test for sure…

Serge

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You omitted “flexible”.

When it comes to a user interface on different devices, there is no “complete” and no “majority”.

In some parts of the world, certain colours are highly significant (either positively or negatively) and correct spacing/padding is important for the device being used to access SuiteCRM.

That is why the best approach, where possible, is to empower System Admins to customize whatever is best for their users and what I suggested above, accommodates that.

Paulim, you are completely missing the point of accessibility, it is not presentation it is in the code :
extract from

I hit enter too fast.

Accessibility is not fashion, it is not necessary about colors…
Accessibility is in the code, like

  • Provide text alternatives for non-text content (icons, image, etc)
  • Label elements and give instructions
  • Don’t use images of text
  • provide keyboard shortcuts so blind people not using mouse may navigate through the page
  • Use helpful and clear page titles
  • Break up content with headings
  • Page has a language assigned so screen readers may use the right language
  • Suggest fixes when users make errors (This one shall be beneficial for all of us!)
    This list was inspired by this most most complete list : https://www.wuhcag.com/wcag-checklist/
    I picked the ones that meets SuiteCRM system.
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Paulim, you mention majority… if you refer to accessiblity…

ok,
but do not forget that SuiteCRM is a tool that we provide to employees.
In many part of the world there are laws that stipulates that we must provide accessible tools to our employees…

@bmwtourer I think you doing an important thing calling the attention of everybody for these accessibility issues. But, without wanting to sound skeptical, for a project this big, with the very limited resources around, I don’t think we’ll be seeing a full-blown “accessibility project” anytime soon.

Anyway, this is a community project, if people get involved and contribute, it will happen (at least, as a slow bit-by-bit improvement, until a satisfactory level is reached). I see you already opened a few accessibility issues on GitHub and they were fixed. They were even labeled “high priority”.

So if you can keep doing that for small things… it really helps. The truth is that only when you know actual persons that you work with, and have these difficulties, you get the necessary sensibility to know what is missing.

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pgr beat me to the response, but I concur. That would indeed be a huge undertaking, given the resources available! Nice to have, but I am also skeptical that it will appear anytime soon.

In the feedback posts following Release 7.9, the major complaint was the limitation of the single (Suite P) theme. Spacing was mentioned, as was contrast (for poor-eyesight users), as was the “horrible colours”.

The point of my original suggestion was simply to get Sales Agility out from under all that (the impossible goal of trying to please everyone!), by making the theme customizable by System Admins. Then further, making those customizations selectable at time of login, which is where that needs to occur.

Finally, involving a UI/UX person to ensure that, going forward, real-world users can influence the decisions of the design/development team.

Great, I hope to see an invite soon…would love to see if some issues are resoved… :slight_smile:

Hey, any further developments on this?

Seems to have gone quiet since the initial announcement

There won’t be any further developments for a while. As was mentioned, 7.10 is a long way off and SA is merely collecting feedback and suggestions for inclusion at this point.

Dear Sir,

What is the use of all this trumpeting about the new version 7.10 when you are yet to solve this simple problem which has been lingering in all version except version 7.7.9??? My expectation for a good boastable release is when you have resolved all the issues in the previous version. New feature over a buggy software is like putting on high speed tyres on junky car!

Solve this simple problem first. I am using 7.9,.5 and is hopeless.

@murugappan

Dear Sir,

Like you, I am an end-user of SuiteCRM and I do not speak for Sales Agility.

Regardless, the solution to your particular needs might be better served either by another piece of CRM software or perhaps the purchase of a support contract, like Suite Assured, to address your issues more to your schedule.

The 7.10 announcement was merely a future announcement, like all other releases of SuiteCRM; certainly not a boastful fanfare.

At this stage, SA is collecting suggestions and feedback for 7.10, but submissions posted with a bad attitude do not help this process.

As mentioned, the main intent with 7.10 is to addresses many of the existing bugs, but we should not forget that SA is a commercial entity with its own clients to support. Those clients are naturally going to take priority.

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Please post your problem as a new topic. Also give details on your installation (version, server system).
The error looks related to your installation only, not on the software itself.

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