Custom Views now support Template Criteria for User References and Date/DateTime fields

There are some pre-created views in iFreeTools CRM like My Open Leads, My Open Cases and My Pending Tasks which lists the records, based on the user who is currently logged-in and accessing the application, showing only the records owned by them in that view.

While one can created Custom Views providing specific user references, there was no way to create a view with such dynamic values referring to the currently logged-in user.

Similarly, while there are pre-created views like Due Today, Due Tomorrow (in Tasks module), which lists the records based on the when the view is getting accessed. Until now, it was not possible to create such views using the Custom Views in iFreeTools.

But now, we have now added support for using dynamic filtering criteria values in Custom Views, for User reference attributes and date, date-time attributes.

Dynamic User-reference values in Custom Views

While you still have options to choose specific user references, when adding Custom Views, you are now provided with an option to choose dynamic values, as shown in the image below..


Choosing the option adds the criteria as a template value - ${user}, referring to the currently logged in user..


This template criteria value will be replaced dynamically, when users access the Custom View.

Dynamic filtering for Date, DateTime fields using Custom Views

Until now we did not support date and date-time fields in Custom Views. This was due to certain limitations in the querying capabilities of Google App Engine. While the limitations remain, we have overcome them to enable you to create Custom Views providing dynamic criteria values for date, date-time fields.

You can now filter out records using on the following dynamic criteria values..

${today}, ${tomorrow},
${this_week}, ${last_week}, ${next_week},
${this_month}, ${last_month}, ${next_month},
${this_year}, ${last_year}, ${next_year}

as shown in the image below..

Here again, the template criteria value will be replaced dynamically, when users access the Custom View.

This date/date-time filtering feature in Custom Views internally uses indexes for querying the data. These indexes for database records are something like an index in books, helping you find the required records.

While new data will be automatically indexed, existing data has to be updated at least once, so that the records can be indexed automatically.

One can trigger indexing from the list views by selecting one or more records and then clicking on More Actions > Re-Index.

Hope you like the new template-criteria based Custom Views.

There are no upper limits on the number of Custom Views one can add to our GAE(Google App Engine)-hosted Free CRM for Google Apps and to our GAE-hosted Online Database App Builder. So, feel free to add as many views as you would like and do send in your suggestions on how you think the apps can be enhanced to make it even more useful.

Would you like to have iFreeTools deployed onto your Google App Engine account? Yes, we offer custom deployment options, starting at $99/year for upto 25 users, enabling you to use the free quota (1 GB of storage and 2000 emails/day) offered by Google and to buy more resources as per requirements, directly from Google. Contact raj@sahasvat.com for more details.

Import Field Mapping now available in iFreeTools CRM / Creator

iFreeTools CRM - the free CRM built over Google App Engine, for use with Google Apps - now supports import field mapping.

Now you can map fields from CSV files imported from other sources by providing the field mapping in an easy to use interface, instead of having to manually mapping them in the CSV file. The source can be address book from Outlook or from Google Contacts exported as CSV, or even from your old CRM/database system.

Such field mapping can be saved and reused multiple times.

To enable this mapping, the import process will now contain 2 steps. First one will be similar to the one which we had earlier, where you could provide the CSV file to be imported..


The next step will be to provide the mapping. By default, the app will try to match the fields in the CSV with the property in iFreeTools record. The unmapped fields will be highlighted as shown below..



You may now provide the mapping for all fields which you want to import into iFreeTools. You could even map multiple fields from CSV to a single field in iFreeTools. The multiple values will be joined together and stored in the property.


You can view the reverse mapping to see if you have covered all important mapping.


In CRM, if the records require an "owner" property, it will be set to the user who performs the import operation. You could later use the Bulk Edit feature to reassign owners as required.

You could also provide a name for the import field mapping, so that you could just select it from the selection box the next time you need to import a similar CSV file.

This feature is also available for custom database apps created using iFreeTools Creator.

Feature Preview : Email Templates and Bulk Emails

We are now working on have rolled in a new feature for iFreeTools, which is Email Templates and Bulk Emails.

Email Templates enable you to automate mailing work by allowing you to define templates, which can include fields from the records and then to send out mails with their values replaced (mail-merge).

This new feature will now be supported for records which have an Email attribute.

For iFreeTools CRM, this will include Lead, Contact, Vendor and Case records.

And, for iFreeTools Creator - where one can create their own custom database application online - String attributes can now be marked as email and will automatically get this feature enabled for those Entities.

The following screen-shot image shows Owner's Email ID property, from the sample app used in our walk-through for using iFreeTools Creator, being marked as an Email Property. The transform function is also used to trim the values to remove spaces and convert it to lower-case.

Similarly, we can also mark the Tenant's Email ID property.

Once this is marked, a new action button will become available in the list views. For the CRM app, as mentioned earlier, this has been pre-configured for Leads, Contacts, Vendors and Cases.

In the above view, the option is disabled, because no records have been selected.

Let us select a few records to proceed to check out how this feature would work. Shown below are 3 record selected before triggering Send Email


The default view will be as given below. Since this is a preview release of the feature, the message on the top informs you that Notification Tasks will alone be added in Preview status - which means actual emails will not be sent, for now.

You will have an option to just send an email once or to save the template providing the name, description, type of email and sharing options. Admin users can create templates for themselves or for all users, like it is possible with our Custom Views and Custom Actions.

We will now proceed to create a Welcome Email template, and make it available for all users. One can include fields from the records, which are listed on the left on the content box and can be clicked to be inserted into the contents. You can also use BBCode. The supported BBCode tags are : b, i, u, s (strike), url, quote, img, list with *, size, color, center, code and p.

Fields are supported within mail subject too, as shown in the screen-shot below..


Proceeding to send email, you will see a page as shown below. Notice the message on the top, that the email template has been added. The notification tasks will be added sequentially for each of the record instances.


Let us now check for the results.

Clicking on the Notification Templates, we find the template listed..


Proceeding to the Notification Tasks view, we find 3 records present with status as Preview. Also notice how the values have been replaced with actual values from Owner records.


And, this is one of the Notification Task's details view..


Notice that I had done a mistake in my template code by providing HTML instead of BBCode for the content "Personal Executive" - happens when switching between writing a blog post and the app, taking screen shots :-). Anyway, we can edit the template to correct this, which we will be doing now while explaining another important feature, which is Automatic Dupe Detection for Bulk-Emails.

To explain how Automatic Dupe Detection for Bulk-Emails works, we will again trigger the Send Email from the Owners list view with all the records selected and proceed to the email-template view as given below. Now, select the template from the selection box and click on Modify and Save options next to that box. Edit the content as required and then proceed.


In the subsequent page, we will see the results for the notification tasks being added, as shown below. The engine will detect dupe emails based on the notification identifier, which for now is taken to be the subject of the email. So, notification tasks will be added only for those records which have not already been mailed with the same subject.


This is a preview release of the Email Templates and Bulk Emails feature. When this is fully enabled, the tasks would have triggered emails and end up with status as Executed.

(Update : Bulk emails feature has been fully enabled for all paid, single-tenant deployments.)

For each of the notified users, a record will be added in Notified Users, under Admin. This will be used to enable users to opt-out of notifications, if they prefer to do so - confirming to CAN-SPAM regulations for Promotional emails.

We plan to integrate with SMS gateways too, which will follow the similar flow, except that the Subject will be ignored and the Content will have to be short.

(Update : Bulk SMS from your online database has also been enabled, by integrating iFreeTools with Twilio.)

Play around with our iFreeTools and let us know your feedback on how we can make things better.

Bulk Edit feature now available in the Free CRM for Google App Engine

Our recent upgrade now enables Bulk-Edit feature in our Google App Engine powered Free CRM and Free Online Database Application Builder apps.

While many could have used such features in other apps, just giving an overview of the feature for those who may be new to the feature.

From the list views, select one or more records and then click on the "Bulk Edit" button.


This will bring up the bulk-edit form. In this all the form input elements will be disabled by default. You may enable the form elements for attributes to be modified by selecting appropriate check-boxes and then proceed to enter the values for those attributes. Once you have updated the required fields with values, click on Save.


This will update the previously selected record instances with new values, changing values for those attributes enabled in the form. Other disabled attributes will remain unchanged. (The modified records, with the changed value for owner, are shown highlighted in the following view..)


Coming up next will be options to create "Custom Actions", using which frequent edit operations can be saved as a Custom Action and invoked with a single click, instead of filling in forms again and again.

iFreeTools in The 451 Group's report on SaaS M&A

iFreeTools gets a mention in Sector IQ report titled "Buying in the cloud: Where SaaS players and others may look to make M&A moves for apps", by China Martens, dated 14 Jan 2010.

This report is filed under the sectors..

• Application software / Customer relationship management
  
• Application software / Enterprise resource planning

(click to view larger image)

Glad about being part of that report.

Not sure about the exact context or quote, but I think I can guess - based on the title. (Hint: iFreeTools will not acquire any of those companies, listed along with it.)

Support for Custom Views in iFreeTools

iFreeTools CRM just got an update with the new Custom Views feature.

Note : Ability to create Custom Views has also be enabled in iFreeTools Creator, our online database app builder for Google Apps. If you do not see this option when viewing the records for your custom entity, kindly verify if you have selected the Allow Custom Views option for that entity.

Clicking on the Add Custom View link available under each module of CRM, will bring up a form wherein one can provide the view name, description and the criteria to be used for filtering.

For example, to view all leads who have not been contacted yet, one can create a "Not Contacted" view as shown below..




Once the view is created, it will be listed along with the predefined views in the module..


One can also provide multiple values for the criteria.

For example, to view all Open Leads by specific owners (say, for users "Gold" and "Diamond"), one can create a view as shown below (notice multiple values in OR for Lead Owner and Lead Status)..


The resulting view will use all values in the criteria to provide the results..


Such Custom Views will be available for use by all users within the application instance, while admin users alone can create/modify/delete Custom Views.

Currently properties with choices and reference properties alone can be used in providing the filter criteria. For other filtering one can use the search within the Advanced Views, for now. We will be coming up with more options for filtering at a later upgrade.

Check out the new feature and feel free to send us your feedback.

Related Blog Posts : 

• Custom Views now support Template Criteria for User References and Date/DateTime fields

Sorting and Faster Paging (Next/Previous) with Advanced Views

Not being able to sort the data, was one of the pain points expressed by some of our users. So we got working on a quick feature to support sorting of data in the views, while also enabling faster paging.

These features are now available as "Advanced Views" in the Google App Engine powered iFreeTools CRM.



It is recommended to use Chrome or Firefox (with firebug disabled), to experience this feature.

Currently "Advanced Views" is not the default view, as it is still a work in progress. Other upcoming features in the Advanced Views include selectable columns and search.

So, what is your pain point ? What would you like to see soon in iFreeTools CRM ?

Let us know - you can use the feedback form in the application or send a mail to raj@sahasvat.com. We listen, and more importantly, we act and we deliver.

Task Management module added to iFreeTools CRM

Google App Engine powered iFreeTools has added support for managing Tasks in its hosted CRM service.

Now users can add Tasks and associate them to other CRM records which can be Lead, Account, Contact, Opportunity, Case, Campaign, Vendor and Product.


A set of pre-defined views have also been provided for the Tasks module..

• My Pending Tasks
  
• All Pending Tasks
  
• Past Due
  
• Due Today
  
• Due Tomorrow
  
• Completed

Check out the new module and as always, keep sending in your feedback on the Free CRM for Google Apps.

Add Logo to your Rebranded CRM

As part of rebranding iFreeTools CRM, you may now provide the URL for your logo, to be displayed in the header of the CRM application. The URL can directly point to the logo on your website - example : http://www.mydomain.com/static/images/logo.png . Uploading images to iFreeTools is not supported, for now.

To help your logo blend with the application, you may choose a header out of "default", "cloud" or "full-white", so as to match your logo better. Transparent PNG logos are also supported.

The following samples show the use of a transparent PNG logo, used for rebranding with the 3 different headers..

With "default" Header :


With "cloud" Header :


With "full-white" header :



Also, you may include the rebranding text (organization name, appName1 and appName2) along with smaller logos, as shown below..

Logo with Text :


Check out the features and feel free to send in your feedback on our Free CRM for Google Apps.

Related Post :
iFreeTools CRM on your sub-domain, with rebranding !!

iFreeTools CRM on your sub-domain, with rebranding !!

Update (September 2016): Google has been migrating this feature out of Google Apps to Google Cloud Console and if you domain was migrated to the latest version of Google Apps, this feature may not be available for configuration any longer. You will still be able to go in for a paid single-tenant deployment of iFreeTools (starts at $99/year for up to 25 users), where you will get access to the Google Cloud Console of your iFreeTools deployment and can map the application to any domain (the domain need not be associated with Google Apps).

Yet another upgrade just happened at CRM for Google App Engine. This upgrade enables mapping of iFreeTools CRM service to one of your sub-domains and also to configure it with simple rebranding.

Note : The details provided here are also applicable to iFreeTools Creator, our online database app builder for Google Apps.

Sub-domain mapping

To enable sub-domain mapping, like say http://crm.yourdomain.com, you will require to enable Google Apps for your domain and add iFreeTools app as a service.

In the old version of the Google Apps dashboard, you can click on the Get more apps and services link under Common Tasks.

In the new version of the Google Apps dashboard, you can click on Other Google Services control. If you are not seeing this control, kindly try More Controls option at the bottom of the page.

In the Other Google Services page, click on the Add Services icon, as shown below :

In the resulting page, add the Google App Engine service, by providing the App ID. The App ID for the 2 iFreeTools applications are given below :

• iFreeTools CRM : sahasvat-ifreetools
• iFreeTools Creator : sahasvat-ifreetools-creator

You may now proceed to configure your sub-domain, by configuring the Web address, as shown below.

You may also be required to add CNAME entries in your DNS configuration to map to ghs.google.com. These steps are not covered here. Kindly follow steps as detailed in Google Apps.

After the web-address is configured and the CNAME entries are added, you should be able to access iFreeTools service from the configured sub-domain.

Rebranding

When you login into the application, you will see the header with default configuration having values which suggest you to make changes (currently it will be something like "Your-Biz-Name-Here")..



Proceed to Admin::App Settings to view the default settings currently used by the application, which will be similar to the one given below..



Now proceed to modify the configuration. Notice that About Page and Feedback Page have been disabled (unchecked) as part of Rebranding..



And after the modified app settings takes effect, you will see the specified names being used in the header and that the About and Feedback links are removed from the application..


As of now, feedback mails when enabled (with "Show Feedback Page" as True) will be sent to ifreetools.com, behaviour of which will be modified soon.

Hope you like the new features.

Play with the app and feel free to send in your feedback on iFreeTools CRM.

Related :
Add Logo to your Rebranded CRM

Customize selection values in iFreeTools CRM

iFreeTools CRM (alpha) - the CRM for Google AppEngine, just got an upgrade. With this upgrade, iFreeTools CRM has added support for defining enumerated values for selection fields.

Admin users can now define Enum values to be listed for the following selection fields..

• lead.salutation
  
• lead.leadSource
  
• lead.leadIndustry
  
• lead.leadRating
  
• account.accountRating
  
• account.accountType
  
• account.accountOwnership
  
• account.accountIndustry
  
• contact.leadSource
  
• contact.salutation
  
• opportunity.type
  
• opportunity.leadSource
  
• campaign.campaignType
  
• product.productCategory
  
• case.origin
  
• case.reason

For using this option, go to the Enum module under Admin and add comma-separated values for the fields. If no Enum is defined for a property, the default application level settings will be used.

Default selection values before customization


Configure values for the selection field


Selection values after customization


Defining of Enum has been disabled for the following fields, since they are used in pre-defined views.

• lead.leadStatus
  
• opportunity.stage
  
• campaign.campaignStatus
  
• solution.status
  
• case.type
  
• case.status
  
• case.priority

Also, currently you will have to configure values for attribute for different modules individually. Example lead.leadSource, contact.leadSource and opportunity.leadSource will have to be configured individually. Since it is a one-time admin operation, we assumed it will be OK. Probably at a later date, we can provide a even more easier option to define once and refer in more than one field.

Check out the feature and feel free to send in your feedback on our Free CRM application.