Easy bulk addition of database records in iFreeTools CRM & Creator

Apart from the existing support for importing data in bulk using CSV files, we have now enabled support for bulk-addition of database records directly within our online apps.

From the list views (under More Actions) and from the details views (for adding Related Records), you will now find an option to add multiple entries of the records. Using this you can easily enter details for multiple database records in a single page and then save them all at once.

The form for adding multiple entries will be like the one given below..



In the above screen capture, multiple tasks are being added for a lead. By default the attributes which are marked as requiring a value along with a few other attributes are made visible in the form. One can change the attributes listed in the form by clicking on the Show/Hide Attributes link on the top-right.

When adding new rows, the values from the first row will be copied. So you can set the defaults in the first row and then have them copied to the new entries. You may also remove entries from the form, before you save them to database.

Once the details are added to the database, you can return back to the page from where you came to this form and see the records you had just added.

This feature is available in both the Free CRM for Google Apps and the Free Online Database Builder for Google Apps.

Hope you like our new feature. Feel free to send in your suggestions.

Private deployment of iFreeTools into your own Google App Engine account starts at $99/year for upto 25 users. For unlimited users it is just $299/year. Additional customizations are optional and are billed at Indian rates. If you are interested in such a private deployment, contact raj@sahasvat.com.

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.

iFreeTools now opens up for all Google Apps User Accounts

iFreeTools CRM - our free CRM built over Google App Engine and iFreeTools Creator - our free online database application builder, which were - until now - open only to users with Google Accounts, have now been opened up to allow all Google Apps users directly.

Thanks to adopting new features enabled recently by Google, for its Google App Engine platform, Google Apps users need not look for work-arounds and request separate deployments to use iFreeTools.

Users can also continue to login with Google Accounts, as before.

Once user has logged in using either Google Accounts or Google Apps User Accounts, our app will check for the email-id of the logged-in user to identify the user and to authorize operations. We also plan to enable full OpenID support, very soon.

What was until now just "CRM for Google App Engine" is now happy to call itself the "CRM for Google Apps, built over Google App Engine".

Hope you find our new feature useful. Feel free to check out our apps and send in your feedback.