civicrm_entity

This module is intended to expose CiviCRM as an entity within Drupal to allow rules integration, entity references, node to civi-views etc

============================================================================ Status

Intitial focus was on Rules & there is reasonable progress there. (see below)

The areas I have looked at so far are mostly rules integration, entity reference fields

Some consideration needs to be given to security & possibly performance going forwards I haven't added a permissions to access CiviCRM objects in rules (yet) which is a gap

Also, the post hook is called for each enabled entity & then the rules hook - the rules hook is probably pretty light so it may not matter much - however I have only enabled 4 entities so far until further thought as to whether they should be configurable.

================================================================================= Features

I have packaged in 2 features showing rules in use. One creates OGs from events & subscribes participants to them. The other adds people to drupal roles based on CiviCRM relationships

It takes a bit of getting used to the Rules config so they are mostly to 'show how it is done'

========================================================================= Schema declaration

The schema hook really expects your fields to be in the same database so I have used hook_schema_alter

Note that it IS possible to declare datetime fields in the hook_schema using the 'mysql_type' parameter http://drupal.org/node/159605

========================================================================= Rules Integration

The entity module Focus so far has been on Rules - to the extent it is now possible to take action on a drupal user based on a civicrm action

e.g. - CiviCRM event is created => Organic Group for the event is created - CiviCRM Participant is created => participant is registered in the OG

Entities enabled (so far) event, participant, relationship, contact (Enabling more entities only requires adding them to an array so caution rather than effort is limiting this)

Conditions usable = any data condition - e.g. data compare

• eg. event_type_id = 'Conference'

Actions usable The only actions enabled here are

• load drupal user
• create drupal user
• load or create drupal user (this is the one I have user) Other actions are all normal drupal ones

Note that some actions are showing - these don't work yet as there isn't a form to pass through criteria

========================================================================= Views

The civicrm_views module uses the views_data hook rather than views_data_alter() which appears to clash. I have been testing changing this.

The civicrm_entity approach would probably eventually replace most of the views integration code with only a few items that need to be handcoded being in the views code.

============================================================================= Fieldability & Display

I haven't gone far down this apart from looking at creating bundles but it seems like the idea of having a CiviCRM entity that has a 'life' in drupal and can have drupal fields attached to it may hold possibilities

============================================================================= Performance

One issue is considering whether we should limit the fields that get loaded when an entity is loaded I believe the drupal bundles concept may be an approach to define a minimum set of fields, a medium set and a comprehensive one. However, this would need to be defined somehow? Preferably not ad hoc.