Monday, June 1, 2009

vTiger Tutorial

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vTiger Tutorial

What is Vtiger

Vtiger CRM 4.2.x is an Open Source CRM software, used mainly by small and medium-sized businesses. Vtiger CRM can be used to manage your company wide CRM and Inventory Management activities, such as sales force automation, customer support & service, marketing automation, procurement & fulfillment effectively. With SiteGround hosting you can use all vTiger features.

VTiger Tutorial includes the following sections:

SiteGround has long experience in providing web space for CRM sites. Our vTiger hosting service is the best choice for you for it offers the richest set of features, CRM-expertized support team and lots of FREE tools.



vTiger Hosting
(c) Copyright 2006 SiteGround Web Hosting Services. All rights reserved

You may use this tutorial for your own use. You may not distribute it in any form without the express permission of the publisher. You may provide a link to the publisher's web site, where this tutorial can be used from. This tutorial is provided free of charge and without any warranty of any kind.


VTiger Installation

How to install Vtiger CRM?

Get a FREE Vtiger installation with SiteGround vTiger hosting Package!

In order to install the Vtiger on a SiteGround hosting account, please follow the instructions bellow:

Pre-installation Steps

Step 1: Database setup:

Please, check our MySQL tutorial, to see how to create MySQL database and user and how to link them together.

Step 2: Upload Files

Now your database is up and ready to be filled in with data. But first you have to upload the Vtiger CRM files to your hosting account. Please, go to http://www.vtiger.com/ and download the latest stable release.

You need to download the LAMP version - it includes only the source code of Vtiger CRM - we have already installed Apache, MySQL and PHP on our servers).

Extract it on your computer - the archive will uncompress to a folder that contains the files of the installation:

vtiger_crm/index.php
vtiger_crm/modules
vtiger_crm/includes/
vtiger_crm/schema/
vtiger_crm/themes/
etc.

Now, please, start your favorite FTP client (learn more about FTP).

You should have already chosen where Vtiger will be installed on your account. If you want it to be your main website application, you should upload the files and folders of the installation directly inside the public_html/ folder (or www/ - they are the same) of your account. In other words, if Vtiger is to be visible at http://YourDomain.com/, the files should be uploaded inside public_html/ folder.

If you want Vtiger installed in a sub-folder, create one inside public_html and upload all the files there. For example, if Vtiger is to be installed at http://www.yourdomain.com/vtigersite/, please, create the public_html/vtigersite directory and upload the files in there, which should produce similar paths:

public_html/vtigersite/index.php
public_html/vtigersite/modules/
piblic_html/vtigersite/cron/
etc.

Have a bottle (or two) of nice beer while the files are being uploaded. :)

vTiger Installation

Finally, you are ready to proceed with the installation. Please, point your browser to the URL where you have uploaded the files. We will assume Vtiger CRM will be your main website, so type www.yourdomain.com in your browser. The steps of the installation process are very straight forward and well-explained, so we will only discuss the most important ones in detail.

Step 1: The Vtiger installation is beginning. If you wish, you may send the Vtiger developer information about you (email and name), if not - click NEXT.

Step 2: The Vtiger installer is making the checks - if everything is fine, you should see some green text (available, writable, version numbers etc.)

Step 3: Database configuration: This is where you tell Vtiger how to access its database. Some time ago, you should have created an MySQL database and user - please enter the details in the boxes provided.

Note, that the name of the database and the username are prefixed with "username_" where username is your cPanel login name.

Do not forget to type in the password of the MySQL user. Remember that it is case-sensitive.

For "Host Name" enter "localhost";
Site configuration: Here you should leave the information as it is - URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/;
Path /home/yourcpaneluser/public_html/;
Path to the Cache folder : cache/;
Admin configuration: username: admin;
password: admin (by default).

Click NEXT.

Step 4: Confirm System Configuration: Please check again the system configuration and click "Change" if you need to change some data or "Also populate with Demo Data" if you wish. Click "Create".

Step 5: Here the Vtiger tells us that the configuration file is written successfully (config.inc.php).

Step 6: The vtiger CRM installer now creates the database tables and populates them with demo data. This may take some time (a minute or two). After completion please click "FINISH".

Step 7: Congratulations! Your vTiger is now up and running. Note your administrator username and password (admin/admin by default).



vTiger Hosting
(c) Copyright 2006 SiteGround Web Hosting Services. All rights reserved

VTiger Themes

How to change the Vtiger Themes/Templates?

Changing the theme/template with Vtiger is quite an easy task. Generally, you will just have to download the theme archive, extract it to your local computer and upload it to your 'Vtiger/themes' folder. You can find nice themes within the Vtiger official site forum.

First, we will need to find a theme archive to use. For the purpose of this tutorial I have chosen CleanBusiness theme, which is available for free at www.vtiger.com. Please, download CleanBusiness.zip file on your local computer and extract it. This will create a new directory called CleanBusiness.

To make the new theme available for your Vtiger application however, we will have to upload it first. Please, open an FTP connection using your favorite FTP client and navigate to your Vtiger folder. In our case this is the 'www' directory. From there, please enter the themes folder (themes) and upload the whole extracted CleanBusiness/ directory. This will create a new sub-folder with the same name, which will have the following full path: /www/themes/ CleanBusiness .

Once uploaded, please enter your Vtiger login page (www.domainname.com). From the main login page you are able to choose the CleanBusiness theme.

Additionally, you can try changing the theme to one of the 4 already available themes that comes with every default installation of Vtiger.



vTiger Hosting
(c) Copyright 2006 SiteGround Web Hosting Services. All rights reserved

How to use Vtiger CRM?

How to create contacts in Vtiger CRM?

First, contacts are people related to sales accounts. There is a tab Contacts which brings you to a list with all the contacts. You can add contacts from this page. Contacts may also be added directly from the top-level shortcuts menu on the home page.

By clicking on the link New Contact on the top-level menu you are taken to a page with numerous fields. There you can store quite detailed information about your contact. You don't have to fill all the fields, but the Family Name by which the contact is saved.

Another way to add a new contact is by the shortcut Add Business Card from the Contact menu. The difference is that here are provided less details. There is also a possibility to import a contact from a vCard by uploading the file. The link to this can be found on the Shortcuts menu in Contacts tab.

It is useful to know that Contacts can be exported to a .csv file (Outlook compatible). This is done by checking the box next to the Contact's name and clicking the Export link at the bottom of the list.

How to create accounts in Vtiger CRM?

For managing your accounts, please click on the Accounts tab. Creating account is just as easy as everything else in this very user friendly application. You have a link for creating contacts on your top-level shortcuts menu. It is recommended to fill in as much information as you have so that everyone can benefit from it. Make sure you fill in Account Name as it is used for the name by which the account will be stored.

Creating Leads, Potentials, Invoices, Tasks or scheduling Meetings and Calls is similar to the mentioned above. Just follow the link on the top-level shortcuts menu on the home page. Click on the corresponding tab for more details and operations.

Please note that the Dashboard Chart is not supported in PHP 5!



vTiger Hosting
(c) Copyright 2006 SiteGround Web Hosting Services. All rights reserved

Vtiger Email Setup

In vTiger you have the possibility to receive emails at the CRM directly. Before you can receive any email at your CRM you must have setup the access to your receiving email server. The condition is that an user possesses an entrance to an email server outside of the CRM system.

To configure the access to the receiving mail server click on My Home Page -> Emails menu at the navigation area. You do not need administrative privileges for this operation. The email client menu opens, as shown here:

Incoming mail server configuration

Click on the [Settings] icon to open the incoming email server configuration menu.

You have to enter all configuration data as described below.

Email ID

  • Display Name - You should give each mail server an unique name. This name will be displayed at the mail server account list.
  • Email - You must enter the email address you use at your receiving mail server. Please use the full email address: username@yourdomain.com Where username is the username of your actual email account and yourdomain.com is your domain name.

Mail Server Settings

  • Mail Server Name or IP - You must enter the address of your mail server. You may use a name or the IP address. You should use mail.yourdomain.com
  • User Name & Password - You must enter the user name and the password you use to access the mail server.
  • Mail Protocol - At the current release only IMAP as your email protocol is supported and fully functional. The POP protocol will be available in the future.
  • SSL Options - You must select whether you communicate with your email server encrypted or not. Please DO not use this option and select No TLS.
  • Certificate Validations - If you use encryption to access the mail server you should select whether the certificate is validated. Please select Do Not Validate SSL Cert.
  • Use Internal Mailer - If configured by your service provider you might use the internal mailer to send emails.
  • Refresh Timeout - You may change the refresh rate.
  • Emails per page - You may select the number of emails (webmails) you want to display at a single page.

Outgoing mail server configuration

If you would like to send emails from the CRM system or if you would like to receive notifications you must configure the Outgoing Mail server. To do so, please, click the [Edit] button at the Outgoing Server menu to enter your mail server configuration

  • Server name - Use mail.yourdomain.com where yourdomain.com is the actual domain name.
  • Enter the correct login details
  • Check the box Requires Authentication.

Well done! You have successfully configured your vTiger email settings!



vTiger Hosting
(c) Copyright 2006 SiteGround Web Hosting Services. All rights reserved

Vtiger Backups

Creating backups of Vtiger CRM and its MySQL database and restoring them

There is no backup tool included in the application.

In order to restore fully your Vtiger CRM you need to have the database restored and the files copied backed to the server.

So first we need to export the database. It can be done from PhpMyAdmin. In order to reach it you have to log in your Cpanel, go to MySql databases and at the bottom of the page is the link to PhpMyAdmin. Exporting your database is simple.

First, on the left side, please choose your Vtiger CRM database. Then click the Export tab. Next select all the tables. From Structure options check also Add DROP TABLE and then click Go. Thus you'll download a sql file on you computer. Now we have the MySql file needed for backups.

We can restore our backup by importing the mentioned sql file into an empty database or into a Vtiger CRM database. In order to do that we go again to our PhpMyAdmin and choose the database we've specified to use with our Vtiger CRM. Then we click on the SQL tab and from the second menu we browse to the sql file on our PC and click Go. If the query is successful our database has been populated with the backup data.

After the database backup procedure we'll proceed with the files. The easiest option is to copy the whole folder with Vtiger CRM from the server to your local PC by FTP. Later when you want to restore your old Vtiger CRM just copy back the files from your pc to the server in the proper folder.

Please, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations about this tutorial at: tutorials 'at' siteground.com



vTiger Hosting
(c) Copyright 2006 SiteGround Web Hosting Services. All rights reserved