I should have put something out about the new version of CivicCRM (1.5) last week, but it got buried with other priorities. My apologies to all the CivicCRM fans out there. I have not loaded CivicCRM myself, but my understanding is that CivicCRM is now based on the Drupal 4.7 code.
For those that do not recognize what CRM stands for, try customer relationship management at Wikipedia. Here is how CivicCRM describes the software in their announcement:
CiviCRM is the first open source and freely downloadable constituent relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based, internationalized, and designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups.
New features and enhancements you can expect in CivicCRM 1.5 include:
- A new membership management component
- Search Builder - a new tool for building complex search queries
- Significant memory and speed optimizations
- Log and display who last updated a contact and when
- Map contact addresses without requiring latitude and longitude (using Google Maps 2.0)
- Include mapping links in Profile search results and details
- Optional CAPTCHA validation for Profile input forms
- Generate mailing labels
- Attach photos, documents and other files to contacts
- Customize the data columns which are included in the built-in Basic and Advanced Search results
- Customize your own templates for Contact View and Edit screens
For additional information and download links you will want to check out the original announcement by the CivicCRM team.