SugarCRM: Bulk API Explained

Recently I have found myself in various conversations revolving around the topic of the Bulk API and its capabilities. These conversations have helped highlight various misunderstandings relating to its functionality, which I believe are the result of a lack of documentation on the subject. Hopefully this post will help clarify some of the more common themes.

To begin with, let us discuss what the Bulk API is not.

It is not a separate interface to Sugar. It is merely another endpoint of the existing REST v10 API. In short, the moniker Bulk API is a misnomer, as the term is just referring to a component of the REST v10 API, not an alternative to it.

Quite regularly I also hear of attempts to use the Bulk API to perform mass insertions of data. For example, migrating hundreds of thousands of records from another system and into Sugar. While the Bulk API can help expedite the process, it is not specifically designed for that task and its benefits for that type of work are limited. 

What is the purpose of the Bulk API endpoint?

The Bulk API endpoint aims at helping developers reduce the quantity of web requests sent to the REST v10 API. By reducing the number of requests necessary to complete a programmatic task, the time to completion can also be reduced.

The following example helps demonstrate its value quite well.

SugarCRM Quick Hit: SugarBean and JavaScript

Sometimes in the course of customization work we may be performing within Sugar we may have a need to load one or more records from a module. 

For example, we may need to load an entry from the Calls module. Or, as demonstrated in a recent example I posted, we may need a set of records from the Leads module.

The Sidecar framework in Sugar 7 makes this process quite easy via the app.data namespace. Here are a few examples that should help.

To load a single record from a given module:

var myRecord = app.data.createBean('Leads', {id:<record_id>});
myRecord.fetch();

Loading multiple records from a given module:

var myRecords = app.data.createBeanCollection('Leads');
myRecords.fetch();

Note the use of the fetch() method in both examples. It is used to actually instruct Backbone to execute the necessary calls to request the desired data via the Sugar REST v10 API. 

In the case of the first example, the JSON object passed as the second parameter ({id:<record_id>}) allows us to specify the ID of the record we wish to retrieve. However, in the second example, you will notice we are not specifying a similar property. 

When executed, the second example retrieves the first page of the same set of records that would otherwise be displayed to the current user should the user instead access the ListView for the same module. By default, that would be the first 20 records accessible to the current user, ordered by date_modified, descending.

But what if we wanted greater control over which records or fields are retrieved? That brings us back to the fetch() method mentioned earlier.

The fetch() method allows us to specify a number of additional parameters, including: filter, fields, success and others.

Here is an example of where the fields and filter parameters are defined and used to retrieve only the id and status fields for those leads created within the current month.

var leads = app.data.createBeanCollection('Leads');
leads.fetch({
        fields: ['id', 'status'],
        filter:[{'date_entered':{'$dateRange':'this_month'}}],
    });

Hope that helps!

SugarCRM Customization: Lead Conversion Stats Chart

It is always cool to find new ways to visualize data stored in SugarCRM.

For this customization, I focused on exposing data representing the number of Leads converted versus those that were not converted within the given month, commonly referred to as the Lead Conversion Rate. To make this data more readily apparent, I created a custom pie chart, which doubles in helping us see the power of the SugarCRM 7.x framework.

Although the conversion percentages are not demonstrated, I hope it will help you gather some further insights into your Sugar data or build more elaborate charts.

Here is an image based on some sample data:

Feel free to peruse or use the code, found here:

https://gist.github.com/elchele/2ab378da3b3b4cae22c3

To apply the chart, be sure to follow the instructions given at the bottom of the page at the above link.