CiviNode and CiviNode CCK: Integrating CiviCRM Contacts into Drupal Content

CiviNode is a module and API that exposes CiviCRM contacts, groups, and other CiviCRM object types to other Drupal modules. It's designed to make CiviCRM easier to use and integrate with all of the Drupal tools and techniques you already use to create websites.

CiviNode has been largely superseded by native functionality since CiviCRM 2.2, notably direct integration with Views. CiviNode's features include

• Add CiviCRM contacts or groups as fields in a Content Construction Kit (CCK) data type. Currently, you can add pop-up menus for both groups and contacts. CiviNode CCK also makes use of CiviCRM's native Dojo widget set to give AJAX-style access to contacts.
• Restrict a CCK field to contacts from a single group, or pull contacts from you entire CiviCRM data store.
• Display a contact as a link, a CiviCRM profile (a collection of contact fields), or as a link into CiviCRM.
• Display CiviCRM-based CCK fields using the Views module.

CiviNode does this via its own API to handle most of the lower level interaction with CiviCRM's native API. It implements hooks for CiviCRM into Drupal's form system and APIs, and implements widgets that developers can use in their own modules. If you are a module developer, this wrapper API for handling common programming tasks can save you time and effort when accessing CiviCRM content in your modules. CiviNode also adds hooks for theming CiviCRM content and generating links from Drupal pages back into CiviCRM contact view pages.

Work on this project is being done by Rob Thorne of Torenware Networks, and been sponsored by the generous support of The Collective Heritage Foundation/Bioneers, the Green Party of Canada, and Openflows Community Technology Lab.