8. FAQ

Log In | Sign Up

Contents

Documentation Home

See About the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for CiviCRM for information about this page and how to post an entry.

CiviCRM FAQ

Getting Help

How do I get support when I have questions or problems?

How do Forums work?

Is is possible to set a global notify for all forum postings?

What resources are available for learning about CiviCRM?

How can I correct or improve documentation and/or instructions?

How do I file an issue or report a bug?

How can I help?

What debugging tools are available in CiviCRM?

General CiviCRM information

What is CiviCRM?

What's new in version 2.0?

What is the mission of CiviCRM?

Who uses CiviCRM?

What do users say about CiviCRM?

Who are the people and organizations behind CiviCRM?

What is the Social Source Foundation?

How are CivicSpace and CiviCRM related?

What makes CiviCRM specially tailored for nonprofit organizations?

In what languages is CiviCRM available?

Are there special considerations when registering children?

Can I create an online volunteer organization?

Which Content Management System should I use?

Could CiviCRM be ported to another CMS?

Where can I try out (demo) CiviCRM before I install?

We really like our existing Web site. Can we still use CiviCRM?

Are there job opportunities for people with CiviCRM skills?

How has CiviCRM evolved and grown?

How does CiviCRM measure its progress?

Hosting and consulting support

Is there a site that offers CiviCRM services for nonprofits?

What hosting services can I use?

Where can I find help installing, implementing and/or customizing CiviCRM?

Licensing

How is the Affero General Public License (AGPL) different from the GNU General Public License (GPL)?

Why is CiviCRM licensed under the AGPL?

How is the licensing relevant to nonprofit technology?

Can I distribute CiviCRM as part of a GPL-licensed piece of software? How does that work?

Can I build a product on top of CiviCRM and offer it as an ASP without having to provide a download of the source code to that separate product?

Performance

I am concerned because it seems that any operation that I perform on my site takes between 5-20 seconds to execute.

How much memory for 50 Users? How can I load test?

Our settings in CiviCRM config file were set to optimize performance and now we would like to reset them to get certain functions back.

Any hints for fine-tuning MySQL?

Security

How can I be sure that unauthorized people won't view or tamper with my records?

Is the transmission of data between the host and the personal computer secure?

I don't quite understand SSL — because donations are processed via PayPal, does that mean the transactions are secure? Or should my client invest in a certificate?

Should I use https for all my web pages, even those for which secure transmisson is not needed?

How can I copy my database to my personal computer as a backup?

How can I keep current with security updates?

Training

Where can I get training about the concepts of Drupal and CiviCRM?

Where can I get training for my end-users on CiviCRM?

Install

What versions of CiviCRM are supported?

What are the requirements for installing and running CiviCRM?

How do I install CiviCRM?

Location for civiCRM - /drupal/sites/all/modules vs. drupal/modules

Can I host multiple sites with one installation?

Multiple domains: Is using a separate database for each civiCRM site a better option than using domain id for separating different datasets?

Multi-site hosting: Can I share a SSL Certificate?

I've installed CiviCRM. What next?

I'm getting blank pages

I'm getting "'500 Internal Server Error' from apache." error_log contains "Premature end of script headers:"

Failed opening required 'CRM/Core/Config.php'

$civicrm_root ... define( 'CIVICRM_TEMPLATE_COMPILEDIR' ... template_c

PHP Fatal error: ... (include_path='.:/var/www/vhosts/ ... /usr/share/pear')

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]:

Parse error, unexpected '.', expecting '(' in /[CMS path]/modules/civicrm/civicrm.module

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home/www/doc/17567/mypage.com/www/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/CRM/Core/Config.php

DB Error: no database selected

DB Error: connect failed

Non-recoverable database error - Database Error Code: You have an error in your SQL syntax

Database Error Code: Cannot add or update a child row:

PHP memory allocation error

Get PHP version and configuration info

Duplicate links on the Admin page and no icons

Drupal - my account: Error loading CiviCRM Profile

Errors when trying to add or edit a Drupal user record

System logs me out with a message "You are not authorized to access this page."

MySQL error - 1065 - Query was empty

Blank Screen on Multi-site Installation

Unexpected page rendering behavior in IE and/or vCards

Joomla Profiles aren't adding contacts to the database and the search form returns all contacts

Smarty error: problem creating directory

civicrm_domain.config_backend gets reset to "N" on every page load

Upgrade

How can I find what version I'm running?

How do I upgrade CiviCRM?

If we upgrade MySQL on our server from 4.1 to 5, will we have problems with CiviCRM?

What special steps do I need to take if I am moving from a PHP4/mysql 4.1 installation to a PHP5/mysql 5 installation?

I'd like some advice on the best way to update a site from Drupal 4.6 with CiviCRM 1.4 to Drupal 5.0 with CiviCRM 1.6

How do I replace 1.7 beta with 1.7 stable?

What CMS versions work with what CiviCRM versions?

Query Debugging

How can I debug search result and other query problems?

Administer CiviCRM

Which users can Administer CiviCRM? Who defines those users and how?

Where do you control the content layout? Is there away to change the "home page" and menus?

How do I remove the pink section at the bottom of all CiviCRM pages (the one which mentions the version, link to bug tracker etc)?

What's the Relationship Between CiviCRM Contacts and CMS (Drupal/Joomla) Users?

Should I enable Profile in Drupal for the basic registration (UserName/email) or do all the Profile setting in CiviCRM administration?

Is there a way to link back to the Drupal user profile if the contact does have a Drupal user account?

What are CiviCRM Profiles used for? How can I create a sign-up form to collect contact info from visitors to my site?

How do I delete a contact?

What actions can I perform on contacts?

How can I remove fields like middle name, job title from the core form?

Can I put custom fields in search result?

Can I create a form that will utilize custom data fields?

Is it possible to add a custom field to an exisiting CiviCRM set of fields?

I'd like to create a custom field for contacts that contains the user id of the user that created them.

Profiles with custom data don't appear on Drupal new user registration forms

Submitting info in a form gives "access denied"

I'd like to create a custom field where users can enter from zero to many values.

What different data types and HTML input field types are supported for Custom Fields?

How do I add additional tabs for the contact?

Why isn't my custom data set that is designated for Events available to profiles?

Can I add a photo to a contact?

How can I include an image (logo) in an organizational profile?

How do I change values for currency, default country, and provinces (to localise my site)?

Can I remove "country" from mailing labels?

Can I customize CiviCRM user and admin themes?

Can I rename things?

Can I display contact information on a public page?

How can I create a customized view of profiles?

Why are records are getting created (I am guessing through Drupal since there are no contributions attached) that are completely blank except for the user's name and email?

Groups, Tags, Custom Fields, Relationships: What do I use for what?

What's the difference between a Group and a Tag?

I want users to be able to list people by the year they left - "Class of..."

Can I define access control for groups/roles?

For organizations that have many districts that require district teams to manage the contacts for only their own district, the CiviCRM setup can be challenging.

I don't understand how to allow a group leader to edit only that group's contacts.

What happens in cases of overlapping permissions between Drupal and civiCRM permissioning?

What is the best way to load US county data into the County table. I need to load the Counties for all 50 States.

Can I add actions to the contact search dropdown menu?

Can I manage course offerings with CiviCRM?

There's a little box with a plus sign in it, but it won't expand.

How can I move my database to a different domain?

How can I change my base URL?

Fatal Error: Fontfile not found or not readable

Email

Does CiviCRM have mail merge features or export features that can be used to create MS-Word Merge Data documents?

Will contact get multiple mails?

Error: Invalid response code received from server - when trying to send email to contacts.

Error: "authentication failed" when trying to send email

What is the difference between 'ON HOLD' and 'Do Not E-mail' ?

Find/Search

On what different parameters can one search for contacts?

Can I search on partial names?

How can I restrict profile searches to organizations only?

Is it possible to remove the dropdown box listing "-Search with No Content Types-Search with No Content Types-all contacts---", "Individuals", "Households", "Organizations" on the "Find Contacts" page?

Is there a way to link zipcodes/contact data in CiviCRM to keyword searches?

Is is possible to display a different set of column headings for the CRM contact search result page?

I'm trying to use the IN operator in the search builder and can't seem to put in a proper value.

Search for contacts returns a table with empty rows (contact information is blank on each row).

Access Denied error when trying to use CiviCRM search.

Groups

How do I create a smart group?

What's the difference between a Group and a Smart Group?

Is it possible to create a group that is a subgroup of another?

Can I limit listing to a group?

How are CiviCRM and Organic groups related?

Import/Export

When exporting, my browser displays the CSV file. How can I download it?

What is an Import Cycle? What steps are involved during it?

If the first row of my CSV file contains column headings, what are the valid set of keyword values for the columns?

Using URLs in Import_Duplicates.csv.

What are the rules for matching contacts?

What fields can I import?

Can I Import Membership Type?

Importing Boolean values.

What is the maximum number of Contacts one can import during a single import cycle?

Why Does Import Run So Slowly?

Importing LARGE quantities of data

Importing phone numbers.

Can I import Households and Organizations into CiviCRM or is import only for Individuals?

How do I import files created on a Macintosh?

Importing Tags and Groups.

Why aren't my imported contacts assigned groups or tags properly?

Not a CSV file, creating UTF-8 files for import.

Open_basedir error for uploads and imports

Can I automate the Import Process with Cron?

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

Can I use ldapauth to connect our ldap users to drupal, and hence CiviCRM even though they don't have an email address in the Drupal users table?

Is there LDAP integration between CiviCRM and Outlook and/or Thunderbird?

Are there any instructions for CiviCRM LDAP Integration?

Maps/Geocoding

Does CiviCRM provide mapping functions?

What's available for taking CiviCRM data and populating it on a Google Map?

How do I implement the Google or Yahoo mapping functionality?

Yahoo (or Google) Geocoding throws an error.

How is mapping supposed to work for event registration?

CiviCluster

What is CiviCluster?

CiviConference

What is CiviConference?

CiviContribute

What is CiviContribute?

Why don't I see CiviContribute in the CiviCRM menus?

What payment processors are supported?

Where are instructions for using CiviContribute?

How do I ensure that the payment form is processed securely?

How do I generate tax recipts or receipts in general?

Can CiviCRM automatically generate a thank-you email with a receipt when membership renewals and contributions are manually entered into the system?

How hard is it to import contribution information?

Is it safe to store credit cards in CiviCRM?

Making a contribution with PayPal causes PHP warnings to be displayed.

Does CiviContribute allow multiple payment processors for different contribution pages?

My "thank-you" message is not being sent from PayPal.

Any linkage between contribution and membership records?

Can CiviContribute handle automated matching donations?

Sporadic nonrecoverable error when submitting donations using CiviContribute.

CiviEvent

What is CiviEvent?

Why don't I see CiviEvent in the CiviCRM menus?

Where are instructions for using CiviEvent?

How do you publish links to events?

CiviMail

What is CiviMail?

Are there any special requirements for CiviMail?

Are their hosting options just for CiviMail?

Why don't I see CiviMail in the CiviCRM menus?

Where are instructions for using CiviMail?

CiviMail Upload problems.

Is it possible to integrate CiviMail with Mailman?

How to get Public Archives with Drupal and CiviMail

CiviMail and Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail Bulk folder Prevention (SPF, Domain Key Filter)

CiviMember

What is CiviMember?

Why don't I see CiviMember in the CiviCRM menus?

Where are instructions for using CiviMember?

How can I create a searchable member directory for a community website?

Should I create a single membership for the head of the family or create memberships for every member of the family?

Is it possible to link two (or more) members in a joint/household membership and create a single label for joint/household memberships?

Can I use custom fields in CiviMember?

When I import members, how can I assign the individuals to specific membership types?

When assigning a new membership to an individual, the join date is capped, I can't set an indvidual's join date as being before 2003.

Can I produce any membership reports?

Can I use membership types for member-only content?

CiviNode

What is CiviNode?

CiviReport

What is CiviReport?

CiviVoter and Canvasser

What is CiviVoter and Canvasser?

Added by David Greenberg , last edited by Judy Halllman on May 11, 2008 (view change)

Recently Updated | Documentation Credits

Children Hide Children | View in Hierarchy

About the CiviCRM FAQ

Access Control Groups

AGPL vs. GPL

Backup to PC

Base URL Change

Blank Pages

Can I Use ldapauth

Children

CiviContribute Automated Donations

CiviContribute Instructions

CiviContribute Link to Membership

CiviContribute Multiple Payment Processors

CiviContribute No Thank-You

CiviContribute Not In Menus

CiviContribute Receipts

CiviContribute Security

CiviContribute Thank-Yous

CiviCRM vs. Organic Groups

civicrm_domain.config_backend gets reset to "N" on every page load

CivicSpace

CiviEvent Instructions

CiviEvent Not In Menus

CiviMail and GMAIL Yahoo Hotmail Spam-Bulk

CiviMail hosting

CiviMail Instructions

CiviMail Mailman

CiviMail Not In Menus

CiviMail Requirements

CiviMail Upload Problems

CiviMember Custom Fields

CiviMember Directory

CiviMember Family Label

CiviMember Family Membership

CiviMember Instructions

CiviMember Join Date

Civimember Not In Menus

CiviMember Reports

Clean Contact URL

Contact Actions

Contact Add Actions

Contact Additional Tabs

Contact Delete

Contact Display Public

Contact photo

Contacts vs. Users

Contribution Importing

Control Content

County Data

Courses

Create Smart Group

Credit Cards

Custom Data and Existing Fields

Custom Data in Search Result

Custom Data Multiple Values

Custom Data Not on New User Form

Custom Data Types

Debug Tools

Demo

Distribute in GPL

District Teams

Domain Change

Duplicate Links

Edit CiviCRM Footer

Edit Group Leader Only

Ensure Access

Error Access Denied, Search

Error Authentication

Error CiviContribute Nonrecoverable

Error Config

Error DB Child

Error DB Connect

Error Empty Query

Error Fontfile

Error Function

Error include_path

Error Internal Server

Error Invalid Response Code

Error My Account

Error No DB

Error Not Authorized

Error Not CSV File

Error Open_basedir

Error PHP Memory

Error SQL Syntax

Error template_c

Error User record

Error Yahoo (or Google) Geocoding

Events Data for Profiles

Expand Doesn't Work

Exporting Displays

File Issue

Form Custom Data

Form Gives "Access Denied"

Forums Global Notify?

Forums How To Get Started

Get Started

Group vs Tag

Group vs. Smart Group

Groups, Tags, etc.

Hosting

How Evolved

How Tailored

How to get Public Archives with Drupal and CiviMail

How to Help

How to Install

How to Upgrade

Image in Profile

Import Boolean

Import Column Headings

Import Errors

Import Fields

Import Households, Organizations

Import Is Slow

Import Large

Import Mac Files

Import Match Rule

Import Membership Type

Import Membership Types

Import Not Successful

Import Phone Numbers

Import Steps

Import Tags, Groups

Import with Cron

Improve Documentation

In Selector

Jobs

Joomla Not Adding Contacts

Keep Site

Labels Remove Fields

Languages

LDAP Instructions

LDAP with Mail Client

Learn

Limit listing

List of Upcoming CiviEvents or Feed of Events

Load Test

Localize Site

Location for civiCRM

Mail Merge

Maps and CiviCRM

Maps for Events

Maps Google

Maps How to

Max Contacts for Import

Measure Progress

Member-only content

Mission

Multi-site Blank Page

Multi-site Databases

Multiple emails?

Multiple Sites

Offer ASP

Online Volunteers

Optimize Config

Other CMS

Page Rendoring

Parse error unexpected period

Parse error unexpected T_STRING