How to get started¶

Option A. Using git repository¶

Clone https://github.com/espocrm/espocrm repository to your local computer.
Change to the project's root directory: cd path/to/espocrm.
Install Composer (v2.0 or greater).
Install npm (v8.0 or greater).
Install Grunt.
Run composer install if Composer is installed globally (or php composer.phar install if locally).
Run npm ci.

Then you can build by running grunt.

To build a proper config.php file and populate database you can run installation. Open http(s)://{YOUR_CRM_URL}/install location in the browser. It's assumed that your webserver is properly configured.

Note: Some dependencies require php extensions that you might not have installed. You can skip these requirements by installing with a flag --ignore-platform-reqs: composer install --ignore-platform-reqs.

Building¶

Change to the project's root directory.
Run Grunt with grunt.

The build will be created in the build directory.

Note: By default grunt installs composer dependencies. You can skip it by running grunt offline.

Branches¶

fix – upcoming maintenance release; fixes should be pushed to this branch;
master – develop branch; new features should be pushed to this branch;
stable – last stable release.

Upgrade packages¶

Preparation:

Fetch tags to your git repository from the remote: git fetch --tags.
Checkout to a needed version tag (or don't if you want to test upgrade to the most recent commit).
Build EspoCRM with grunt (see above how to build).

Build the upgrade package with the command:

node diff {version_from}

The package will be created in the build directory.

Option B. Using installed instance¶

You can develop and make customizations right on a regular installed EspoCRM instance.

Configuration for development¶

Parameters can be set in data/config.php.

Developer mode disables cache, front-end libs are loaded directly from the node_modules directory.

'isDeveloperMode' => true,

You can force using backend cache (metadata, language etc.) in the developer mode. Can be reasonable as the application can be slow w/o cache.

'useCacheInDeveloperMode' => true,

Where to put customizations¶

Option A. Custom dirs¶

custom/Espo/Custom/ – for metadata and all files pertaining to backend
client/custom/ – for client files

Option B. Module dirs¶

custom/Espo/Modules/{YourModuleName}/ – for metadata and all files pertaining to backend
client/custom/modules/{your-module-name}/ – for client files