Google Contacts API integration

[rakess70]

I was wondering if there might be a way to integrate Google contacts with ChurchCRM. We uses google business to keep all of our emails and calendars. I find I have to enter people into CRM and then also Add them to my contacts. If there was a way to create an API call the information could be shared from ChurchCRM into a Contact list into google.

[crossan007]

@rakess70 how would you envision this working?

This would be my interpretation:

Data Flow

ChurchCRM -- changes / creates / deletes ---> Google Contacts Google Contacts (Where present in ChurchCRM) --- changes --->ChurchCRM Google Contacts (Where added to a group) -- creates / changes -- > ChurchCRM

User Accounts

Each ChurchCRM user could authenticate to their Google Account, and have the contact information flow as described above?

Onboarding

Include a "one-time" import that allows users do a complete import from their Google Contacts list into ChurchCRM

[crossan007]

I'm going to play with this PHP API for Google Contacts to see if feasible: https://github.com/rapidwebltd/php-google-contacts-v3-api

[crossan007]

how does this relate to #6 - actually being a separate contacts provider on Android?

[rakess70]

the only issue I see is the delete. I would not want a contact to be deleted automatically. I think edit and creation is good but delete scares me :)

[rakess70]

I would think any contact created by ChurchCRM should be labeled automatically. I love the authentication as a primary check.

The onboarding could get messy.

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[respencer]

This is something I want as well. Google Contacts has got some idiosyncratic behavior that needs to heeded though.

Although I suspect that may be only for non-US contacts.

In addition some contacts may not be able to be pushed to Google Contacts without loss of data, so caution must be exercised when syncing the data back into ChurchCRM.

It may be better to have one source of "truth", rather than try to keep two or more. In other words allow one initial import sync from Google Contacts, and then in future only push from ChurchCRM (source of "truth") to Google Contacts.

[respencer]

Another addition: Google Contacts supports more fields that ChurchCRM does.

Need to insure a 1:1 match before implementation of this issue.