How to safely extend js views in packages?

Karel ÄŒech

This document would be useful to you.

Leveraging Backbone Events in Sugar « Sugar Developer Blog – SugarCRM 

You can use JSgrouping from the above documentation.

And do whatever you like to code on Recordview at any module.

app.router.on('route:record', function(module){
//AND the module is Accounts...
if(module === 'Accounts') {

I think you already know the answer to your question. Which is that when you override a file, there is a risk of conflicts with other customizations. There is no getting around that. This is manageable when you own the Sugar instance and can decide what customizations go where and can even merge conflicting changes manually within a record controller. But when you are expecting your customization to be installed as a package, you have to be more careful.

When you are building a package, you should use Extensions Framework and avoid overrides at all costs. There are lots of ways to implement changes on a Record view without overriding. This may mean you have to make some compromises between what you want to do and what is safe development practice.

1. Build dashlets / dashboards for use in this Record view
2. Add a custom view that you control to the Record layout using a Sidecar extension
3. Create a custom field type and add that to the system, use an extension to modify viewdefs or vardefs to have modules use this new custom field type
4. Add code elsewhere that subscribes to Backbone Events that occur on this module
5. Use a Sidecar extension to add a custom button to Record view that launches into your alternative UI
6. ...

I think you already know the answer to your question. Which is that when you override a file, there is a risk of conflicts with other customizations. There is no getting around that. This is manageable when you own the Sugar instance and can decide what customizations go where and can even merge conflicting changes manually within a record controller. But when you are expecting your customization to be installed as a package, you have to be more careful.

When you are building a package, you should use Extensions Framework and avoid overrides at all costs. There are lots of ways to implement changes on a Record view without overriding. This may mean you have to make some compromises between what you want to do and what is safe development practice.

1. Build dashlets / dashboards for use in this Record view
2. Add a custom view that you control to the Record layout using a Sidecar extension
3. Create a custom field type and add that to the system, use an extension to modify viewdefs or vardefs to have modules use this new custom field type
4. Add code elsewhere that subscribes to Backbone Events that occur on this module
5. Use a Sidecar extension to add a custom button to Record view that launches into your alternative UI
6. ...

Yeah I was expecting that, but there still was a little tiny piece of hope in me... Thanks for dispelling my doubts
It would be a cool feature to throw some warning when any file on a server would become overwritten by some package installation.

Thanks
Karel