SimpleCRM

SimpleCRM is a desktop-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application built with Electron, React, and TypeScript. It bundles essential CRM features on your local machine, helping you manage customers, products, deals, tasks, and your schedule. It also offers optional one-way data synchronization from your JTL MSSQL database.

Features

• Customer Management: Create, Read, Update, and Delete customer records.
• Product Management: Keep track of your local product inventory and details.
• Deal Tracking: Create, manage, and visualize your sales deals. Link products and monitor stages from lead to win.
• Task Management: Create and manage tasks linked directly to customers.
• Calendar Integration: Schedule appointments, meetings, and reminders within the app.
• JTL Synchronization (Optional): Sync Customer and Product data from an external JTL MSSQL database into your local CRM (one-way sync).
• E-Mail (IMAP + POP3 + SMTP, Desktop): Accounts support IMAP or POP3 (node-pop3); passwords in keychain. E-Mail → SMTP & KI configures outgoing mail (nodemailer), optional separate SMTP password, Sent-Ordner for IMAP-Append, Google and Microsoft OAuth (refresh tokens in keychain; IMAP XOAUTH2), and an OpenAI-compatible API for composer transforms. IMAP: first sync loads the newest messages only (capped); incremental UID search; optional server thread id when supported; background IDLE + periodic sync. POP3: UIDL-based incremental fetch.
• CRM-style mail: JWZ-style threading from Message-ID / References, ticket codes [SCR-…], customer link, internal notes, categories, assignment to team members, attachments stored under userData (≤25 MB/file) with open / save as, soft delete / restore, archive, views Inbox / Sent / Drafts / Archive, search.
• Workflows: E-Mail → Workflows — React Flow visual editor (compiles to JSON), triggers inbound, outbound, draft_created, schedule (cron + optional account sync per workflow); actions include forward_copy, tag_attachment_meta, category, tags, etc. Cron jobs reload when workflows are saved.
• Templates & KI: Canned responses and custom AI prompts under SMTP & KI; HTML composer (React Quill) with plain-text fallback for SMTP.
• Reporting & DSGVO: Mail-Report (/email/reporting) with volume/unread/archived/workflow-run stats; ZIP data export (metadata + attachment files, no passwords) under SMTP & KI.
• Plan vs. Stand: siehe docs/EMAIL_PHASES.md.
• Dokumentation E-Mail: Entwickler/LLM · Anwender · Learnings · Deep Review · Changelog
• Not implemented (optional / later): Omni-channel, SLA automation/escalation, full React Flow branching per edge, raw-mail full archive in export.
• Local Database: All your CRM data is stored securely and locally using SQLite (better-sqlite3).
• Secure Configuration: MSSQL connection details are stored securely using your OS keychain via Keytar (keytar).

How it Works

SimpleCRM leverages the Electron framework to deliver a web-powered experience on your desktop:

1. Main Process (electron/main.ts): Handles window management, background logic, database interactions (SQLite & MSSQL), and inter-process communication (IPC). Manages essential services including sqlite-service, mssql-keytar-service, and sync-service.
2. Renderer Process (src/): The user interface built with React and Vite. Communicates with the Main process using secure IPC calls (defined in electron/preload.ts) to fetch and update data.
3. Database (electron/sqlite-service.ts, electron/database-schema.ts): Manages the SQLite database (database.sqlite in your app data folder), defining the schema and handling all data operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete).
4. MSSQL & Sync (electron/mssql-keytar-service.ts, electron/sync-service.ts): Connects securely to your JTL MSSQL database, fetches customer and product data, and updates your local SQLite database.
5. UI Components (src/components/): Built with Shadcn/ui library for a consistent and customizable user interface.

Tech Stack

• Framework: Electron, React
• Language: TypeScript
• UI: Shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS
• Routing: TanStack Router
• Local Database: SQLite (via better-sqlite3)
• External DB Connection: mssql package
• Secure Storage: keytar
• Build Tool: Vite
• Bundler/Packager: Electron Builder

Setup & Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone <your-repository-url>
   cd simplecrmelectron

2. Install Dependencies:

   npm install --legacy-peer-deps

   (--legacy-peer-deps avoids peer-resolution conflicts in the current dependency tree.)
3. Rebuild Native Modules: Electron apps sometimes need native modules rebuilt for your specific setup. The postinstall script should handle this, but if you encounter issues, run:

   npm run postinstall
   # or force it with:
   npx electron-rebuild -f -w better-sqlite3,keytar

Windows users: For a detailed step-by-step guide using PowerShell (including prerequisites like Visual Studio Build Tools, troubleshooting native module errors, and more), see docs/SETUP_WINDOWS.md.

Running the Application

• Development Mode: Starts the Vite dev server for instant UI updates and the Electron app. The electron:dev script compiles main-process TypeScript in watch mode so IPC handlers (including E-Mail) stay in sync with dist-electron.

  npm run electron:dev

  While this command is running, you should not need to manually rebuild after code changes.
• Production Mode: Runs the app as it would be packaged. Build the renderer with npm run build:web, compile the Electron main-process TypeScript with npm run build:electron:main, or run npm run build to do both.

  npm run electron:start

Building the Application

To create an installer (.exe, .dmg, etc.):

1. Build the Frontend & Electron Code:

   npm run build

   This runs build:web (renderer) and build:electron:main (compiled IPC/services under dist-electron/electron/). The Vite Electron bundle step is included in npm run build via vite build.
2. Package with Electron Builder:

   npm run electron:build

   The installer will be created in the dist-build directory.

Configuration

• MSSQL Connection: Configure the connection to your JTL MSSQL database in the Settings page within the app. Your password is stored securely in your operating system's keychain.