Redmine

Hi guys

Redmine has a "Customer Plugin" already, but it doesn't really do what I want, so I want to create my own plugin. I don't have any experience in Ruby or Ruby on Rails though, so some guidance would be much appreciated. I've read the redmine plugin tutorials, and I can see how easy it is to create something simple, though what I want to do is a bit more complex.

• Store all business contacts/clients in a database
• Database must be searchable by name/industry
• Allow to create recurring reminders (birthdays/annual payments) so that I can be notified
• Allow multiple levels of contacts
• Contacts can be assigned to projects (not a user, but like how the current "Customer Plugin" works)
• Contacts can be either a person or a company
• Contacts can have multiple levels ( Company -> Person )
• Contacts can be in multiple industries (store these industries as a tag/keyword?)

• How do I create such relationships using redmine's plugins or ruby on rails?
• How do I get access to the emailing system in redmine?
• Can Ruby handle the recurring alerts by itself? or do I need to set a cron job?

What I'm trying to do isn't too difficult I hope.

Cheers