Plugin Variable.php Problem
It sounds like you're attempting to access the getDeveloper method on your plugin's main service class, but the class doesn't exist.

You have two options:


Create the service class, and implement a getDeveloper method.
Call the getDeveloper method on your main plugin class (which I suspect is what you're really trying to do).


Option One: Service

Your minimal service class will look like this:

&lt;?php

namespace Craft;

class CrmPortalService extends BaseApplicationComponent
{
    /**
     * Returns the developer name.
     *
     * You could either hard-code the developer name, or you could
     * retrieve it from the main plugin class, as described in
     * option two.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getDeveloper()
    {
        return 'John Doe';
    }
}


Option Two: Plugin

Craft uses Services to expose functionality, in exactly the same way that plugins do. If you're trying to figure out how to do something, just look for a Craft Service with a similar name.

In this case, you want to retrieve your main plugin file, so the PluginsService is a good place to start. We're in luck, it has a getPlugin method, which accepts a plugin handle, and returns the plugin class.

Here's how you might use that, to call the getDeveloper method in your main plugin class.

craft()-&gt;plugins-&gt;getPlugin('crmPortal')-&gt;getDeveloper();