Every so often you discover something useful from the vault of information that is the API/VBA help file. The help file is a reference guide for the whole API but in order to really make use of it you have to study the various classes carefully. This is generally not something I enjoy doing.

I stumbled across a useful solution to a problem that could easily have been solved another way. I had been manipulating address objects (CConstitAddress) but did not have the name and constituent id of the constituent that the address referred to. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are using VBA to perform actions on opening, saving or deleting record you have the option of putting the code in two different places.

Perhaps the most obvious is when you log in to RE as supervisor you can go into the Visual Basic for Applications environment (found under the Tools menu) and capture your events in the System project. This is the “inside” solution as it resides inside the database and can be programed from inside the RE application.

The other option is to use the RE7VBA tool. This executable is found in the Raiser’s Edge directory along side RE7.exe. Running this program opens up a similar environment except that you can save your work in a file and compile it to a DLL. This is the “outside” solution for opposite reasons

What are the pros and cons of each? Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to RE Decoded. My aim with this blog is to share some techniques used in the Raiser’s Edge API to solve day to day problems that the ordinary user may have. Feel free to add your own comments if you have solved a problem differently. Its the best way to learn.

This first entry is less technical than the other entries. I need to break you in gently.

Read the rest of this entry »