Tag Archives: Event

API 7.82 – The Silent Revolution

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I normally keep up with the latest changes in the Raiser’s Edge version.  I thought that the jump from 7.81 to 7.82 was not that great. I knew that there were fixes so that RE would work with Office 2007, there were some more changes to optional modules (I was only really familiar with events), there were new names for items in query and export, another change to Gift Aid and that was about it. At least that was it until I saw an item on the conference pages talking about the new Batch API code that had been made available. What?? Batch API! This is something that I have been asking for forever and it completely threw me when I just stumbled across it. Continue reading API 7.82 – The Silent Revolution →

How I would improve the API

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If I have often wondered if I were in charge of the API at Blackbaud how I would change it. Well unfortunately I don’t wield that kind of power and secondly I am not sure that a major overhaul is required. It is clearly not a modern API being COM based but for the main it works well. However there are still quite a few areas that I would improve upon. I don’t suppose that these will ever happen. Changing the API is no doubt lower on Blackbaud’s list of priorities. With the imminent arrival of the Infinity platform (and, yes, its name does seem to have influenced the pace at which it is being released) , the ability to develop any interface into the system seems a real possibility. RE API by comparison appears somewhat staid and limited. I would imagine it no longer commands the attention at Blackbaud those of us using it would like.

That being said I would love to be proven wrong so Blackbaud if you are listening here are the areas that I would change: Continue reading How I would improve the API →

Changing Raiser’s Edge skin part 2

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When you are supplied all the dlls that an application uses and these are all COM object it is possible to discover things about the application that you would otherwise not normally be able to do. Some people may call this “hacking” but others like myself would prefer the less confrontational description of “investigating”

Continue reading Changing Raiser’s Edge skin part 2 →

Is the API really that expensive?

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I get a lot of questions asking me if a certain change to The Raiser’s Edge can be done. Here is a typical (if somewhat abbreviated conversation)

Them: “We would like to add an attribute every time a constituent is saved. Then we want to synchronize our online giving application with Raisers Edge. Lastly we want to validate fields when entering gifts into Batch.”

Continue reading Is the API really that expensive? →

The case of the disappearing form

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One of my most long standing problems that I have had with RE:VBA is showing a form modally. This in itself is not difficult but as soon as you move away from Raiser’s Edge, bring up another window in front of the modal form and then go back to Raiser’s Edge, the modal form has disappeared. Because the form is modal you are not able to access the underlying window (let’s call this the parent window). This is a pain as the only way to bring it back is to place another window over the parent window and then minimize it. This is not hard to do but it is harder to explain to users and not very intuitive.

Continue reading The case of the disappearing form →

Old and New Relationships

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The other day I was trawling the knowledgebase for some code to quickly look up the primary organization record for a constituent. It is the sort of thing that I could have worked out myself very easily but sometimes it is just convenient to see if Blackbaud already have the code available.

I found exactly what I was looking for, or so I thought. KB BB54132: How to write code to find the Record ID for the Primary Organization relationship. Seeing the solution reminded me of the time I first took over the reigns of RE customisation developer at my first position in San Francisco.

Continue reading Old and New Relationships →

VBA: Inside or Out?

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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? Continue reading VBA: Inside or Out? →