A .NET Fix

Intermediate, ,

This post is totally unrelated to The Raiser’s Edge and the API but in case others are having the same issue I wanted to describe how I fixed it. I have just spent the last several hours trying to get the progress bar to scroll in the marquee style. I had seen several posts referring to using a background worker to retrieve data from the database while the progress bar scrolled in the UI thread. It sounded like the right solution but it didn’t make a difference.

I read one post that helped. It said that before you instantiate your form you need to enable the visual styles.

Application.EnableVisualStyles()

When I ran my application all of a sudden not only was my progress bar scrolling nicely but all of a sudden I could see the graphical styles that I always had seen in Visual Studio but never experienced in my Winform applications.

Blackbaud Enterprise CRM Integrations

Beginner, ,

If you had not noticed, our website zeidman.info has had a make over. We have also added a new section of everything to do with Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and the Infinity platform. Some of the screencasts there were previously embedded in conference presentations so now they have a home of their own. We are really excited by what the Inifinity platform has to offer (even if it is slow coming to the majority of users). Now you can see for yourself the kinds of customisations that can be developed and just how powerful the platform can be.

Have you been working on any BBEC customisations that you would like to share? Have you seen any others out there in the wild. Leave a comment and let us know.

New website coming soon

Not Code

Our new website is coming soon. Over on the main Zeidman Development site there are big changes going on behind the scenes. I like the look of our existing site. It is clean and simple. However it does look a bit early 2000s so we felt it was time for a freshen up.

We looked into a CMS but we are far too hardcore for that so we just went and built everything from scratch. Almost everything you will see on the website is down to our coding skills (hopefully I am doing ourselves justice here).

I was never very satisfied with the way in which you always had to “register” each time you wanted to download a plug-in. Well now you will only have to register once and can log into your account to download instead. What is more you will be able to see your download history, and see if you have the latest version of a plug-in or if there is a new one to be downloaded. If you have purchased a licence for a product then you will see your licence and maintenance details.

Everyone who has previously registered on the site has an account. You will need to reset your password in order to log in for the first time.

Don’t rush over as we are not going live until we are satisfied that everything is ready! (hopefully towards the beginning of next week).

Customizations, SDKs and API’s, Oh RE

Not Code, , , , , , , , , ,

If you recognise the title of this post then I was inspired by a BlackbaudKnowHow article of a similar name. In that article the author describes the differences between the three terms and how they relate to Blackbaud Enterprise CRM. This is a good overview and works well for Blackbaud Enterprise CRM. However it breaks down when talking about The Raiser’s Edge 7.

Continue reading Customizations, SDKs and API’s, Oh RE →

Bank Checking Software Compared

Not Code, , , , ,

I have been working with different bank checking software. Blackbaud Europe have written a plug-in for The Raiser’s Edge to update the bank record data such as the name and branch of the bank as well as the address based on the sort code. We recently developed a plug-in that processed the direct debit returns and unpaids from BACS and update the recurring gifts accordingly. In some cases a new bank would need to be created. I was asked to integrate the plug-in with their Blackbaud written plug-in.

Continue reading Bank Checking Software Compared →

Audit Trail on the Infinity platform versus The Raiser’s Edge 7

Not Code, , , ,

I was prompted to write this after seeing a tweet highlighting Altru’s history function. The tweet pointed to the Blackbaud Know How article about how you can see who changed what and when on a record. For those of you unfamiliar with Altru, it is one of the more recent applications released on the Infinity platform.

Continue reading Audit Trail on the Infinity platform versus The Raiser’s Edge 7 →

Google Calendar Integration with The Raiser’s Edge and Blackbaud Enterprise CRM

Not Code, , ,

I mentioned in a previous post how a service I was using to record screencast, ScreenToaster, dissappeared. When they dissappeared so did many of my screencasts. Well I am pleased to bring back to life Google Calendar Integration with The Raiser’s Edge and with Enterprise CRM.

Continue reading Google Calendar Integration with The Raiser’s Edge and Blackbaud Enterprise CRM →

Collections in The Raiser’s Edge API

Beginner

The Raiser’s Edge API is somewhat of an antiquated beast. It is very powerful in as much that it allows you to do almost anything that you can do in the application itself. However it is old and uses an old technology (COM). One area where this is shown clearly is its use of collections. Almost all modern languages and frameworks (.NET, Java, php, etc) are zero indexed. This means that if you have an array the first element is accessed at the zero position.

Continue reading Collections in The Raiser’s Edge API →