When I first started out working with Raisers Edge API I realised that I was reusing many routines over and over and that would it not be better to create my own tools class so that I would not reinvent the wheel. Over the years I have added items to this class that I have found useful and have developed older items in order to do more things. In this post I will share with you some of the items that I find invaluable.

1. Loading top level objects (constituents, gifts, etc) and handling the exception when it does not load
2. Initialising the API and storing a session context object
3. Initialising all the service objects
4. Routines to return the fund, campaign, appeal values for a gift as the system is expecting them (long or short values depending on the user’s preferences)
5. A .NET List object filled with a code table entries (the equivalent to the COM ones that fills combo boxes etc)
6. Creating, Updating and deleting attributes

I have a load of other non-RE related tools too that make life easier.

I would be really interested to hear what others use regularly.