Category Archives: Beginner

Adjust that tax claim at your peril

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This is perhaps more of a rant than anything else but after being so pleased with the way Blackbaud introduced Batch into the RE:API I now found myself stuck with another piece of Raiser’s Edge functionality that I am less than pleased with.In the UK Gift Aid is big business. In the States (and possibly elsewhere) the donor can claim tax back from charitable donations. In the UK it is the charity that can claim the money back from the government for UK tax payers so this can amount to a very large sum of money if it is handled properly. There have been several changes to Gift Aid over the past four or five versions of Raiser’s Edge. One problem that was not addressed until recently was when Gift Aid had been taken in error and then claimed back from the Inland Revenue. If a gift was given in error then the Gift must be adjusted or written off and the Gift Aid must be reversed. If the Gift Aid was claimed in error (for example the donor was not a tax payer) then the Gift Aid alone must be reversed.
Continue reading Adjust that tax claim at your peril →

Additions to the Plugin Directory

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Since we started the plugin directory new plugins have been added. Here are the most recent additions to the plugin directory. If we have missed any then feel free to add them. Thank you to all those who have added over the past months.

  • Repair Receipt Type
  • Unmark DNC
  • Regenerate Import IDs
  • Fix Key Position Data for IndRecords2
  • Clean Static Queries
  • Fix Trailing Spaces
  • Expire benefit fix
  • Update Pending Transactions
  • Define Patronymic Prefix Excludes
  • Match Applications and Enrollment
  • De-Duplicate Phones

    • Cannot find the plugin that you are looking for? Get in contact with us and find out how we can make your Raiser’s Edge processes more efficient and make savings in both time and money.

    Integrating with Excel

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    Two common tasks seem to be integrating RE with an Excel file. This can mean two things. Either from a plugin or some RE:VBA code opening a Excel file and extracting the data or it can mean that from within Excel VBA access the RE objects to retrieve some data. The way you handle the two scenarios is quite different.

    If you are trying to connect to Raiser’s Edge from Excel you will need the API module. You connect to RE using the REAPI object and initialize it with a serial number and optionally user name and password. You then use the API in exactly the same way as you would from within RE, i.e. via VBA or any other API application.

    If you want to open up Excel from RE then you will need to create the application objects. This is shown in the example below:

        Dim objExcel As Excel.Application     ' Excel application 
    Dim objBook As Excel.Workbook      ' Excel workbook  
    Dim objSheet As Excel.Worksheet     ' Excel Worksheet  
    Dim oConstit As New CRecord    oConstit.Init REApplication.SessionContext 
    Set objExcel = CreateObject("excel.application") 'Starts the Excel Session  
    Set objBook = objExcel.Workbooks.Open("C:test.xls")   

    For Each objSheet In objBook.Sheets 
        If UCase(objSheet.Name) = "Sheet1" Then 
            oConstit.Load CLng(objSheet.Range("A2").Text) 
            objSheet.Range("A3").Text = oConstit.Fields(RECORDS_fld_FULL_NAME) 
            Exit For 
        End If 
    Next objSheet 
     objBook.Save  
     If Not objBook Is Nothing Then 
        objBook.Close 
        Set objBook = Nothing 
    End If 
     If Not objExcel Is Nothing Then  
        objExcel.Quit 
        Set objExcel = Nothing 
    End If

    This is quite self-explanatory code, although Excel has an object model just as RE does which is very large and takes a while to get to understand. There is plenty of Excel API information on MSDN.

    Custom user defined business rules

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    The idea of creating user defined business rules has been discussed in various threads at Blackbus and on the Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge forums (see User Defined Business Rules for example). The whole functionality  is really useful but there are clearly limitations.

    One really good use of VBA is to perform this very task. For those not familiar with the build in version it allows you to select a query (constituent, gift or action) and for a all or a limited number of security groups it allows you to display a message on opening the record. This same functionality can be repeated using VBA. Of course you are able to query on a lot more, or perform more than simply display a message. Continue reading Custom user defined business rules →

    Blackbaud Labs RE7 code sample

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    I just noticed Blackbaud have added a code sample to their Blackbaud Labs site. This appears to be the same code sample as was released on CodePlex but it will no doubt get a larger audience here.

    My initial thought about this code are that it is unnecessarily complicated. Creating an embedded HTML resource, creating a specific control, putting in the correct GUID into to the HTML page and then getting it all to work seems to be somewhat of a long winded approach. Continue reading Blackbaud Labs RE7 code sample →

    A Non-production database

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    There has been some discussion on the Blackbaud forums and on the Blackbus forum about using a second non-production database.  This article will highlight some ways of doing this. 

    Before I begin I want to categorically state that if you believe what I am writing in this post breaks your Blackbaud contract then do not do it. A long time ago I was told by Blackbaud that it was perfectly acceptable and I hold by that but I know that others who have been told otherwise (including various support people at Blackbaud who will give you a different ruling depending on who you speak to!) Just to reiterate I am in no way encouraging you to break the law!
    Continue reading A Non-production database →