Following my previous article on creating a batch with a notepad I am following it up with a some code that adds attributes. This is more or less shown on the Blackbus thread that I referenced but I wanted to clarify some of the steps having gone through the procedure myself. Continue reading Creating Attributes with the BatchAPI
Using the Batch API with Notepads or Attributes
I have started to use the Batch API in earnest now. I have said previously that it is a great long overdue piece of functionality but I am beginning to understand why it was never included earlier. As with much of the API the newly added Batch API is not well documented. A good example of how to use it was given and can be found on Blackbaud’s knowledgbase (BB418575) but it is somewhat limited. It does not explain for example how to add an attribute or a notepad to a gift batch. This was discussed on a Blackbus thread. Adding the items to the batch header was quite straight forward but adding the actual values proved more difficult. Here I try to shed some light on the process.
Continue reading Using the Batch API with Notepads or Attributes
Latest version of IDLookup
Zeidman Development is pleased to announce the latest release of IDLookup. With this latest release (version 1.1.4) we bring you some exciting additions:
- Use your search criteria against a spouse record.
- Previously we introduced address equivalents (a match against “1 High Street” would also match “1 High St”, or “1 High St.”). In this latest release we allow you to customize the address equivalents list so that you can add new equivalents and change existing ones.
- A user guide. (a long sought after addition)
If you have not checked out IDLookup for a while then there are many new features including:
- Matching on the first few characters of fields
- Making your search accent insensitive (e.g. côté matches against côte, coté and cote)
- Matching on maiden name
- Filtering the results on specific constituent codes or constituent attributes.
If you already own a full license of IDLookup then download this latest version now for free. Otherwise download a full working version of IDLookup (restricted to the sample database)
If you need any help installing IDLookup, wish to purchase it or have any feedback then please do not hesitate to contact us
David
The Full Address
I wanted to be able to get a constituent’s address from their record. Sounds simple enough. You just take the address block, the city, the state and zip. Although what happens if they are not in the States or Canada. When you change the country for example, to United Kingdom, the state field disappears and a county field appears in its place. Pulling the state field would just be a blank value.
Using the RE Controls – Part 1
There are a lot of controls that The Raiser’s Edge uses and that you can use in your code to give it a similar look and feel. This article is an introduction to using one of these controls – the SuperEdit70Ex. Like most of the API this is not documented. Indeed this really is not documented. There is no extra documentation other than by looking at the object browser.
Validating a Constituent Batch
Previously I have integrated Quick Address from QAS with The Raiser’s Edge. I implemented their pro API in order to validate the address on saving the constituent/relationship/participant and on demand using the VBA macro button. I created a plugin to update addresses en masse using their batch API. I implemented their pro API to create a “silent” validation during import. The one thing that I didn’t do at the time was to validate addresses in a constituent batch. At the time this was not a requirement.
RE7VBA tool not working as expected
When you write code using the RE7VBA tool that compiles the VBA code into a DLL to be deployed, the environment is very similar to the built in VBA environment. There is the same development environment and access to the same code. So you would think that switching between the two would not be a problem.
The Obsolete API
Inspired by a posting on Wired (which in turn was taken from a Wiki on obsolete technologies) I wanted to give you a list of the top five obsolete areas of the RE:API.
Reflecting on the Meta world
One aspect of the API that is really well thought out is the whole Meta data structure. Back when RE7 was written, there was no reflection built into VB6. Java had it and there was some libraries that could do it but nothing was built in. Reflection (in coding terminology) is the ability to be aware of the classes and methods that are available to the code during run time.
Most Visited Plugins for February
Here are the top 10 visited plugins for the month of February. These are ordered by plugins whose follow through link as been visited.
1 Convio DataSync Connector RE
2 Create Preferred Address
3 Action Reminder Updater
4 Alternate Address Deleter
5 Bank Checker Solution
6 Clean Static Queries
7 AFP
8 Audit Trail
9 Add Constituent ID
10 Custom Reports