In a previous post (Filling a .NET dropdown with code table entries) I described how it was possible to fill a .NET dropdown with dynamic code table entries such as title or address types, etc. When I tried to do the same thing with static table entries (e.g. gift types, payment types, etc) it proved a lot harder and a lot less intuitive.
Continue reading Filling a .NET dropdown with static code table entries
A lot of the work that I do involves the integration of third party products with The Raiser’s Edge. It is not always right to develop a custom application to perform this integration. There are many factors including the volume of data transfer, the complexity of data, how quickly the data needs to be integrated and of course what budget is available. This article attempts to outline the options available to Raiser’s Edge managers who need to integrate with non-Blackbaud products.
Continue reading Integrating Raiser’s Edge with non-Blackbaud Products
This question has been eating away at me for ages. When you go to the Plug-ins module in The Raiser’s Edge and see the various plug-ins installed I often wonder is there any kind of order to them. Some of them appear to be in alphabetical order but then one will sneak up on you and mess up the theory. They are not in date installed order as you often get the Blackbaud plug-ins coming in the middle. The only one common theme is that the .NET plug-ins appear to come last. Come on Blackbaud what’s the deal here? I need to know!
What better way of starting the new year than taking a look at the next generation of Blackbaud’s products that are based on their Infinity platform. A couple of products have already been released but unlike many other products released into the IT wild Blackbaud has chosen, wisely in my opinion, to make the release a quiet affair and not a must have upgrade. I have managed to take a look at Blackbaud CRM. This product is aimed at the larger fundraising organisation and its flexibility certain shows this.
Continue reading A first look at Blackbaud’s Infinity platform
A few days shy of the end of the year, I hearby present to you the top visited plugins of 2008 (unless of course there is a sudden rush on any of them before midnight in which case the list will be adjusted accordingly). This list is based on the top number of clicks through to the more information about each plug-in supplied by each plug-in author.
Audit Trail
Blackbaud NetCommunity Integration
Bank Checker Solution
Clear Invalid Spouse IDs
Constituent Document Linker
Code Insert Custom Part
Convio DataSync Connector RE
ID Lookup
Action Reminder Updater
CanadianUpdateRE
Thank you to all that have added to the directory during the year and to those that have rated the plug-ins.
The title is somewhat dramatic and probably not relevant to many people however for me and a client that I work with it proved to be a disaster. This is not the first time that Blackbaud has changed the API and it certainly won’t be the last but this was annoying. So what am I referring to?
In Config, Fields it is possible to set your own fields to be required or not. For example if I wanted every organisation record in Raiser’s Edge to have a profession then I would tick the profession tick box as being required. In order to future proof my code it is necessary to check to see which fields are required so that when creating a new organization I can also prompt for the required fields too. This is not such a difficult task really only that the code below does not work as expected.
Continue reading Is the field required?
I have been at the Blackbaud European Conference for the past two days and had a great time. My session seemed to go well enough and I hope that those that were there found it useful. Again if you want see the slides again then look at the posting below. (Note that you can watch it full screen using the second from right icon at the bottom of the presentation).
If you don’t remember anything else about my presentation remember this: You do not need to purchase RE:API to create a plugin. You are not going to hear that from Blackbaud too often but I have been told from high up in the company that this is the case. You are able to develop your plugin against the sample database (where all the modules are unlocked) and then deploy it to your production database.
I had a good conference and learnt a great deal about BBEC (Blackbaud Enterprise CRM) and the new Infinity platform. (Thank you Ben). Watch this space for more about my experiences of that product.
Thank you to all of you who came along to my presentation at the Blackbaud European Conference. If you are coming to this site because of the conference then welcome.
As promised here is my presentation to download. Feel free to explore this blog or browse through the plugins on zeidman.info.
You need to Flash version 9 to view this. If you cannot see it then try here
I am really looking forward to the Blackbaud European Conference. Apart from the fact that I will be speaking there it will be great to meet a lot of the people whose posts I have read on the Blackbaud forums and on Blackbus.
If you are going to be there then come along to my session: The Raiser’s Edge Decoded – A first look at the Raiser’s Edge API. This will be a non-technical look at what can be done with the API. I will be looking at real live examples of how the API can be used to improve your organisations efficiency. The session is at 13.30 on Monday 20th October. I shall be at the conference both days and available to answer any questions you may have