The Spotlight : Patch

Sweet New Features for Patron Edge

Nicholai Burton — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:22:00 GMT

If your organization is running Patron Edge 3.340, patch 2 is now available for download at http://downloads.blackbaud.com. It includes fixes for the following reported issues:

BB575312 - Error: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Cannot open database
BB584847 - Error: Assertion Failed: unhandled control type - need to add to multiselectcontrolhandler BBBox1
BB581378 - Mastercard recorded as AMEX when a sale is made in Kiosk

That's the boring stuff, now for the really awesome features:

Debit cards - Now you can process debit cards through Patron Edge! Accepting debit cards is a great way to increase your ROI and use the money that you're not paying in fees to further your mission. Consider this scenario:

In a week, you perform 250 in-house transactions totalling $30,000. If you run all of those as credit cards at a 3% fee per transaction, you pay $900 in fees. If you run all of those as online debit cards (meaning you're capturing a PIN) at about $0.60 per transaction, you pay $150 in fees. Repeat for three more weeks, and you've saved yourself $3,000. Obviously not all of your in-house sales will switch from credit to debit, and fees vary based on your merchant services provider, but just looking at ballpark figures you can save yourself thousands a year.

Gift Cards - We have added support into Patron Edge for prepaid, reloadable gift cards. You can now sell your own personal-branded gift cards for patrons to give to their friends and family! Our current partner for this is Valutec .

Gift Certificate/Voucher Report - I wrote about this spiffy new report we've added into the Reports Wizard in this post a couple weeks ago, along with a screencast. It's solid, flexible, and can likely solve any of your reporting needs around vouchers without having to write your own custom reports.

All of these features are included standard in Patron Edge, no additional modules to purchase. To add debit and gift cards, you will want to speak with your merchant services provider to find out what information needs to be added into PCCharge.

Make sure you have a patch plan and can handle the downtime it takes to apply a patch, and don't forget to see Knowledgebase solution BB346664 to make sure any products you integrate with are compatible. If you haven't updated to Patron Edge 3.340 yet, call up your account rep and tell them that you're ready to get these new features!

Patch 11 for Patron Edge 3.310 has been released

Nicholai Burton — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:16:00 GMT

Patch 11 for Patron Edge 3.310 is now available for download at http://downloads.blackbaud.com. This patch adds compatibility with the upcoming release of The Raiser's Edge 7.9.

Patron Edge 3.310 patch 10 is now available

Nicholai Burton — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:48:00 GMT

Happy integration patch day! Patch 10 for Patron Edge 3.310 is now available for download at http://downloads.blackbaud.com and includes fixes for the following reported issues:

BB350540 - Error synchronizing membership for : Field is read only: Type
BB353804 - Memberships do not sync properly for specific records
BB403754 - Error synchronizing membership for : Expires on required if not a Lifetime Membership
BB417248 - Error: Error synchronizing membership for [XXXXX] Membership type [XX] is inactive in the Patron Edge
BB437126 - Spousal relationships do not sync properly
BB461306 - PE email addresses not synchronizing into RE
BB469214 - Error: 'Error merging from PE: Merges are not allowed outside of the Blackbaud merge application'
BB516866 - Incorrect number of transactions appear on Ticket Sales Commissions report detailed by event

Patron Edge 3.310 Patch 8 is now available

Nicholai Burton — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Hi all, there's been a lot going on under the hood here in PE-land so I've been a little quiet this week. Not wanting to leave you completely empty-handed though, we have just finished building the latest patch for Patron Edge 3.310. Since Patron Edge 3.340 is currently under controlled release, we have ported several of its fixes to 3.310 to help with stability issues for your current version. Here is a full list of the items that are resolved in this patch:

BB469388 - Itemized Receipt is rounding up GST so that it does not match what the patron was charged
BB481526 - Able to bypass required Voucher Category field when paying with an External Voucher
BB482840 - Credit Cards are charged twice in Moneris and not reflected in Patron Edge
BB540272 - JCB cards issued by American Express appear as JCB cards in reports
BB489561 - Post to GL will still post when there are unspecified accounts
BB489560 - Post to GL will still post when out of balance
BB472058 - Error: Database exeuction error: An expression of non-boolean type specified in a context where a condition is expeted, near 'SFTILLCLOSE'
BB453326 - Gift credit cards with insufficient balances approved for entire transaction amount
BB538706 - PE: Sales Profile Report shows incorrect number of Series tickets sold

So head over to http://downloads.blackbaud.com/ and grab the latest copy. Standard rules apply: make sure you have a patch plan and can handle the downtime it takes to apply a patch, and don't forget to see Knowledgebase solution BB346664 to make sure any products you integrate with are compatible. Hope to see you at the conference next week!

Patron Edge 3.310 patch 7 is now available

Nicholai Burton — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:04:00 GMT

It's that time again folks. Patch 7 for Patron Edge is now available for download. This patch fixes a couple of critical issues related to posting from Patron Edge to The Financial Edge. If you do not integrate with The Financial Edge, there's no need to download the patch at this time. The following Knowledgebase solution references the fixed item:

BB480350 - GL Pre-Post Report is out of balance

Patron Edge 3.310 patch 6 is now available

Nicholai Burton — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:36:00 GMT

It's patch day! Okay, technically the patch came out Friday afternoon, but I wanted to update all related Knowledgebase solutions before posting here. Patch 6 is now available for download at http://downloads.blackbaud.com and includes fixes for the following reported issues:

BB330410 - Error: Series price recalculation failed because the event price level is not defined for the respective series
BB421724 - Error: There are no records that match the search criteria
BB415166 - Subscriber Ticket Balance report cuts off phone numbers
BB461888 - Event Capacity Breakdown is incorrect when using Seat Information and a Seat Lock on the same seat
BB360980 - Payment Method (Comprehensive) includes all payment types when running in 'Summarized' mode
BB387860 - Return to original date option does not work
BB389402 - Series locks do not work on event level
BB421928 - Sales Breakdown by Event report missing the Issued # column when exported to Excel
BB430400 - Display Payments and Display Sales options on the Transactions By Group tab are only available to users with the System Administrator profile
BB435800 - Error: 3421 Description: Application uses a value of the wrong type for the current operation. Source: ADODB.Parameter Proc: frmSearch.FillGrid Line: 0
BB436616 - Seat attribute border color does not show up for users able to sell locked tickets
BB456026 - Series seats appear as 'Occupied by Event'
BB456290 - Sale Date is not updated for event tickets when confirming a reserved series
BB456326 - Client Listing by Seat Report does not display results in alphabetical order
BB457190 - Number of visits is incorrect on the Zip Code Anaylsis Report
BB469172 - Error: 91 Description: Object variable or With block variable not set

Tomorrow morning I'm heading up to the lovely mountains of North Carolina with my wife for our second wedding anniversary. But fear not, I'll be back in action next Monday!

Patron Edge 3.310 Patch 5 is out

Nicholai Burton — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:23:00 GMT

It's patch day! Patch 5 is now available for download at http://downloads.blackbaud.com and includes fixes for the following reported issues:

BB289847 - Error: 94 Description: Invalid use of Null Source: TIX_CloseReg Proc: Modfunctions.PrintCloseTillRS Line:305
BB452498 - Itemized receipt does not print in Batch printing
BB456374 - Cancelled tickets do not show as red in booking
BB445316 - Error: Event is already over
BB453326 - Pre-paid credit cards with insufficient balances approved for entire transaction amount (when using NOVA)

There were also some design improvements related to choosing account numbers for our PE/FE integration. As always, make sure you have a patch plan and can handle the downtime it takes to apply a patch. We've updated our compatibility matrix recently as well and made it easier to read, so check out Knowledgebase solution BB346664 to make sure any products you integrate with are compatible.

Patron Edge 3.310 Patch 4 is out

Nicholai Burton — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Hi all, it's patch day! Patch 4 is now available for download at http://downloads.blackbaud.com and includes fixes for the following reported issues:

BB449756 - Closed drawer report has incorrect amounts after a series ticket was exchanged for a single ticket
BB452348 - Error: operation denied. The show '' has no free places anymore
BB452942 - Client preference is restricted to any user group, it restricts it from everybody from editing client preferences
BB453590 - Payment of external voucher causes PE to crash
BB447561 - Distributor Sales report display shows in non sequential order

Our patches also sometimes contain fixes to issues that were found by QA folks or designers and so wouldn't have a Knowledgebase solution associated with them. My advice with patching PE is that, if it doesn't create too much downtime for you, then go ahead and stay on the latest patch. Have a good weekend!