April 2008 - Posts
Degree of difficulty in query depends on how refined your criteria needs to be.
For example, if you need to send mail to all of your constituents whose Preferred City is Charleston, your query criteria is nice and simple:
Preferred City equals Charleston.
Of course, it usually isn't that easy. You're more likely asked to send mail to everyone with a Preferred City of Charleston who has given a cumulative amount of $100 or more, except for anybody who is a Board Member, or who has a Solicit Code of either Do Not Mail, Do Not Solicit, or Leave Me Alone, or who gave their first gift in this calender year.
While it is possible to do all of this in one query, weaving together the necessary combination of ANDs, ORs, parentheses, and negative operators required to group all of these records in one query is an aggravating, time-consuming process.
The best solution is to create two queries. The first query (Query A) would include the records that meet the overarching criteria you're searching on. In this scenario, Query A would look like this:
Preferred City equals Charleston
AND Summary Information, Total Amount greater than or equal to $100
The flip side would be to capture all the records you are trying to suppress in another query (Query B), which would look like this:
Constituency Code equals Board Member
OR Solicit Code one of Do Not Mail, Do Not Solicit, Leave Me Alone
OR First Gift Date equals This Calendar Year
Once these queries have been created, saved, and given nice, memorable names, it's time to get this merge party started. "Merge" is actually a bit of a misnomer here. The two source queries are not combined into an inextricable whole. Rather, Query A and Query B will serve as parent queries to create Query C, a third, child query.
Click the Merge queries button at the top of the Query screen. Select Query A as the Primary Query and Query B as the Secondary Query. Next, select the Operator of SUB and click OK.
SUB, in this instance is not an abbreviation for either a sandwich chain, a form of mass transit, or an underwater boat. In this case, it's short for "subtract". The merge will subtract the records in Query B from the group in Query A.
Don't worry if the number of records in your merged query do not match the difference between your two queries. There may be records that meet the criteria in Query B but not in Query A. Those records won't be subtracted from Query A because they aren't there to be subtracted. Only records that meet the criteria of both queries will be excluded.
If you would like to learn more about merged queries, check out knowledgebase solution
BB513.
Over the past few years, I've come to accept that my memory is not particularly strong. Fortunately, that hasn't caused much of a problem for me in my work, but if I was responsible for your data entry, you might have reason for concern. And really, even if you or your colleagues are with it 24/7, there's always at least a slight margin for error (especially when post-lunch sleepiness rolls in). 
The good news is that Raiser's Edge includes the option to create user-defined pop-ups that can serve as wonderful reminders when you open particular records. Let's say you periodically receive gifts from constituents who are marked as having no valid addresses. Your organization may have a policy in place to update their addresses when new donations come in, but if you're in the process of entering fifty new gifts, you may very likely forget to check whether the donor has a valid address.
That's where pop-ups come in handy. By creating user-defined business rules, you can set up Raiser's Edge to give you a pop-up reminder when you open particular records. In the example above, I could create a query of everyone who has the No Valid Addresses checkbox marked and then design a business rule to remind me to update their addresses when adding new gifts. I could even tailor the message to only appear for certain user groups if I didn't think everyone suffered from an insufficient memory (not saying they don't).
Knowledgebase provides step-by-step instructions for setting up user-defined pop-ups (BB1495), so give it a try and let me know how it goes!
A common question I hear is 'How do I export the same field multiple times using separate parameters?' For example, maybe you need to an export for a mailing house and need to include total giving for 2006, 2007, and 2008 – each in its own column. This requires including the Summary Information, Total Gift amount field multiple times, each with its' own date range parameter. To accomplish this, try the following:
- On the Output tab of your Export select the Summary Information, Gifts, Total Gift Amount field, set the appropriate criteria, and click OK.
- In the right frame, highlight the name of the export; if this is a new Export highlight 'New Constituent Export'.
- In the left frame, double click the Summary Information, Gifts, Total Gift Amount field and set the appropriate criteria and click OK.
- Notice the second Total Gift Amount field appears in the right frame proceeded by 2. This indicates that you have selected the same field multiple times with unique parameters.
- Repeat the above steps to get the number of times the field is needed. For example, to export Total Gift amount three times, follow the above steps three times.
To learn more about this please read knowledgebase solution
BB3503.
Friends,
Just had a conversation today with a client re: User Groups... Am a huge fan of the concept -- the formal Blackbaud regional User Groups are fantastic networking opportunities, as well as the chance to hear news about what's new and what's coming down the pike.
Even more important (IMHO) are internal User Groups -- meaning you and your colleagues get together regularly to chat re: how folks are using The Raiser's Edge to fulfill roles and meet organizational goals. As a client, I had standing monthly RE User Group Meetings. Each month we'd look at each other and think, "Do we really have anything to talk about?" and next thing you knew it was 1.5 hours later and we had discovered 5 new tips & tricks, uncovered a hidden process flaw and had a good laugh about it. It really helps to keep all users on a parallel track, identifies future power users and allows everyone to feels empowered to "own" and become experts on their piece of the system. Also welcomes new users into the fold and provides a level of soft training.
If you're not already doing it -- consider it! Maybe start with a light agenda over a brown bag lunch... Believe me, interesting conversations will quickly ensue -- everything from "What in the world does this attribute mean?" to "How can we empower our CEO to feel more connected to the daily stats?" Have different folks take notes at each meeting and assign follow-up tasks (ie: creating a new query, searching Knowledgebase, contact Customer Support, etc.). Personally, I've observed that clients that host regular internal User Groups are ultimately much more successful, satisfied and retain qualified RE users longer than those who don't.
Until next time... :)
Jennifer
"Error" and "bear" sound pretty much the same when you're in the South. Regardless of your geographical location, they can both be a bit frightful when they unexpectedly pop up. Okay, so bears don't really pop, but you get the picture.
If your first instinct is to call Support (regarding errors, not bears), we'll be glad to help you. However, you can substantially shorten the troubleshooting process and potentially solve the problem on your own by going through the following steps:
1. Copy the exact error and enter it in Knowledgebase. We create a solution for every case we work in Support, so it's very likely that the error and its resolution have already been documented. If the same error appears in multiple solutions, check the environment (i.e., "Occurs when . . .") and the cause to find the closest match.
2. When in doubt, reboot. This classic troubleshooting step works more often than you'd expect. You may also find that the error resolves itself if you simply exit and sign out of the program and then log back in. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh start.
3. Narrow down the culprit. If you're able to duplicate the error, the question is who to blame: your user name, your computer, or your database?
a. Try to duplicate the error when logged into your computer as a different user (preferably Supervisor). If that fixes it, you may need to recreate your RE user name.
b. See if the error occurs when logged in on another computer or on the server. If not, you can run an update/repair on your computer or update/repair the deploy kit, respectively.
c. Try duplicating the error within your sample database to determine whether the problem is rooted in your live database.
Knowledgebase goes into greater detail about these general troubleshooting steps for error messages (BB204470). If these instructions seem like another language to you, don't hesitate to contact Support for assistance; that's what we're here for. But you may surprise yourself with your newly discovered error-hunting skills.