I understand there are different levels of BB technical support. Does any one have the "Back-end support agreement" with BB? Is it worth it's cost? Our organization utilizes a patient software system and RE for donors. We are trying to incorporate some bio data from RE into the patient data and visa versa but we are unable to map the data correctly. Or if someone has done this successfully, would you share your process? Carol Galioto Development Database Manager Home Nursing Agency [Email Removed]

What you are trying to accomplish is completely independent of the support level. The functionality you're talking about involve purchasing additional modules. There are two primary modules: RODBA and VBA/API. WARNING: If you write to the back end of Raiser's Edge, you invalidate your maintenance contract. If you want to write to the Raiser's Edge, you'll need to use the API. There are several levels of integration between any two systems. What you need, depends on what level of integration you need. The lowest level is completely manual. You can use imports/exports to accomplish the integration in a completely manual process. Fully automated is the highest level. If you want to fully automate the integration, you're going to need to purchase VBA/API. (These are actually two separate packages, but you generally will want to purchase both.) In the middle is partially automated. This would be a combination of manual and automated. Which parts are manual is up to you. If you automate imports to RE, you're going to need VBA/API. If you only want to automate exports, then you don't need to buy anything. There are a number of tools already available that will allow you to get the data out of RE automatically. Drew J. Drew Allen Children's Hospital of Philadelphia [Email Removed] Check out the user run RE Forum at http://www.blackbus.org/ . Check out the Crystal Reports blog "Crystal Clear" at http://www.blackbus.org/blogs/viewblog.php?userid=63

J has covered the options well. Just to clarify though, if you get either of the VBA or API modules you'll need a programmer to utilize them. They're both about writing code to carry out the tasks you want done. Also, unless they're priced differently in the States I would suggest getting only one of the VBA or API modules. The VBA module is about writing code that you start from within RE, the API module is about writing programs that operate outside of RE but can still read and write from/to RE. The API module is more expensive than the VBA module. Another option for getting data out of RE is SQL code that reads directly from the back end. You can do this using the SQL Server 2005 Management Studio which comes with SQL Server 2005, so no extra cost. You CANNOT use this method to write data back into RE though as you may corrupt your database and will certainly invalidate your support contract. I'd try the built in imports and exports first to see whether they'll do what you need. They're fiddly and need a bit of setting up, but they work. You can also semi-automate them by using RE Queues