Can you save preferences prior to new releases

Joanne Felci

It has been years since I was on a hosted RE 7 database and back then we did not have the amount of releases you have now.


They are KILLING me and my staff as each release resets all our preferences and each time we have to change everything back


Everything is sort orders, columns in tabs on records, etc


It is a waste of time and SO frustrating


But it might also be ignorance so is there a way to set your preferences so when there is a new release you can go to something to click set everything back to before or whatever


Maybe via a business rule?  


And could we PLEASE fix the batch order to stay the way you sort it - it used to do that so why was that 'fixed' - what I mean is we sort by when it was created with the most recent on top


You do that sort you leave to go to export or some other area you go back to batch and it is back to sorting by batch name?  I'm not sure what it is sorted by but it is not last date anymore.  URGH!!!

Mark Guncheon

I agree, Joanne. I start getting upset when an email arrives warning me that Blackbaud is going to do another overnight update. I get it. Keep our data safe with the latest Microsoft patches but please, Blackbaud, do you  know how much work you create for us each time this happens? There has got to be a way for you to keep our preferences stored somewhere when you do these updates. Even if we have to hit a button to bring back the preferences but make it so all the preferences return. 


I worked late yesterday afternoon on an export that just wasn't pulling all the gifts that I knew my query was finding. I finally gave up, vowing to go back at it first thing this morning. And what do I find? I have to search for my query and my export to use them. It didn't take long but it was an annoyance that RE is becoming all to often IMO.


 

Joanne Felci

appreciate the solidarity Mark Guncheon‍ 


And the explanation that this might have more to do with MS patches then real release 'fixes' but gosh it is frustrating, especially when the 'fix' things that were not broken IMHO like the whole batch sort


The other thing I noticed it seems the default when looking for a query has the 'query list' clicked so with each release I cannot find the query I need until I release or that stupid box is clicked (that might be what you are referring to below)


Fingers crossed there is something we might not know about preferences being kept somewhere/somehow

Anna Zimmerman

Mark Guncheon:

I agree, Joanne. I start getting upset when an email arrives warning me that Blackbaud is going to do another overnight update. I get it. Keep our data safe with the latest Microsoft patches but please, Blackbaud, do you  know how much work you create for us each time this happens? There has got to be a way for you to keep our preferences stored somewhere when you do these updates. Even if we have to hit a button to bring back the preferences but make it so all the preferences return. 


I worked late yesterday afternoon on an export that just wasn't pulling all the gifts that I knew my query was finding. I finally gave up, vowing to go back at it first thing this morning. And what do I find? I have to search for my query and my export to use them. It didn't take long but it was an annoyance that RE is becoming all to often IMO.


 

You get an email warning you of updates? How do I sign on to that?! 

Mark Guncheon

Hi Anna,


You sign up for them. Here is the blurb at the bottom of the last one I received:

Please note that you received this notification because you are subscribed to receive Blackbaud Product and service availability notifications. To unsubscribe or manage your subscription, please reference the following KB article: KB: 59074: How can I receive or unsubscribe from the Blackbaud Product and service availability notifications.

 

Barbara Davis

BB doesn't appear to care. When I contacted support, they directed me to this article (https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/191452), but this only says that your recently accessed record list would be reset, but don't say anything about resetting all of our preferences and customizations.

Elizabeth Perron

Hi All on this thread,


I do care that your needs are heard. As a Community Manager, I get the time to read posts and I have forwarded this thread to other internal teams so they can be aware of your thoughts.


I know that sometimes the Community is a great place to just find well, others that feel the same way and it looks like this thread provided this type of connection and some useful info! 

If you do have an idea, I would encourage you to search for a similar one in the Ideas Tab and vote for it and promote it.  (If it is not exactly what you are thinking, I encourage you to private message the person who submitted it to see if they would be willing to add your ideas.) 


In harmony and inclusion,

Elizabeth

Blackbaud Community Team

Madeleine Holdsworth

WOW.  We're about to migrate to NXT and hosting and this is scaring me....it's all well and good to encourage users to post to Ideas tab, but that really isn't answering these posts nor is it addressing the problem.  I hope we won't come to regret our decision! 


 

Becky Jones

There are very few drawbacks to being hosted by BB.  I agree that having to re-set all preferences are a pain, but not monumental to me.  It's been my experience that when something like this has happened in the past, BB usually 'fixes' what they've caused going forward.  When we were not hosted we were at the mercy of our IT dept which is a great team but their resources are sometimes limited (time, money, personnel), to have each update done to our servers and the IT folks always had to worry about the BB server going down, accessing it after hours, etc. 


Now I'm still not so sure about NXT.  From what I've gleaned over the time we've been using NXT that you cannot exclusively use NXT.  There are things if added in NXT do not migrate to the database version.  I have always used the database version to handle and process gifts.  I've told my users of NXT that it's a prettier version of RE when they are visiting with donors, etc. used to complement the database version of RE.


Hope this helps!

Becky 

Steve Townsend

That's right, you won't find that NXT replaces the database version. NXT is great for our fundraisers to be able to easily access information and run basic reports and they like using it, but myself and the rest of the Advancement Services team still work almost entirely in the database version. I suspect this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.