Gift and proposal endpoints availability

HFBDataTeam Team

Hi!
We are migrating to Blackbaud Cloud and want to take advantage of the RENXT API.
Currently we are pulling data from RE database directly.
I noticed that some tables that are present in RE do not have corresponding endpoints in the API documentation.
For instance: gift_attributes, gift_proposal, gift_records, gift_split, proposal, proposal_solicitor, prospect.
(I would expect it to be GET a list request for each of those entities).

Do I understand correctly that those endpoints are not implemented and that data can't be pulled using the API?

Thank you!
Anastasia

Tchaya Jewenstein

@HFBDataTeam Team
Some of these fields can be pulled by creating & using a list.

Alex Wong

@Tchaya Jewenstein
Attribute is custom field in webview/api terminology

Yes, there are API to pull gift attribute (get gift custom fields (all gifts or single gift)

what do you mean by “gift proposal” and “proposal solicitor” and “prospect”?

gift records can be pulled by gift list api

gift splits comes with the gift list api pull

HFBDataTeam Team

@Alex Wong
Hi!

Thanks for your response.

Gift attribute and gift splits - got it, thanks!

>gift records can be pulled by gift list api
I don't see any mentioning of records in gift list response example:
https://developer.sky.blackbaud.com/docs/services/58bdd5edd7dcde06046081d6/operations/ListGifts
Or should I be looking somewhere else?

Regarding “gift proposal”/“proposal solicitor”/“prospect” - I was assuming this data used in our organization was also coming from RE but now I have doubts... I'll double check what it is.

Thanks!

HFBDataTeam Team

@Tchaya Jewenstein
Thanks for your response!
By creating a list, you mean this endpoint?
https://developer.sky.blackbaud.com/docs/services/list/operations/CreateListFromIds

Alex Wong

@HFBDataTeam Team

“I don't see any mentioning of records in gift list”, what “records” are you looking for? the Gift List API will provide you with list of gifts matching your “queried criteria” (i.e. gift_type=Donation, will give you all gifts that is of type “Donation”, in database view's terminology, that's Gift Type=Cash).

Per gift, you will get a bunch of information including: constituent, gift split, gift type, gift amount, gift date, gift status, gift fundraiser (solicitor) and its “fundraised/solicited amount”, soft credits, etc, etc.

However, in order for some of the information to “make sense”, you will need to make additional API calls. For example, the Gift List endpoint will give you constituent_id field, which is the constituent system record id of the direct credit, the constituent record where the gift is entered under. In order for you to get the constituent's information (i.e. first name, last name, org name, address, etc) you will need to call the get constituent API endpoint.

In order to get split info in “english”, you will also need to use the get campaign/fund/appeal endpoint, as the split info only give you the campaign/fund/appeal system record id.

Dan Snyder

@HFBDataTeam Team Another terminology trick, proposal is opportunity in webview/api terminology. I believe you can get that information, but you might just be getting ids from the Get Opportunity endpoint.

HFBDataTeam Team

Thank you so much for your input!

I'm also wondering if it is possible to connect to the Azure database using database client (like DBeaver)?
If so, where could we find the connection information? (server name etc.)
Thanks!

Alex Wong

@HFBDataTeam Team
I use MS SQL Management Studio and have no problem connect to it, the connection string can be found on the Azure admin portal for the SQL instance. You have various security measure to restrict which IP can connect into it.

HFBDataTeam Team

@Alex Wong

Thanks Alex!
I have to ask - how would you get access to Azure portal?
Is it something that needs to be provided by Blackbaud team?
Our team has uploaded the backups to Azure storage as per the guide below - and basically that's it.

I have access to RENXT portal only.

Thanks!

Alex Wong

@HFBDataTeam Team
Hi, I think you have a misunderstanding here regarding “Azure”. Yes, some of Blackbaud customer is hosted on Azure vs hosted by Blackbaud (old hosting). That's Blackbaud's Azure environment.

The “Azure” i'm talking about is your company/org Azure environment, if you are a “Microsoft shop”. If you have it, it can be accessed by going to

and logging in with your O365 credential. This will require your IT team to have it configured and build out: Build a SQL server there, and then a SQL database instance.

HFBDataTeam Team

@Alex Wong

Thanks for the prompt response Alex.

Probably I was not clear enough so will add more context:

There is an assumption that we can't pull all data we need using the Blackbaud API.
Before going into details of what exactly is missing as it will take some time, we are wondering if there is an alternative to the API connection at all - an option to connect to the Blackbaud database (presumably it's Azure environment) directly to be able to see all the tables there and to pull data from there.
So the question is it possible to connect to Blackbaud database and pull data from there? And if it is possible where we could find connection details?

Hope it makes sense!
Thank you!

Alex Wong

@HFBDataTeam Team
Blackbaud does not allow connecting directly to their database

HFBDataTeam Team

@Alex Wong
thanks Alex!