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September 2027 Database View Retirement

Chris Nance

With the Database View retirement on the horizon, I know a lot of reporting teams are stressed about what happens when the old access goes away. Having worked in this sector for several decades, we have seen a few platform transitions, and the shift away from Database View actually forces a necessary architectural upgrade. Blackbaud's supported path forward relies on SKY and Query APIs to pull data.

It will require Blackbaud users to rebuild their manual extraction processes or pivot to the APIs being used by Blackbaud’s Power BI Connector or one of the Blackbaud Partner data warehouse solutions to create a more stable reporting environment.

I am curious about where everyone else is on this. Are you actively migrating your reporting architecture right now, or just trying to audit what will break when Database View shuts off?

There are some silver linings: we no longer need to use Citrix and Queue!

Disclosure: I co-founded a company, NetOutlook LLC, that builds an Raiser's Edge NXT data warehouse, and this post grew out of a conversation we had with our client, Colby College (who permitted us to use their name in discussing solutions publicly). We're genuinely interested in how everyones' feeling about the reporting options that exist.

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Accepted answers

Joe Moretti

See this is what Blackbaud is doing with this whole RE NXT chaos, vultures are swooping in circles as they smell this. Bad enough so many have to use third parties and all these other connectors and shell out even more money. GOOD GRIEF.

Just keep Database View and make it better. BUT at the same time, why are people predicting what may or may not happen or "break", when the migration is not even completed yet. I get being prepared, but the RE NXT thing has not been complete yet, so to "predict" something is not helpful. Wait till all the facts are in.

All comments

Joe Moretti

Chris Nance

You are entitled to your opinion, Joe. The fact of the matter is, there are several very good reasons Database View should have been retired years ago. The reality is, it's going away, so we are working with our clients in good faith to help prepare for the transition. I understand the frustration with the way this has been handled, but calling people you have never met "vultures" due to those frustrations is neither civil nor is it productive.

Amy Easton

Why make an annoucement on something that hasn't fully migrated? That is great you have told us all you are killing Database View but I am more interested in being informed about how I perform the tasks I do on Database View now on RENXT?

Karen Diener

@Chris Nance I'm curious to hear more about what you think might break when database view is retired. Can you say more about that?

Kelly Hogan

Based on what he is saying, it sounds like reporting outside of RE that does not rely on the APIs? Right?

Nicole Holt

For lots of reasons, I've been moving reporting and scheduled tasks out of db view and into APIs/ power automate for a couple years. When new APIs are available, we take a look at what we're doing manually in db and, where possible, move it. As a result, I don't feel a ton of anxiety over this change—it's been broadcast for about a decade and we've been plugging away as opportunity allows. That said, I do wish that there was some earlier/faster movement on getting functionality to webview/apis so we would have a little more of a runway on the last pieces (looking at you, volunteer module).

And our reporting has always been…bespoke. Most standard reports have just not been used anyway here (we all inherit processes that may be better in another way, but the fight to change isn't worth the time taken from more valuable endeavors). So, migrating to PowerBI/ APIs has actually been helpful to get what we want the way teams are best able to see/use it without manipulation after the pull.

Julie Porter

RENXT should bring Exports over to webview. I think that would put so many of us at ease. At the moment, there's nothing even close to Exports on NXT!

Heather Pauli

We're trying to just see where the pieces will fall when the transition happens, as it seems more and more that the deadline's a set thing. I thought things were stressful when Blackbaud stopped playing nice with Microsoft and discontinued mail merges, sheesh!

Ashlee Eda

Our organization is frustrated and wondering if there will be any parallel running time. The main things that might break are not available yet in Webview like imports and export templates.

Also I hate standard reports in webview. I wish we could just preview the report. I do not need to download this report 26 times.