Consistently getting errors when trying to consider apps

Martha Ricketts
Martha Ricketts
Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1 September 2024 Monthly Challenge
in Blackbaud Grantmaking™ General Discussions

I keep getting errors such as "XYZ value cannot exceed 255 characters". Typically it is character counts relating to fields that did not have character limits. Short text answers for things such as "expected attendance" or "years event held" have translated into having a 10 character count max, although that's not how the fields were built by our team. I have sent back apps for revision and added in custom validation as well as character counts. I just received another where character count cannot exceed 10 characters… but they had 10 characters. It's getting frustrating to keep sending back applications for revision, especially when you have to ask them to limit it to… 10 characters and that's what they entered anyways. Is there a way to void the errors and consider the apps? I don't want to redo each and every field to a new field that has a numerical value entry, because that will mess up our internal forms view because we will have to keep adding field upon field, while keeping the old ones visible for historical data.

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Answers

  • Irene Tai
    Irene Tai
    Third Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1

    I'm having the same issue. I submitted a ticket at a Blackbaud rep's request and basically they said to send the application back to the applicant for revision, but somehow the application came back with the same error? I also don't understand why the application is allowed to go through if they exceed the set limit and why it prevents us from considering the application…

  • Monica Jordan
    Monica Jordan
    Kudos 2 Grantmaking Fall 2025 Product Update Briefing Feedback Name Dropper Participant

    Agreed that this has been frustrating! I first encountered this situation last year - my tip is to check the field validation (in the new portal) to see what the max character or word counts are for these fields.

    In my experience, some fields created in Blueprint had limits that weren't mirrored in the new portal. For example, a short text field has a limit of 255, but the field's configuration in the new portal might have been 50. Before I knew to go back to Blueprint, I would edit the character count limit in the new portal, and it didn't matter, especially in the case of a short text field, that had a limit of 255 characters (if I changed the limit to 1000 characters, it didn't override the original field limit).

    To solve the issue, I created new fields, ensuring I was using the Long Text field, OR, added a note to the description advising applicants of the limit, and turned on the counting feature. When the limit as stated in the new portal is exceeded, the applicant will receive an error.

    IMO, the bigger issue is this: if there is an error that prevents the application from being considered, Blackbaud needs to push the error back to the applicant so they can fix the issue before clicking submit. Part of the frustration is that the applicant receives a message saying their application has been submitted, but really - it hasn't.

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