Refresh Constituent Lists
This is a resurrection of the "Refresh Button on ALL List Types" idea which has been marked as "Will not implement". We are using lists for staff to go through and amend / tweak records - this is especially useful for tagging people to invite to events. When they have marked them as invite / do not invite by editing an attribute, they should drop off the list. Not only can I do nothing to refresh the list even with Ctrl F5 which users will think should refresh it, it continues to display the old value. I understand the reason for not implementing the Refresh option, but this makes the functionality confusing and discredits the users's trust in NXT - which is a real shame. Could you review how this could be addressed please?
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John Bird
- Nov 30 2018
Related ideas
Even if it updated every 5 minutes, it would at least not be as much of a complete hindrance to getting work done.
Say you update records four times, and each update is dependent on displaying the results of the last to make decisions - at twenty minutes a piece, you'll now spend two hours doing what in other systems or even THEIR system (DB view) would take ten minutes maximum.
The explanation of why this isn't possible for gifts and constituents is, if I understand correctly, that the dataset is so large, they only refresh the cache that the lists draw on every twenty minutes. I'm guessing it's a limitation of the data center they use or the plan they're on: https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/64/1272
"Not possible" feels like a misrepresentation. Hopefully, when database view is retired, it will free up funds for Blackbaud to upgrade their infrastructure. It would be nice to see NXT functioning at the same level of other common CRMs.
I see many of these features that are make or break for people (see comments below about choosing a different CRM over this) go unaddressed in Idea Exchange for years and years, and there's really no excuse for that. Many of them are issues that QA likely highlighted long before users had a chance to grow frustrated and disillusioned over them. It's really disheartening to have to constantly explain to your user base that the CRM system we've chosen hinders their work and there's nothing we can do about it/it's unlikely to ever change.
Looks like it won't be implemented - see explanation: RENXT-I-304 / New idea
Refresh Button on ALL List Types (and wherever else applicable/possible)
Another way around this would be to add more field and filter options when building lists in NXT view so we wouldn't have to use static lists as a starting point when what we really want is dynamic lists.
I would be very grateful to have a response from Blackbaud of this one, as I agree it massively decreases user confidence in the product and in the end may cause us to leave Blackbaud if it can't be addressed quite quickly.
A refresh button is very much needed. When editing lists in real time it sucks to have to wait 20+ minutes for a list to refresh to make sure changes have gone through. Espeically when using the list to send email, don't want to send to the wrong person because the list is still refreshing when it pleases.
I have a difficult time reporting to my director of development when we are tracking gifts and special giving days that lists and reports aren't updating in real time. We use them for the board to do calls from and if we make a change and the board calls someone we took off becuase the list didn't refresh, that's a problem.
I'm a strong proponent of this, a simple "Refresh" button to update constituent data and include/exclude constituents based on the recent updates would make this kind of work much more efficient.