With the most recent RE update, Export has reverted to behavior from before RE version 7.96.6401 Patch 5. About 2-1/2 years ago, once Patch 5 was installed, we were able to export a current solicitor by choosing to output only one Assigned Solicitor with a specific solicitor type and by putting the current date in the Date From criteria. This was true of exporting a primary constituency code as well. Today, when following the same steps, the recent updates now export a past solicitor who has an End Date filled in. And, in the case of constituent codes, either NO constituency code exports or you get an incorrect code (with a Date To filled in). According to Blackbaud Support, "The way you were previously using it was actually an issue in the system and in the recent patch was fixed." So they took something that was working and made it no longer work. Here's the Knowledgebase Article information, I saved from 2016:
In a Constituent Export, using Start Date and/or End Date criteria when exporting Assigned Solicitor information to filter on Date from and Date to on the assigned solicitor relationship, The Raiser's Edge incorrectly outputs assigned solicitors that do not meet the criteria.
Article Number: 74279
Products: Raiser's Edge RE
This was resolved in Raiser's Edge 7.96, which was released in fall 2016 and applied to databases in Blackbaud Hosting Services. If your database is installed locally, download and install the latest version and patch, if applicable.
I thought it was all in my head. BY FAR the most common use of this in relationships and constituent code is with a date in the date from and nothing in the date to. How are we to find the active relationships?
This has dramatically decreased our functionality with multiple types of solicitors. All of the work arounds add significantly more work, which is not acceptable considering the financial investment in these database products.
The ACTIVE solicitor is by far the most important one. The past ones are usually just there as a history point. Why would you make this harder to pull?
We retain all of our data on inactive solicitors for historical purposes so we need an easy and not manual (filtering after exporting) way to easily include only active solicitors on our exports.
Yes. The way this currently works (patch 14) requires a significant amount of additional work to review/edit/delete old solicitor assignments (not current) in exported data. Until now, I have always been able to find a way to only export current/active solicitor assignments. Yes, the settings were not logical, but it worked. Unfortunately, this latest update does not allow for the most common need (only the current solicitor) when exporting solicitor assignments.
I'm shocked! This from the data base company that sent someone to our offices who still have 5 old primary contacts listed for our organization? Say it ain't so. I mean, it's not like solicitor coding is important, we only base the vast majority of our annual goals around accurate reporting on it.