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I've read through many of the posts here but have unfortunately not been able to gain an understanding of the basics of how the API can be used.
I'm working on a new web site for a organization that uses RE, so am interested in knowing how I might utilize the API, and what it would cost.
I do apologize if these questions have been answered elsewhere or are considered common knowledge - I'm an RE newbie!
1. Can the API be fully utilized using PHP, specifically a Drupal install?
2. If so, can it be used on LAMP or only on Windows?
3. What is the cost of using the API?
4. Has the issue with the license agreement been resolved? (See this thread)
Thanks so much for any help you can offer. I appreciate it.
2) initializing the API requires the COM extension in PHP and therefore only works on Windows Servers but it should work with either IIS or Apache. You should also know that using it in PHP is totally unsupported by Blackbaud so you won't have any official support for your applications.
I've read through many of the posts here but have unfortunately not been able to gain an understanding of the basics of how the API can be used.
I'm working on a new web site for a organization that uses RE, so am interested in knowing how I might utilize the API, and what it would cost.
I do apologize if these questions have been answered elsewhere or are considered common knowledge - I'm an RE newbie!
1. Can the API be fully utilized using PHP, specifically a Drupal install?
2. If so, can it be used on LAMP or only on Windows?
3. What is the cost of using the API?
4. Has the issue with the license agreement been resolved? (See this thread)
Thanks so much for any help you can offer. I appreciate it.
The Raiser's Edge API is 'free' but you need to pay a yearly maintenance fee for it. Check out this post for more info.
I don't believe the API will work with php but I could be wrong on that one.
The API is only free if you have NetCommunity. Otherwise it costs (a considerable amount I believe).
The API will work with php but only on a Windows machine (from what I understand) as you have to have a Raiser's Edge client on the machine that you have the API code installed.
this might answer a previous question that i asked.
i've got a web app sitting on a linux (LAMP) server which is of course serving the organization's website and open to the public, and one of the things that i'm trying to do is make calls from that app, to the raiser's edge db that's sitting inside the organization's office.
is there no way to accomplish this without the "Raiser's Edge client" (never seen or read about this) running on the machine you're trying to integrate with?
If u are trying to make calls to RE via the API you are going to need the client installed on that box. Since it's a linux box that's probably not possible.
the only other solutions would be if you have direct SQL access to RE or if you have BBNC you might be able to do something with the re7service. Those are both unsupported approaches and Blackbaud doesn't recommend them.
this might answer a previous question that i asked.
i've got a web app sitting on a linux (LAMP) server which is of course serving the organization's website and open to the public, and one of the things that i'm trying to do is make calls from that app, to the raiser's edge db that's sitting inside the organization's office.
is there no way to accomplish this without the "Raiser's Edge client" (never seen or read about this) running on the machine you're trying to integrate with?
This is becoming a popular topic, which I'm glad to see. See the other topic about web app integration for examples and other info. It's perfectly possible to pull data out of Raiser's Edge and into PHP using a standard ODBC connection. I've been doing it now for a little over a year. There are some big caveats though:
From a legal standpoint you can only pull data out, you can't write back to the database without breaking your Terms of Service.
As mentioned above this is not supported by Blackbaud and you are proceeding at your own risk. This is why I recommend setting your ODBC login up to be read only from the beginning so that you can't do any damage to your database unintentionally.
If you are exposing this ODBC connection to a public web server you need to be extra careful about security. Anyone who gains the login information can pull out any of the information in your database. Never include the connection string in your main program. Set it up elsewhere and make the main program call it to get a connection. You must also be sure that your functions are only able to pull out information you are comfortable making public. Security is a big concern here.
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