I've gotten some questions about how the example in the post 'Deeper Into GiftWorks and GRAPHITE Part 1' applies to our customers.

for testing only

Let me first say that the examples posted in this blog should not be used in a real environment. They are intended to give customers some insight into the power of the Mission Research software platform. We would also like feedback from our customers so we know what you want and what direction we need to be headed in.

please backup

In all circumstances, please make a backup of your database and store it in a safe place. Mission Research cannot support any problems that arise from using my examples in this blog.

sdk

In the near future, Mission Research will release a software development kit (SDK) that documents the full functionality and provides many examples. What can I do with an SDK? With the SDK, customers can integrate their own systems around GiftWorks and the data it stores. Programs can be created to clean the donor data, extract the donor data for use in other programs or even insert data from other programs. It will also give customers the ability to add their own screens and customize the existing screens within GiftWorks as well as adjust the menus on the left side.

is that it?

Of course not. I'm sure you can think of many more uses for your organization once you fully understand the power of GiftWorks' extensibility. As I reveal more examples, please leave comments on what you're thinking and what kind of things you would like to do. I will try to respond with examples based on your suggestions.

Technorati: giftworks

intro

What's really cool about GiftWorks is the ability to use Windows scripting to automate and add onto the application. GiftWorks is built on top of an application framework that enables this functionality very easily.This blog entry will be the first in a series that highlights the automation capabilities of GiftWorks and the underlying framework.

creating a donor

We'll use a simple script as an example. Below is the dialog steps for adding a new donor in GiftWorks...

That's how customers do it thru the UI. Below is the code to add a donor using VBScript. Please note that error checking has been ommited from this example to make it readable.

Const typeIndividual = 0

' Get an App reference to GiftWorks
Set App = CreateObject("MissionResearch.GiftWorks")

' Make sure the user is signed in so a db is selected
If App.Security.SignedIn Then

    ' Create the donor using the Donor module
    Dim Donor, DonorId
    Set Donor = App.Modules.Donor.DonorManage.GetNewDonor(typeIndividual)
    With Donor
        .Fname = "Ben"
        .Lname = "Franklin"
        .Gender = "Male"
        .AddresseeFormal = "Mr. Ben Franklin"
        .AddresseeInformal = "Ben Franklin"
        .SalutationFormal = "Mr Franklin"
        .SalutationInformal = "Ben"
    End With

    ' add a primary address
    Dim Address
    Set Address = App.Modules.Donor.ContactManage.GetNewContact("address")
    Address.Primary = True
    Address.Order = 1
    Address.DisplayName = "Home Address"
    Address.Street1 = "71 East Liberty Street"
    Address.Street2 = ""
    Address.City = "Philadelphia"
    Address.State = 3
    Address.Zip = "19760"
    Donor.Addresses.Add Address

    ' Insert the donor
    DonorId = App.Modules.Donor.DonorManage.InsertIndividual(Donor)
    App.Shell.MsgBox "Donor was Added", "Success"

    ' Show the new donor in GiftWorks
    App.Shell.Navigate "graphite://donor/details-individual?id=" & Donorid
Else
    App.Shell.MsgBox "You must be signed in before calling this script"
End If

code breakdown

The first thing you do is get a reference to the GiftWorks Application object. You will use that reference to access everything within the program. The CreateObject call will actually start GiftWorks if it is not running, though this example script assumes GiftWorks has already been started and a user has signed in.

Once you have an App reference and have checked that the user is signed in, you use the Donor module to get a reference to a new Individual donor object. With that object you can set some properties and add an address contact. Once all the properties have been set, you need to insert the individual. Until you call the InsertIndividual() method, the donor doesn't exist in the database.

After the donor has been inserted, you can direct GiftWorks' UI to the actual details of the donor. And that's it.

up next

In the next segment I will show you what part of the code above is GiftWorks and what part of the code is provided by the framework. Feel free to leave comments.

GiftWorks is a popular, affordable, easy-to-use fundraising software package from Mission Research. Our team has spent the last few years building it and it has been available to the public for over a year now.

From a tech perspective, the interesting thing about GiftWorks is that it is built on top of a very functional application framework called GRAPHITE. I will be dedicating a lot of my blog entries to detailing GiftWorks and GRAPHITE.

I started this blog as a way to add exposure to some of the work we are doing at Mission Research, as well as maybe provide some thoughts that other people may find interesting.

blog software

This blog software is called dasBlog which I really like and is used (and also partially written) by a blogger I enjoy reading -- Omar Shahine. The binaries and source code is available on SourceForge.