plug ins, and the api will be able to be much more tightly integrated with
the application itself so my guess is that most/all customizations that
currently use the Blackbaud object model will actually be easier to do in 8
and in a more tightly integrated way. Nonetheless, it certainly isn't a bad
idea to reach out to the vendors producing the add-ons to see what their
take is on 8.
The main difficulty will be for any customizations or tools that require
direct access to the SQL data. However, my hope is that direct access won't
be necessary. In place of direct access to the SQL data Blackbaud will
provide a web service layer to allow access to data. So, for example, if you
application needs to pull information about a student, instead of running a
complex SQL query to grab the data you need, your application will ask the
web service to provide you with the object you need (e.g. a student object).
This approach means your app is less likely to require modification with new
versions of Blackbaud, and more importantly, it allows you to take advantage
of Blackbaud's business logic so your custom apps will be able to safely
write back data to the db something which would be very dangerous to do
without BB's business logic.
Two downsides I see to this approach are potential performance issues and
lack of access to a test platform. Some of my apps would almost certainly be
very slow if I had to pull data from a web service. What I'll probably do
for these is build local tables of the required info (e.g. grades, grade
reports) on a schedule after hours by making calls to the web service. By
far my biggest concern regarding Blackbaud's move to SaaS is the lack of
access to a test server *with our data*. We regularly load our data on a
test server of BB to do everything from test new ways of doing things and
major changes, to training new users, to recovering data from a mistake
(e.g. faculty member deletes major section of his/her gradebook) when
rolling back the whole database is not an option. I have voiced this as a
concern and am waiting for a response.
Tom
--
Tom Phelan
Director of Technology
Peddie School
http://www.peddie.org
On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 1:03 PM, Jonathan Mergy <jmergy@lwhs.org> wrote:
> Thomas,
>
> Thanks for the report. Very helpful. This is a major concern though and
> will
> definitely affect my decisions to go with add-ons from vendors that sit on
> the network connected to local install of RE and FE.
>
>
> Jonathan
> ................................
> Jonathan Mergy <jmergy@lwhs.org>
> Director Of Technology
> Lick-Wilmerding High School
> 755 Ocean Ave, SF CA 94112
> P:415.585.1725 x365
> http://www.lwhs.org
>
>
> > From: Thomas Phelan <tphelan@peddie.org>
> > Reply-To: ISED-L <ISED-L@listserv.syr.edu>
> > Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:56:41 -0400
> > To: ISED-L <ISED-L@listserv.syr.edu>
> > Subject: Blackbaud Version 8
> >
> >
> > When I asked how far FE8/EE8 was behind RE8 he said FE8/EE8 would follow
> the
> > release of RE8 much closer than they have historically. The reason, and
> this
> > is the most positive thing I've heard in this conference, is that
> > Blackbaud's model of building FE/EE based on RE and then forking the
> > products is no longer their model. FE/EE are being developed at the same
> > time (although of course RE continues to lead the way) on the infinity
> > platform they will remain on the same infinity platform rather than
> forking.
> > The long term implication of this should be that FE/EE should not lag so
> far
> > behind RE in the future. At this point you may have guessed that this
> > convergence means there will no longer be two databases, just one holding
> > data for all Blackbaud products. However, given that we will no longer
> have
> > direct access to the database and won't have local SQL Servers this is
> > really a moot point. Also not surprisingly, for schools using the whole
> > suite, Sullivan recommends not upgrading RE8 immediately after it is
> > released. Instead, he recommends waiting until all version 8 products
> > (RE/FE/EE) are released and upgrading at the same time or as closely
> > together as we have resources to accomplish. Given the major changes this
> > makes sense, but the prospect of upgrading nearly simultaneously is
> > daunting. Do I hear any volunteers to go first? ;)
>
>
>
[ For info on ISED-L see https://www.gds.org/podium/default.aspx?t=128874 ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
