Issue with the formatting of date-type attributes in dashboard panels

Tom Wright

Hi all,



Having a strange issue and wondered a) if anyone had come across is and b) if anyone knows of a workaround.



The issue is that date attributes (i.e. attributes set up to have a date in the description) are being displayed incorrectly in dashboard panels based on queries:





In the image above, note that the second column ("Constiuent Specific Attribute date test Description") contains "42715", whereas the third column ("Constiuent Specific Attribute date test Date") displays "27/04/15". In this test, both values are the same on the record itself.



For what it's worth, we're running 7.93 and don't plan on updating to .94 anytime soon. However, I would be interested to know if this is still broken in the newest version.



Tom

Tom Wright

For what it's worth, this appears to be an issue that Blackbaud have been aware of since 2009 (version 7.85).

Knowledgebase: Date format for attribute description displays incorrectly in Dashboard

The two suggestions they make are:

1. Use fuzzy dates
2. Use the date part of the attribute (i.e. not the description)

Effectively "dates are broken, use something else". Not a lot of help for those of us that have a lot of data already in date-type attributes. (Especially as attributes cannot change type once they've been used on records.)



I'll speak to support, but no doubt their advice will be to upgrade to 7.94. This is not an option for us - you don't have to look far to understand why we're hesitant.



Maybe after 6 years they'll be ready to fix what should be a simple issue, but I'm not holding my breath.

Tom Wright

Final update



Just had a phone call from BB support. This is a low priority issue and will not be fixed. Disappointed, but not surprised.