QUERY TOOLS

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When data warehousing started to become popular, it was like a dream come true for the vendors of query tools. Until then there had been quite a few good-quality products, but they always had the feel of a solution that was desperately in search of a problem to solve. Data warehousing changed all that, probably forever. As soon as data warehouses appeared, there was an immediate requirement for good user interfaces to the database.

Of all the various components of the data warehouse architecture, this is the most well served in terms of quality products. Nice-looking reports and fancy graphics are now taken for granted. There are several outstanding systems that provide the following kinds of features:

Standard reporting. We need the ability to design and retain standard reports. Although there is a huge requirement for the ad hoc style of query, nevertheless, the standard reports that we run day after day, month after month remain as staple requirements.

Ad hoc reporting. The ability to ask fairly complex questions without having to code any SQL. This requirement to hide the code from the users is now so well embedded that it has become a standard feature of most query tools. In fact, it is now fair to say that any tool requiring knowledge of SQL cannot survive in the market.

Batch reporting. It is well worth questioning your supplier closely about this. The ability to run reports, say, overnight is as important as the requirement for standard reports. Most products do allow for this, but it's often added as an afterthought and can be quite clunky in operation.

Distribution of reports. We might want several copies of a report e-mailed to different people. The list of people might be dynamic, and so the list management needs to be easy. Some people might want paper, others might want key information delivered via an active WAP(wireless application protoco) link. We might want a report to be split up (e.g., each customer account manager getting only their own customers' reports). Again, this is a feature that might not be so well developed as the glossy graphical stuff.

Drill down. This is now a fairly normal requirement that most query tools handle quite well. Drilling down is the ability to add more detail. For example, we might be presented with a single value for the sales to a particular customer. A drill down facility would break the figure down by, say, product categories, time period, or both.

Business semantics. This is the ability to present the data to the users in a language they understand. As an example, the data in the database might be called SL_OR_VL whereas the query tool would present the more friendly Sales Order Value to the user. This approach requires a layer of metadata to be established between the user and the database that converts what the user has selected into something the RDBMS can comprehend. This facility was pioneered in the early 1990s but is now fairly common in query tools.

Web-based version. This is also becoming a fairly standard requirement. The thin client approach to deployment of end-user software means that, increasingly, we don't want to have to place large software systems on the desktops of our users. The maintenance costs are far too high. So there is an increasing tendency to develop everything such that it can be accessed through a browser.

Summary awareness. Where we have taken the trouble to build summary-level tables for our customers to aid performance, it would be nice if the tools that we use to access the data could be made aware of them. The software can then decide, at run time, which table is likely to provide the best response time.

It is very easy to be overly influenced by the really neat demonstrations that the vendors of these products are so clever at presenting. Some of the presentations are mind- blowingly impressive. I have tried to highlight some of the areas where there are questions that, after you have purchased the product, you might wish you had asked.

only for RuBoard - do not distribute or recompile