Re: Oracle Discoverer

Lee wrote:
>
> I was looking for a query tool that would support end user query/report
> activity in a slightly more comfy environment than
> sql*plus.
> Oracle Discoverer seems to be oriented for end user support but I've
> never used it, nor been in a shop where it was routinely
> installed.
>
> Does it come "Bundled" with Enterprise Edition of the 8i database or
> would we have to buy a separate license? That would probably be a deal
> breaker if we actually had to pay an Oracle sized license fee. There are
> only a tiny number of users in our environment who fit the profile, so
> I cant see setting up a whole "thing" , especially if (eek!) costs real
> cash, just for one or two occasional users.

Disco comes in several parts:

1. Admin tool is used to manage metadata (eg: alternate/common names, common operations, etc.)
2. End user tool
3. Internate access mechanism

Currently the Admin section is bundled in the Oracle Developer Suite and the rest is bundled in Oracle's 9i Applicaiton Server. Generally you'd have one administrator (therefore one Admin Tool) for several ad hoc environments.

You are right that installation could be a big deal, if you tried installing on each user's machine. That may be one of the reasons why they decided that the primary access will be through a browser. Then all of the setup, upgrades, deployment, etc. are done in the middle tier. "Just" point the browser to the server & go!

As to capability - think 'Ad Hoc Query', + 'Excel' + 'Excel's charting/graphing' designed for a typical end user (even managers can use this <g>). It's fairly user-friendly, including a rarely found 'your question will take this long - do you want to proceed' capability.

Price/cost evaluations depend entirely on your company's accountants. If they separate capex & opex and they don't know how to look at a project's total cost, Disco is likely going to seem expensive. If they understand that project costing includes Capital Expenditure as well as Operating Expenditure, then Disco is fairly reasonable. Received on Sun Nov 23 2003 - 19:20:41 CET