Re: Need reporting tool for novices

>>>>> mcapron_at_wbst845e.xerox.com (Mike Capron) said:

mcapron> We are looking for a tool that we can give to computer novices to allow
mcapron> them to generate ad hoc reports from an Oracle database.  The database
mcapron> lives on a VAX, but we would like to access it from either a Sun or
mcapron> PC (using SQL/Net), preferably both.  We don't mind doing some setup
mcapron> to get things up and running.

How about using a spreadsheet? However this solution avoids SQL/Net.

You might be interested in the I-Kinetics product

        I-Bridge for Excel
if so you can contact:

Sales, ATTN: Abe Hirsch
I-Kinetics, Inc.
19 Bishop Allen Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139
Voice: (800)457-4555
Fax: (617) 661-8625
Internet: sales_at_i-kinetics.com

I-Bridge: Complete solution for accessing Oracle and Sybase from MS Excel

Today's most vexing data problem is not whether or where the needed information exists but how to transfer it to and from your favorite desktop application. Usually the solutions available are to type in the data, or import a file from a network or floppy disk.

With I-Bridge you can access more and better information now, when you need it. While in Excel can grab data directly from remote corporate databases. You gain access to up-to-the-minute database information. And since the data is now in your Microsoft Windows application, you have complete control to format and analyze it to your specific needs. All this without having to learn yet another application just so that you can get your job done. There is no learning curve. You realize increased productivity immediately.

*********I-Bridge for Windows Version 2.1 Features************

**Full Unix and TCP/IP networking support.**

I-Bridge for Windows supports the major vendor PC/Windows TCP/IP implementations: WinSock compliant vendors, Microsoft TCP/IP, Sun PC/NFS, FTP Software, Novell LWP, NetManage, Frontier, and Distinct.

**OpenClient, Oracle SQL*Net etc. is not required**

One simple install. No need to switch among different DBMS vendor drivers. You don't even need to install them. The I-Bridge works directly with your TCP/IP network.

**Breaks the 64KB Windows Data Transfer Barrier.**

I-Bridge succeeds where other Windows database links fail. It breaks through 64 KByte barrier of MS Windows with data transfers of 1000 KByte or more.

One of the most difficult problems in Microsoft Windows is moving data chunks bigger than 64 kilobytes (KB) into Excel worksheets. Large data chunks must be broken up into smaller chunks of less than 64KB, transferred and then reassembled in the worksheet.

Who needs more 64KB? This is about 800 rows. Is this enough? Not when finance wants an audit report. Not when marketing wants quota drilldowns. Not when trading wants a fund holdings detail. How big is your database 1MB, 100MB, 10,000MB? What are the chances that you are going to need to download more than 64KB of data from it? What are going to do?

Managing the assembly of chunks of data in Excel results in burdensome and complicated macros. Worse though is breaking up a straightforward request for data from an information service into many requests that result in smaller data chunks. When retrieving data from databases this can be particularily expensive. You can not use existing (and verified) SQL, stored procedures or 4GL code. You have to develop your own. Additionally, the data model of the database may have to be modified so that you can select small chunks of data (subsets of rows).

The I-Bridge uses a sophisticated data streaming technology to avoid this problem. You do not need to worry about whether you are requesting small amounts of data or large amounts of data because the I-Bridge will manage the complete transfer of any size of data into your Excel worksheet for you.

**Retrieves data in background freeing you to do other work.**

Asking for data against heavily loaded information services, such as database servers, can result in long wait times. Do you want Excel spreadsheet to be blocked for minutes, maybe even hours? With the I-Bridge you can avoid the ``hourglass'' curse. You are free to use Excel while an I-Bridge Thread works in the background. For example, you can work with one spreadsheet while a request for data for another spreadsheet occurs in the background.

Optionally, you can have the Thread work in the foreground. In foreground mode, Excel will wait for each request to complete and the data to be completely transferred to a worksheet.

**The fastest data transfer available.**

I-Bridge blasts data in at greater 100 pages per minute!

I-Bridge will manage the translation from the Service's native data format to Excel's preferred native XLTable data format. Data transfer into Excel is very fast because Excel does not have to convert the data.

**Triggers**

I-Bridge Triggers represent the latest in client/server features. I-Bridge will place the data in an Excel worksheet and then trigger the Excel macro you specify. There is no need for you to develop complicated and costly code that detects the completion of a request.

You can build very sophisticated spreadsheet applications using I-Bridge triggers. For example, you can build sophisticated spreadsheet models or reports with I-Bridge automatically gathering the data from remote databases. You can also pre-schedule your transfers from one or more corporate databases, automating daily, weekly or monthly analysis and reporting. And please, don't let your imagination stop there. You can automatically distribute these reports using already in-place e-mail, printers or fax modems. Or automatically store them in a remote database. You could even automate the generation of an up-to-date distribution list using the I-Bridge to reach the corporation's employee or customer profile database.

**Distributed Multiprocessing**

With the I-Bridge you can simultaneously task several Services by creating multiple Threads. This enables you to split various tasks into a series of subtasks that can be scheduled for execution. Multithreading enables a substantial increase in computing performance as these multiple Services work on your requests at the same time. The result is that data and calculated results are returned faster than before to your Excel application.

**Transaction Monitor**

See the status of all your pending requests immediately.

**Access to Oracle and Sybase, the two most popular Unix DBMSs.**

The I-Bridge supports both standard SQL and SQL extensions. You can use your organizations full investment is such advanced DBMS features as stored procedures, aggregates and multiple selects.

**Quality Assurance**

The I-Bridge handles nasty Windows memory management and networking event handling problems that usually causes others to crash. Received on Sat May 29 1993 - 00:30:28 CEST