Re: Impromptu

> edward_at_igate1.hac.com (Ed Bruce) writes:
> In article <596787804wnr_at_mrush.demon.co.uk>, mike_at_mrush.demon.co.uk wrote:
>
> > I was specifically interested in a tool which can connect to an
> > Oracle database server and which hides the complexities of database
> > structures from users. I didn't want users having to specify
> > table joins etc in their reports. (Reportsmith requires you to do this)
> ^^^^^
>
> This is the second post to mention this, am I missing something. Why don't
> you create a view that performs the join?
>
> --
> Ed Bruce
> edward_at_igate1.hac.com
> Key fingerprint = 62 8D FC 8F 27 2F 89 D0 8B 38 7E 34 33 74 C2 36
>
>>>>
Ed,

Unless I've misunderstood Mike's posting, he is saying that he doesn't want the end user (i.e. non-techie, doesn't know SQL, doesn't want to learn SQL) to have to explicitly specify the foreign key relationships. This makes sense, as this category of user is using the data access tool solely to answer a business question, and he/she doesn't know about the underlying data structures, nor does he/she know about complexities such as outer joins, etceteras.

What you were probably asking was 'why doesn't the IS staff create such a view that hides this from the user'. Well, sometimes (especially in a data warehouse environment), the kind of business questions that the user will ask is not predictable, even by the user himself/herself.. It would be impossible, not to mention an awful lot of work, to create and maintain a view for every question that pops up.

I'm in the middle of an evaluation that is looking for the same kind of tool. We've shortlisted six (of the original 30-40), and I am impressed by all of them; actually, all six can read Oracle's data dictionary so all of them recognize and automatically use the foreign key relationships defined in the database.

Ed, do you still feel that you're 'missing something'?

Gary Wong (gary.wong_at_cyberstore.ca)
Information Technology Consultant
(604) 360-1699 (Voice)
(604) 384-1178 (Fax) Received on Fri Oct 13 1995 - 00:00:00 CET