On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 06:43:51AM -0700, Kelly Jones wrote: > Are there other viable ways to query data? I read a little on > "Business System 12" (BS12), Tutorial D, and even something called > T-SQL (I think), but they all seem theoretical and not fully > implemented. > > I want a query language that non-techies can use easily, but also > supports arbitrarily complex queries. Does such a language exist? I've never heard of the first two, as far as I can recall. T-SQL is quite common, however (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transact-SQL), but although I've never used it, I seriously doubt it will make things any more user friendly. Several business intelligence applications try to allow users to generate their own queries by providing a query builder system of some sort. These are far from simple drop-in systems, in general. For instance, I'm using Pentaho (http://www.pentaho.com) in a project, to allow users to write their own reports. I've had to create a sort of schema "metadata" thing, which tells Pentaho what my database looks like, how various tables relate to each other, etc., and creates a set of objects my users will immediately understand, along with some method to turn those objects into database queries. Pentaho allows the users to drag and drop those objects into a report, creating filters and sorting constraints, different groupings, etc., in a fairly user-friendly way. When they run the report, Pentaho translates their input into SQL. Anyway, you might try using a reporting package rather than trying to write your own query interface and provide for user-friendly error reporting, decent security constraints, etc. -- Joshua Tolley / eggyknap End Point Corporation http://www.endpoint.com
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