Re: Viable alternatives to SQL?

[Oliver Kohll - Mailing Lists <oliver.lists@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 27 Aug 2009, at 17:11, pgsql-general-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

From: Kelly Jones <kelly.terry.jones@xxxxxxxxx>

Date: 27 August 2009 14:43:51 BST

To: pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: Viable alternatives to SQL?

Many sites let you search databases of information, but the search
queries are very limited.

I'm creating a site that'll allow arbitrary SQL queries to my data (I
realize I'll need to handle injection attacks).

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?

Originally I was using the webexone.com database to allow non-techies to create tables and views, however found it too limiting - the functional ceiling too low.

So our org. built a web-app for this based on postgres - a GUI. However it's not aimed at letting non-techies do everything, which is rather ambitious. People familiar with SQL and relational db concepts can do practically everything but non-techs can do simpler tasks. For example I recently used some of the new windowing functions (yay!) in a view but users typically add/remove fields, filters and aggregate calculations.

Info at www.gtportalbase.com, it's also just gone on github as open source.

Oliver Kohll