Re: BI/Report Writer

["Mike Eovino" <meovino@xxxxxxxxx>]

Adam,

We use SEQUEL as well.  You can use real SQL in SEQUEL ViewPoint.  In
Options, set the database to *LOCAL.  Bear in mind when you do this
that you lose access to those handy functions.  I'd love to see
Help/Systems implement these as real SQL functions.

We are considering a move away from ViewPoint to another tool, but I
wouldn't be surprised if we don't move.  We've done too much with
SEQUEL and we have about 100 end-users trained to use it to write
their own reports.  Some of our more skilled end-users don't like it,
but all of their complaints are really with our database and our lack
of documentation.  If we can ever get permission to build a data
warehouse with good documentation, I have a feeling they won't be
nearly as critical of the BI tool.

Mike E.



On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 9:11 AM, Adam Glauser <adamglauser@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I am a SEQUEL user.  I'd say that it is great *up to a point*.
>
> Pros
> Makes it really output query results to many formats
> Includes a tool called ESEND which is a nice way to send email from i
> Documentation is good, and both the green screen interface and the
> Windows interface (called Viewpoint) are pretty flexible.  New users can
> be productive quickly due to the handholding options in the both interfaces
> Has its own special syntax which is mostly the same as SQL, so it can
> provide some handy functions that "pure" SQL doesn't (numeric date
> handling is one area I can think of)
> Great support team
>
> Cons
> Can't (as of version 8.7.x) call SQL Stored procedures.
> Has its own special syntax which is mostly the same as SQL, but has some
> significant differences and seems to lag behind SQL features a bit. Some
> examples:
>   - when joining multiple files, can not use different join types for
> each joined pair.
>   - no CTE support
>
> HTH,
> Adam
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