Re: End-user software to query a warehouse?

> So, no, there is nothing out there I know of other than meta5 that you
> can give to an end user and they can actually do their own analysis
> from scratch and make that into a useful application if needs
> be.......to get something that is useful 'out of the box' takes quite
> some development work....usually tightly linked to a single
> application.......and I for one am having a crack at the idea that this
> can be done for multiple source applications in a generic model with
> generic reports....we shall see if I am right...LOL!!

Another perfect example:

Yesterday, we got a call from a casino client of ours. They were asked
by our government's anti-terrorism/drug money laundering/big brother
to compile a list of all transactions, from 20040401 to 20050331
where a customer dropped off chips and were given a cheque.

Since i wrote the OLTP system that has these transactions, i had to spend
about an hour coming up with a query that could perform this extremely
ad-hoc query. Originally i started using Enterprise Manager's query
builder to show me all rows - but i couldn't even figure out how to perform
the required aggregation on "Transction Details" wrapped up into a
transaction.

In the ideal world, the customer would have a tool that would let create
these
ad-hoc reports on their own. The software already had about 20 canned
reports
that they run either routinly or rarely. But there is no point in adding
this one-off
ad-hoc query to the software. But, it would be better if they could somehow
run the query themselves. Nevermind the fact that it saves me from having to
do it; they should be able to access their own data however they like.

The only thing i can't figure out is an interface that would let you compile
this particular ad-hoc query. So, if any company figures out one, they'll
be rich.



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