1.1 SQR architecture

Since Brio Technology became the SQR vendor, the names of some components have change. To ensure consistency with the previous edition of this book, we will keep SQR in the names of components that used to have this word in their names, but will name all newly added components the same as Brio calls them.

SQR components include SQR Server, Personal SQR, SQR Report Viewer, SQR Print, SQR Execute, SQR Report Builder (formerly SQR Workbench [SWRW]), Brio Report Activator, Brio Insight, DDO Kernel, and a set of DDO drivers (figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 SQR main components

The Windows version of the SQR Server allows you to run SQR programs on your client machine under MS-DOS, Windows or Windows NT. SQR programs can be submitted from the operating system command line or via the SQRW Dialog Box. The program output can be directed to a printer, to a printer-specific file (or LIS file), to a printer independent file (SPF file), which later can be viewed via the SQR Viewer, to an Adobe PDF (Portable Document File) file, to a CSV (comma separate values) file, or to an HTML file.

The non-Windows versions of SQR Server are used to submit SQR programs on the server from the server operating system command line. Similarly to the Windows version, the program output can be directed to a printer, to a printer-specific file (LIS file), to a printer independent file (SPF file), to a PDF file, to a CSV file, or to an HTML file. The printer-independent files generated on server can be viewed via the SQR Report Viewer on Windows only.

Personal SQR is a single-user Windows-based emulation of SQR Server used for local reporting, technical training, or testing SQR programs prior to their deployment.

SQR Report Viewer (also known as Brio Report Viewer) is a Windows product that is used to view reports online. The reports must be generated in an SPF format. SPF reports can be generated on either client or server but can be viewed only on the client under Windows or Windows NT.

SQR Print is used to convert reports generated in SPF format to printer-dependent files (LIS files) that can be directed to a printer.

SQR Execute is a run-time version of SQR. It allows you to execute previously compiled SQR programs (sometimes, called SQT files) thereby eliminating the need to combine both compile and run stages in one step.

SQR Report Builder (also known as Brio Report Builder, formerly SQR Workbench or VisualSQRIBE) for Windows provides application developers, database administrators, and power users with a graphical development environment for rapidly building SQR applications using simple drag-and-drop facilities.

Brio Report Activator (formerly InSQRIBE for SQR) is a set of three ActiveX components that allow programmers to embed SQR functionality (print, view, or execute) into customer applications.

Brio Insight is a web browser plug-in that provides optional Brio interactive analysis capabilities for data delivered within SQR HTML output.

DDO Kernel and DDO drivers support Brio DDO (Direct Data Object) technology that may be optionally installed with SQR Server. DDO objects are used by SQR Server to access data from various relational and non-relational data sources. DDO drivers are tuned to read specific relational databases, ODBC, JDBC, as well as CSV files, XML data, multi-dimensional OLAP sources, OLEDB (Microsoft ADO OLEDB Client), and SAP BAPIs. Figure 1.2 illustrates the interaction among SQR components.

Figure 1.2 Interaction among different SQR components

1.2 Database support

SQR products are available for use with all major databases. The list of the databases includes Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2 (on mainframe and Windows/ Windows NT), Centura SQLBase, Informix, Ingres, Red Brick, Rdb, and AllBase (figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 Databases supported by SQR

SQR native drivers ensure maximum performance for data extraction. SQR Server is optimized for more than 100 database/operating system combinations, with features such as direct array access and manipulation, as well as dynamic SQL support for both columns and tables.

In addition, SQR supports connections with Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and JDBC, thus providing a potential for a further expansion of the available RDBMS and operating system combination list.

Native SQR language constructions that support database access are universal for all databases, which makes SQR programs database-independent. This does not mean that SQR program developers are restricted from using database-specific add-ons that can be instrumental in simplifying the program logic and improving data access performance. In such cases, a number of techniques are available to reduce or completely eliminate database dependency while preserving the optimal program efficiency.

New feature in SQR 5 and 6 is its support of Brio DDO. DDO drivers are used by SQR Server to access data from various relational and non-relational data sources such as CSV files, XML data, multi-dimensional OLAP sources (e.g., Essbase), OLEDB, and SAP R/3 BAPIs.