tional database servers, produce a wide variety of reports and graphs, and run under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Because of their different purposes, however, that's where the similarities end.
IQ/Objects
With its many features, IQ/Objects (IQ/O) is a good general-purpose reporting tool for Windows. It comes with a Report Designer, a run-time Report Viewer, and a Knowledge Base Ed
itor for creating logical database views.
The reporting capabilities are impressive. IQ/O supports single- and multiple-column layouts, with vertical and horizontal data depiction. You can embed OLE 2.0 objects inside reports and print multiple reports, each from a different query and with its own format and data representation (e.g., charts and tables) on the same page. You can define 2-D and 3-D cross-tab reports using single or multiple columns and put multiple objects in cross-tab cells.
IQ/O offers eight types of graphs, including pie charts, bar charts, scatter diagrams, and line charts. Report developers can include logical print objects and report areas that appear only when a predetermined condition is met. This means you can create reports having multiple detail and summary sections with different formats (e.g., each specific to a given state), and the appropriate query and format will be automatically chosen at run time. Also, you can use the results of one query as input to another.
Using IQ/O, you can create custom columns that extend a database's physical schema, and you can also create user-written functions to manipulate data and perform calculations. IQ/O provides complete control over formatting, allowing borders, shadows, background images, and fills for objects, selected report areas, and the entire report. You can export your report to Windows metafiles and to text, comma-delimited, PostScript, and Excel files.
You design a report graphically, dragging and dropping columns from an object window to a report. IQ/O comes with several predesigned report templates, and you can add custom templates. Group editing lets developers change multiple objects at once, and you can define and apply object styles as needed. You can browse data while you're designing a report and see on-screen what the report will look like, eliminating the need for most test printing and saving time and materials.
The object-oriented structure of IQ/O lets you create reusable objects -- reports,
charts, queries, and documents, as well as imported OLE objects -- and incorporate them into new queries and documents. IQ/O can link report objects so that an object will change automatically when you change another object that's linked to it. This saves time in report maintenance.
Report output can be saved for later viewing either in IQ/O or by the separate, smaller IQ Viewer that's included with the less-expensive personal edition. You can also create prompts to make it easy for users to request reports directly.
While IQ/O can do its query processing entirely on a workstation, it can also off-load some of the computing to one or more IQ SmartServers. These can query back-end databases, create formatted reports and views, and ship the query results back to the workstation.
PowerPlay
PowerPlay is a suite of four programs that lets developers and end users create interactive reports and graphs and perform some what-if analysis. PowerPlay comes with Explorer, Reporter
, Portfolio, and Transformer components, plus a separate Cognos Scheduler.
PowerPlay Explorer provides a point-and-click interface to check out data. Transformer takes 2-D data from database tables and creates the multidimensional data that Explorer and Reporter use. Portfolio organizes PowerPlay reports into interactive briefing books. Cognos Scheduler can execute Transformer as a batch process at specified times.
With Reporter, the heart of the PowerPlay package, you can build interactive and automated reports in a variety of formats. The Reporter environment is similar to that of Explorer, and you can display data in cross-tab, column, and free-form reports. PowerPlay supports pie, bar, line, simple point, and correlation graphs.
With Reporter, you select only the specific subset of data you need to work with, without having to deal with a complete answer set from the database. In Reporter, as with IQ/O, you create reports by dragging and dropping data elements from a multidimensional vie
w created by Transformer, called the Category Tree. Each report includes a dimension line that shows what dimensions are available in your extract and the levels of detail you can access in each dimension.
Developers can include ad hoc calculations to derive new data from values in the database extract. Automatic features let you suppress zero-value data as well as highlight exceptional (i.e., out-of-range) data. You can create data filters, and rank and format the data for custom reports.
One feature that differentiates PowerPlay from the kind of report-writing packages that have been around for years is its interactive nature. When you want more detail, you just double-click on a category button to drill down. To show data as a graph, you simply click on the appropriate PowerBar button. This interactive capability lets developers distribute reports that end users can continue to explore and interact with to get information they need.
Finding the Data
IQ/O and PowerPla
y can work with a wide range of local databases and remote database servers, including Oracle, Sybase, and Informix, as well as others through Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). Each tool has its own way of rerepresenting physical data to provide developers with new ways of looking at the data as well as ways of subsetting or sanitizing data for the end user (see the Technology Focus).
With IQ/O, you can directly edit the SQL statements it produces before processing the query. You can have it query multiple databases, and the package supports distinct and aggregate functions. To use a database from IQ/O, you must first create a special data dictionary using the Knowledge Base Editor. The result is a repository file that contains a profile of your database, the objects in it (e.g., tables, views, and synonyms), and the relationships between those objects. (The newest version, IQ/Objects 5.1, released after this review was done, automatically sets up relationships between tables and other repository objec
ts.) A knowledge base covers one or more databases, each with one or more tables and any number of columns. You can also create global custom columns.
In addition to an IQ/O knowledge base, you must provide a data source that defines the name or location for the physical database plus connection information. You can change the data source and knowledge base globally or for individual reports. We found this feature quite useful when working with several databases that store information using the same schema. The end result is an object browser that you can use with the Report Designer to select data for your report.
Using a database with PowerPlay is slightly more complex and confusing than with IQ/O, but the Cognos product adds multidimensional capability. PowerPlay organizes data using three basic concepts: dimensions, categories, and measures.
PowerPlay represents standard relational data using dimensions, which give developers and end users a flexible way of looking at data. Multidimensio
nal analysis is the exploration of data up, down, and across critical dimensions of data. This capability increases the value of corporate data. For example, multidimensional reports help you distinguish the impact of each business area on other areas.
Categories are individual items of data that make up a dimension. PowerPlay organizes data within a dimension; categories are grouped into hierarchical levels. You move down the hierarchy by drilling down to more detail. The drill-down levels provide the flexibility to work on data at any level you want. With Explorer and Reporter, you select database information from a Category Tree. Measures are indicators that represent values, such as revenues, expenses, and target inventory levels, calculated or summarized from a combination of categories.
Creating Reports
To create a report using IQ/O, you start by selecting from the available report templates: an empty report, as well as free-form, column, cross-tab, and label templates.
After this, you can drag and drop objects from IQ/O's Object Directory into your report. As we added objects to the IQ/O report we were creating, we discovered that we could set their attributes, formatting, and other look-and-feel features. From here, we grouped header or footer areas by selecting objects that we wanted to relate. It's here in the group headers/footers that you place totals, subtotals, and counts for each data element. You can format these pretty much any way you want. If you aren't using a group footer or group header, you select Report/Sort Order.
We could see how the report was taking shape by selecting Quick Preview. IQ/O queried the database and selected only enough data for a single page. It then opened a report viewer window showing how the printed report would look. After making further changes, we could return to the viewer windows and select Refresh to see the effect of the changes. Another option is Auto Refresh, where the viewer windows update automatically as you make cha
nges. Only when our report was complete did we print a sample page to confirm that the hard copy looked like the graphical image. Then we saved the report to disk.
PowerPlay provides similar features, but it requires a different, somewhat more involved procedure. To begin a new report, you select the New Report icon from the PowerBar, which opens up the Samples directory, where the report templates are stored. From here, you double-click on the report you want to use as a default. Now you can add data categories -- detail, summary, or a mixture of both -- by navigating through PowerPlay's multidimensional structure. You add categories via the Category Tree dialog box. By double-clicking on categories, you can expand or contract the hierarchy, selecting data as you go. For example, if you press the Add Row button, Reporter adds a category. A plus sign next to a category indicates that lower-level detail is available.
To filter data, you change the dimension line of PowerPlay through the Filter dial
og box. You format the data by changing fonts, applying styles, and displaying formats, as well as by resizing columns and rows. You can also rank categories from the Explore menu. Here you enter column information, and Reporter automatically ranks the data within the report. To perform calculations, you need to create a calculated category, a data point that exists only in PowerPlay and not in the physical database. You do this by holding down the Control key while selecting one column, then another, and defining the mathematical operations (i.e., add, subtract, multiply, and divide) to use.
After the report is complete, you enter title information. Then you're ready to save the report or send it to the printer.
Power or Convenience?
When looking at these two reporting and analysis tools together, you're faced with the issue of power versus convenience. IQ/O provides an easy method to create simple reports and graphs for all sorts of reporting applications. It's easy to ext
ract data from existing databases and from database servers, and the Knowledge Base component lets you customize the database view to suit your reporting needs precisely. Drag and drop is a first-rate method of selecting objects for a report, and the ability to see what a report looks like while you're defining it is a real help. It's also quite useful to be able to control the query down to the SQL level, and the reusable objects make it fast and easy to create new reports.
PowerPlay is more complex than IQ/O but provides more power. The Transformer provides the developer with the means to look at 2-D databases as if they were multidimensional. This model greatly improves an end user's ability to analyze data inside a corporate database. In addition, the innate ability to make reports interactive makes PowerPlay the better type of tool for creating "point-and-shoot" applications for nontechnical users.
Which tool you pick depends on your requirements. If you need an effective query tool for ad ho
c reporting, IQ/Objects is your best bet. If you need to do hard-core OLAP and don't mind spending the extra time to get there, you're ready for PowerPlay.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
IQ/Objects
Personal edition, run time and viewer, $250; enterprise edition, includes Report Designer, $695; administrator edition, includes Knowledge Base Editor, $995.
IQ Software Corp.
Norcross, GA
(800) 458-0386
(770) 446-8880
fax: (770) 448-4088
http://www.iqsc.com
Circle 1135 on Inquiry Card.
PowerPlay 4.1.................$695
Cognos Corp.
Burlington, MA
(800) 426-4667
(617) 229-6600
fax: (617) 229-9828
http://www.cognos.com/
Circle 1136 on Inquiry Card.
Power Tools for Data Drilling
