- ODBC or ADO data sources, including Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Oracle, Pervasive, DB2, MySQL, and Interbase
- Data retrieved from a Web Service
- SQL Server data retrieved as XML over HTTP
- Visual FoxPro tables
- Many other types of data
Features
Stonefield Query has a simple "wizard" interface. After selecting a report from the list of available reports, the user can select the sort order, enter filter conditions, and select where the output goes (printer, disk file, spreadsheet, screen preview, etc.).
In addition to running pre-defined reports, they can create their own "quick" reports in just minutes. They simply select which fields to report on from the list of available fields (with meaningful descriptive names rather than cryptic names and symbols), and they're done! They don't have to know complex stuff like join conditions; Stonefield Query takes care of that for them.
What makes Stonefield Query easy to use is that it has detailed knowledge about the databases it queries against. This means the user doesn't have to know what a join is, let alone how to create a join for a particular set of tables. They don't have to know the names of tables and fields. They don't have to know how the data is stored. They simply tell Stonefield Query what they want and it figures out how to get the data they need.
Configurable
What gives Stonefield Query this knowledge about the databases is a set of application-specific configuration files. These files can be broken down into three groups:
- Data dictionary: these files describe what the databases Stonefield Query can access look like: the tables, fields, and relationships between the tables. This information includes the caption for tables and fields, output formatting for fields (such as the default picture to use for numeric fields and any formulas or functions to use to convert the data from how it's stored to how the user expects to see it), the types of joins between tables (outer or inner), etc.
- Configuration: these files describe how Stonefield Query behaves: what name appears in the title bar of the window, whether it asks the user for the location of the application it's querying against, whether multiple data sets are supported or not, and so on.
- Scripts: since Stonefield Query is a generic application, you may have to script certain behaviors to make it work with your specific application's databases. For example, if your application supports multiple data sets, you have to tell Stonefield Query how to locate those data sets. If you need to access a table's records through a stored procedure rather than a direct SQL statement, you have to tell Stonefield Query how to call that stored procedure. You can define scripts in Visual FoxPro, VBScript, or JavaScript syntax.
A set of application-specific configuration files is called a "project." Stonefield Query supports multiple projects because it can accept the location of a project as a command-line parameter. For example, you could have versions of Stonefield Query that report on an accounting system, a customer relationship management system, and a warehouse application, all running from the same single SFQUERY.EXE.
The Stonefield Query Configuration Utility is the tool you use to create and maintain the configuration files for a particular project.
This help file describes how to use the Configuration Utility and provides technical information on Stonefield Query.
Award-Winning Reporting Solutions
In May 2000, the reporting engine in Stonefield Query was awarded the Developer's Choice Award for Best Reporting Tool at the DevConnections 2000 conference in New Orleans, sponsored by Microsoft.
Customized versions of Stonefield Query have won several awards, including both the 2002 and 2003 Best Integration awards from FrontRange Solutions, makers of the GoldMine customer relationship management software and HEAT help desk automation system, and the 2008 Innovative Integration award from AccountMate Corp., makers of the AccountMate accounting system.
