QUEST

[SoClueless]

Has anyone ever heard of a database product called "QUEST" We had been using a product, ReportBuilder by Centura, which was a kind of add-on to a database product which we bought from a book vendor. Having had mega problems with ReportBuilder, the vendor is now suggesting that they may ask us to try Quest. I have never heard of it, nor have our IT people.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[RogerCruse]

I think your talking about TOAD from

http://www.quest.com

 

[yaffle]

Assuming it is TOAD your vendor refers to, the acronym stands for Tool for Oracle Application Developers and it provides a MS-Access-like alternative to SQL*Plus for interaction with an Oracle database. Beware when using with a production database however, as it has a tendency to lock tables being looked at, potentially preventing other users from accessing a system.

 

[eADM]

Centura Corp., formally Gupta was one of the first vendors to develop a complete suite of Client/Server Development products back in the early 90's (SQL*Windows, SQL*Base, Database Routers etc..). Their Query/Reporting tool was called Quest.
It has been a couple of years since I worked with this suite of Tools but my guess is Quest and Centura have gone away.

 

[SoClueless]

Thank you all for your help. I think we will just muddle through until we can switch to another acqusitions program in January.

 

[blom0344]

Hello Clueless,

Quest which provides the TOAD tool (recommended) provide a whole range of products for ORACLE and DB2. However it does not provide you with a tool to create real reports. It specializes in tools for maintenance and monitoring. For most tools you can get a free evaluation specimen (30/60 days) from Quest. I've several years of experience with TOAD, but never experienced locking of tables. It does not even look like Ms Access at all with totally different functionalities.
I've your serious about reporting and have the cash go for the professional ones like Business Objects / Cognos etc. T. Blom
Information analist
Shimano Europe
tbl@shimano-eu.com

 

[tu4491]

Hi, SoClueless
I was in a similar siuation about two years ago but not with the package of yours. In my case centura was a component and reports were problem for us. My field was Telcom Billing and our Application was on Oracle 7 running on Sun E450 Solaris 2.5. The Application front end was on NT4.0 Arabic/English stations. Centura was used to give user the front end. A very good/stable Application but horrible reports.... erroneus, poor format etc.

I used TOAD to look into Database and get the SQLs perfected, then used Oracle Reprot writer to develope a total different suit of reports. Used Crystal Report writer too. Therefore, I would say .... advice to you to use QUEST is half right.... because you need the querry to get your result in unformated way and then a report writer to present the data to others.

Bottom line.... get Toad Evaluation version, Use Crystal Reprot writer of Oracle Report and you will be the winner.
Best of luck
tu4491