Answer»
- A data provider contains one or more queries that return data from a database. A query requests data from the database. If the data is available, then the requested data is returned by default in the form of a table which contains rows and columns. When you build a query, you are creating a request for INFORMATION from a database. A request can be very simple, for example; give me total sales in California for the first quarter of last year, or more complicated, for example; give me an average age of customers who bought sweaters during the spring television promotion in PARIS.
- Queries are sent to the databases in a language called SQL (Structured Query Language). However, when you use Web Intelligence you do not have to KNOW any SQL. The Web Intelligence report PANEL presents the information available in the database as objects that have names and meanings familiar to you. These objects are organized in a structure called a universe.
- You build data providers by combining objects in a universe. The universe translates the objects presented in your BUSINESS language to SQL, and then sends the request for information to the database. Web Intelligence can generate SQL data providers of unlimited length. When the data is returned to the Web Intelligence report panel, it is presented in a table form, with columns that have the same names as the objects that you used in the query. The data is arranged in rows.
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