RE: Oracle Database Search Tool

[Aturner]

We use MS Access to search our oracle database (Oracle Financials Suite).
We have created views with select / read only access so that our users cannot
update the oracle tables. This did take a lot of view & Access development
to give our project managers something easy to find the information they
are used to seeing. This required us to come up with a menuing system and
they have dropdowns to select how they want to limit the report. This is
not the best solution but it was the best we could determine at the time.

We have been asked to look into discoverer to give our project managers the
opportunity to look at the information on a more detailed (something other
than our predefined reports) fashion without having to get into oracle apps.
Is discoverer not a tool that the average Joe can work with?

I would be interested to hear what you finally find out as a solution.

Anne

[Bill Vigna]

Oh no. Discoverer is a fine tool and perfectly usable by the average Joe.
My problem is that I am looking for a software tool which we call a "batch
match" facility. We are trying to find software which allows an end-user
(without programmer assistance) to search for like information in multiple
datasets. For example, an end user wants to be able to say tell me if any
of the people in this dataset of 700,000 appear in these datasets of 2,000,
30,000, and 8 million. They are not simply looking for a name check process,
though. They are looking to be able to point to any field in the dataset
and match it against any field they designate in the other datasets (e.g.,
matching street addresses or birthdates).

We have spent a significant amount of time looking for such a tool and have
had many vendors come to our office, only to find out that we had misunderstood
each other. To clarify, we are not looking for a tool which is a traditional
search engine. For example, we are not looking for a product which requires
the end user to hand type the names or addresses or birthdates one at a time
(e.g., one which is a "show me everything we know about Fred Smith" query
tool). Nor are we looking for an engine which helps us find subsets in a
single dataset (e.g., one which is a "show me all the eighteen year olds
from Philadelphia" query tool).

We are looking for a tool which allows an end user to identify the specific
datasets s/he wants to match and the fields s/he wants matched. This means
the product must have a pre-existing GUI which allows the user to point to
the datasets, which recognizes the format of the data and can identify the
fields, and which permits the user to select which fields s/he wants to match.
In a perfect world, the tool would also offer fuzzy matching logic and allow
the user to identify the format of the output.

"Aturner" <aturner@heery.com> wrote:
>
>We use MS Access to search our oracle database (Oracle Financials Suite).
> We have created views with select / read only access so that our users
cannot
>update the oracle tables. This did take a lot of view & Access development
>to give our project managers something easy to find the information they
>are used to seeing. This required us to come up with a menuing system and
>they have dropdowns to select how they want to limit the report. This is
>not the best solution but it was the best we could determine at the time.
>
>We have been asked to look into discoverer to give our project managers
the
>opportunity to look at the information on a more detailed (something other
>than our predefined reports) fashion without having to get into oracle apps.
> Is discoverer not a tool that the average Joe can work with?
>
>I would be interested to hear what you finally find out as a solution.
>
>Anne