SEQUEL Brings Parity to Web and Desktop Interfaces

September 11, 2012 Alex Woodie

SEQUEL Software is giving customers more reasons to interact with its reporting tool using a Web browser instead of the Windows-based interface. The Help/Systems subsidiary says its new version of the SEQUEL Web Interface (SWI) is nearly indistinguishable from ViewPoint, its Windows interface.

SEQUEL is one of those multi-threat IBM i utilities that can do all kinds of handy things for all different types of users. It’s best known as a reporting tool, but it also provides form design, data and database conversion, and Web enablement, too.

SEQUEL’s real forte is reporting and business intelligence. It features its own easy-to-use SQL syntax for querying DB2/400, SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL databases. Basic reports can be output from IBM i and PC printers, or more advanced OLAP and drill-down applications can be created that allow users to explore data on their own. The product also supports dashboards that provide another way to consume SEQUEL query results and to present them graphically alongside other apps and pieces of data.

The Web interface for SEQUEL Software’s reporting tool now works very much like the full Windows desktop interface.

In recent years, the company has focused much of its development effort on improving SWI, which it first introduced four years ago. SWI provides an alternative to the Windows-based ViewPoint interface for deploying SEQUEL views, reports, tables, and dashboards with drill-down capability.

Just over a year ago, the company unveiled SWI 10.0, which it said would streamline access to SEQUEL content. Last week, the company released SWI version R10M11, which brings several new features aimed at making the Web interface more like the Windows interface.

New features in the SWI Explorer with this release include support for drill downs in charts, support for digital gauges in dashboards, automatic column sizing, and the availability of field descriptions when drilling down.

SEQUEL customers will have fewer reasons to deploy the fat client ViewPoint interface now that SWI can do the same thing, according to Tom Huntington, the vice president of technical services for Help/Systems.

“The new version of SWI closely matches the functionality of a full-featured desktop application, without the installation or maintenance headaches,” Huntington says in a press release. “Our customers love the modern, fresh look of ViewPoint. We wanted to bring those strengths to SEQUEL Web Interface”

SEQUEL Software’s technical solutions consultant Heath Kath will be presenting a Webinar on the new interface, titled ” SEQUEL Web Interface = Zero Footprint,” Wednesday at 10 a.m. CDT. For more information or to register for the Webinar, see the company’s website at www.sequel-software.com.