need free API solution

[Waldo2k2]

The company I work for has asked me to begin work on reports generation for our UniFi system which uses the progress database. The IT dept. is being less than helpful with letting me know what the UniFi system includes (ie: the ODBC driver, etc). So I was wondering what alternatives I have for an interface into a progress database, preferably free ones (note I do have access to several different compilers, .NET as my first choice). Please excuse me if something like this is listed in the resources section, however that section seems to be down currently. Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[joey.jeremiah]

the progress database comes with odbc and jdbc drivers, though the level and quality is highly dependent on the version you're working on.

again depending on the version you're working on, you can write 4gl api's, that can be run from .net, java and webservices clients and return ado.net datasets, java sdo's and xml respectively.

of course you can write, a relatively simple, 4gl prog that generates documents e.g. xml, office open xml, opendocuments, pdf's etc.

tell us more about the project, relevant experience, what version you're working on, maintenance support etc.

 

[Waldo2k2]

I am unsure of the version, though I'm banking on it being a 9.x version (9 has been out for quite some time has it not?).
Here's the basic details on the project.
Another branch made a custom app to run reports on our UniFi database (approved loans mortgages etc). However it was very clunky, it took a csv dump from the standard report builder included with progress, exported it to access, then rather than run an access report he used VBA to make the report in excel. He gave me the source so I could change what I needed. Basically it's needs one other field, and has to work for our branch. However it requires a client computer to act as a makeshift server for the app to dump the database, convert it, etc etc. Once I found out that the UniFi software uses a progress database I decided to find out how I could interface with it. I'm in the process of finding out whether the ODBC drivers are actually installed on the corporate server or not. After that point programming won't be a problem. However, if the ODBC drivers are not installed, IT may not want to take down UniFi just to install them (we've been having trouble getting what we want from them). So I was basically wondering if there were any other means of access to the database besides the ODBC/JDBC drivers, preferably free. Thanks.

 

[joey.jeremiah]

you can write the logic in 4gl, return the data in xml, and transform it to another document type.

using 4gl and a shared memory connection will probably be much simpler and faster then odbc/jdbc.

i think, i've seen a webinar on crystal reports that uses a similar approach. dive into the web events archive @psdn.com


first off, it's not something that i know alot about

but typically the sql92 engine is started together with the 4gl engine, you can also download the sql client drivers from progress.com

first thing i'd do is look into the docs, maybe you should also bring up the question @peg.com


talking about free, open source reporting solutions, that reminds me to look into eclipse birt.

but hey nothing is free, your time isn't free. if they're that broke you should be careful getting involved. like my grandma once told me, go where the money is.

 

[Kirmik]

First thing you'll need to find out before you try to connect a third party application to the Progress dataserver is the setup. When you start a database from you can specify whether the service will allow SQL apps, 4GL apps or Both to connect to it. The default is both but worth checking out. If it's SQL only then find out the port number as this will be different from the 4GL one. If only a 4GL service exists then I think you'll only be able to query the database with Progress.

If you set up a DSN connection to the database you can use just about anything to query the data. I'm currently using ASP.NET and Crystal reports on our system. If you're a novice developer then crystal enterprise is probably your best bet as it's easier to report from.

 

[Kirmik]

Meant to say.... SQL-92 drivers will most likely already be installed on the server hosting the progress database

 

[TomBascom]

It is unlikely that a mortgage company's IT department is going to permit ad hoc reporting against their production database...

 

[it@flude.co.uk]

The company I work for has asked me to begin work on reports generation for our UniFi system which uses the progress database. The IT dept. is being less than helpful with letting me know what the UniFi system includes (ie: the ODBC driver, etc).

The first and second sentences seem almost mutually exclusive to me.

You are on to a loser when your own company's IT department won't tell you how to access the database you have been told to write reports from.

 

[BCM]

Waldo2k2,
Please post your email address. I have worked on UniFi. Currently working with another Progress database with Microsoft tools like SQL Server and .Net. I may be able to assist you.