Powerful Query Engine

ComponentOne Query works with a schema containing database structure information and all the additional information necessary to generate SQL queries, such as joins and relationships between tables. C1Query contains a special schema designer that helps you create and maintain C1Query schemas.

All SQL Databases Supported

SQL queries generated by C1Query can run in every database supporting SQL. You can execute them using any database access engine available in Windows: ADO/OLE DB, DAO, ODBC, native database interfaces. C1Query allows you to customize the resulting SQL syntax, adjusting it to your database requirements.

Database Structure Import

ComponentOne Query schema designer can import a database structure from any OLE DB data source, and create a complete customizable schema for you. If necessary, you can also create a schema manually, without connecting to a database.

Simple DataSource Mode

If your queries don’t span multiple tables (a common case in many applications), using C1Query becomes a matter of point-and-click. C1Query can be bound to any ADO/OLE DB data source, just like any data-aware control, and it will instantly be able to receive user input and generate queries. No need to use schema designer or even know about C1Query schemas.

Built-in User Interface

ComponentOne Query provides a built-in user interface allowing you to enter user conditions and a selection of result fields in an intuitive and visually appealing style. But, best of all, this built-in UI is fully customizable, to the extent unheard of in the development community.

Customizing UI with Templates

Every visual aspect of the ComponentOne Query UI can be customized. This includes colors, fonts and many other visual styles, words and phrases used in query display, composition of condition elements. All this is done in a consistent, easy and flexible way, using HTML templates. Using simple HTML snippets, you can specify how you want to render conditions and other query elements. HTML is used exclusively for UI customization. C1Query is a regular ActiveX control, it can be used in Visual Basic and any other ActiveX-enabled environment, without HTML pages, and template customization will still be available.

Customizing UI with Scripts

You can customize C1Query UI even further, replacing the general display layout with a completely different one. With the help of a special script, you can change the layout, the rules of query composition, as your query appears on display. User interaction with such query remains fully functional although its layout is completely changed.

Using Custom UI

You can even go as far in customizing the UI as not using the built-in UI at all, substituting it with your own UI that you can create on a Visual Basic form or using any other means. Then you can still benefit from the powerful C1Query query generation engine. C1Query object model allows you to programmatically set the fields and conditions specified by the user and generate the SQL statement from them.

Query Engine on the Web

ComponentOne Query can be used in Web applications to submit queries from a thin browser-based client to the server and generate SQL statement on the server. WebQueryASP sample in the Samples\ASP directory shows how to do that using ASP (Active Server Pages). In this case, C1Query is used to generate SQL query statements from user input received from a browser client. C1Query is used only on the server. The client is a generic HTML browser, no ActiveX or other plug-ins required.

Hierarchical Folder Structure

The C1Query user interface exposes fields to the end user in the form of a hierarchical folder structure. This enables developers to name and organize query fields according to the customer business domain rather than deal with database table and column names.

Convenient Value Editing

Entering constant values in queries, end users have the convenience of built-in editors for types like date/time, numeric, and so on. Date/time values are edited using the standard date-time picker control with dropdown calendar.

Lookup Lists

You can specify the lookup data source for a field and C1Query will present the end user with a lookup combo or menu. For example, the user can select a product from a list of products, instead of entering an id. Adding a lookup is as easy as calling a method and specifying the data source and the names of the fields in the lookup. And it is fully customizable. You can create fixed lookup lists in schema, retrieve them from a database, or fill them programmatically in a special event.

Custom Editors

If the default C1Query edit and lookup facilities are not enough, you can specify any ActiveX control as an editor for a constant value in a query. This way you can implement custom editing and custom lookup.

Multi-Table Views

ComponentOne Query schema designer enables the developer to create multi-table views combining information stored in different tables.

Calculated Fields

Calculated fields can be added to schema views, so the user can query these fields as if they were stored in the database.

Join Relationships

ComponentOne Query schema contains relationships between tables. C1Query engine uses relationships to join tables in the generated SQL query.

Join Groups

As a simplified method of joining tables, C1Query allows you to assign fields to join groups. Fields belonging to the same join group can be used by C1Query engine to join tables in the generated SQL query.

Custom Condition Relationships

ComponentOne Query schema designer allows you to specify arbitrary SQL conditions that are automatically applied (added to the generated SQL) once certain views (tables) appear in the query.

Excellent documentation

ComponentOne Query includes an extensive manual and online help with plenty of tutorials and examples.

Responsive technical support

Free technical support via e-mail, phone, fax, and peer-to-peer product forums and newsgroups. Product updates, sample programs, and answers to frequently asked questions are also available on ComponentOne HelpCentral.