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MK Query Builder - Visual Query Builder
for Delphi
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What is MKQB ?
 MK Query Builder
III is a Delphi component you add in your application to offer
your users a powerful Visual Query Builder.
MKQB will allow for data mining, data exporting, and reporting without one line
of code for you!
have a look to the quick tour to learn more
about the product.
MKQB III can also be sold as a stand-alone application for people who don't
want to (or can't) use the Delphi component version. In this case you will use
MKQB as any Windows application and will benefit the same strength !
Why MKQB ?
When a software is created, user's needs are analyzed, codified and realized.
Well, it is what it will be in a perfect world... In reality the needs are not
always clearly expressed, some functionalities cannot be developed, etc... In
fact the software is rarely covering 100% of the real needs. Moreover these
needs evolve with time, in particular statistical analyses whose the financial
services or marketing are fond of. How consequently all to envisage, all to
allow, without creating a monstrous software that will be out of price? The
solution is simple, it is less expensive than a day of a senior
developer, it has name: MK Query Builder!
By integrating MKQB in your applications you give to the users the possibility
to query themselves their data, to sort them,
group them, print them, to export
them to Word or Excel to make of them tables, graphs, etc.
A user friendly interface
In fact it would be rather simple to open a text area in which the user could
type a SQL request which would be to executed on the click of a button. It takes
approximately 5 minutes to develop this functionality. But here is... the end-user
does not know SQL and does not want to learn it. Moreover one imagines the possible
disasters if any user could type SQL code sent to data bases! And even if all
that were possible, it would remain to develop a universal export wizard
and a report generator... Only that can be more expensive than
the application. Fortunately, MKQB proposes a graphic visual interface
representing the tables and their relationships. The user just
has to click on the fields he wants to integrate into the answer. He poses in
the same way filters, sorting, groups.
All is simple. It is MKQB that will transform all that stuff into an acceptable
SQL query sent to the server.
An essential help
MKQB can be used in two manners: in expert mode or a
user mode. Free with you to provide MKQB in the first mode but it is
generally not what is practised. Indeed, in the expert mode it is possible to
create data models and to see the real tables of the database.
This work is generally reserved either to the originator of the software which
will provide with MKQB the necessary models, or with a qualified administrator.
The data models are invaluable assistances for the user: the
tables which he sees are only those which are interesting for him, the relationships
are not inevitably those of the database but those which simplify queries, the
fields have fictitious names created by the administrator or the developer,
the fields without interest or "sensitive" are completely hidden,
etc. The models are at the base of MKQB power.
Safety
Thanks to the data models system the user reaches only the tables and the fields
which he has the right to see. No moment he has to know the connection strings,
the name of the servers, that of the tables, the fields. He sees only an idealized
vision of the database. In the same way it does not have to input SQL
code and only the SELECT is held by MKQB. Impossible to destroy the database
by using MKQB. Impossible to access sensitive data nor to corrupt existing data.
A highly customizable component
MKQB is a Delphi component. As any component it offers the developer many properties,
methods and events making possible to customize
its behavior. It is, for example, possible to track all the executed queries,
to filter them, even to modify them. It is also possible to hook the loading
and the saving of users queries to store them in a secondary database or to
transmit them via remoting or a Web service. All is possible, even to use MKQB
in "quiet" mode, i.e. without any display. It then becomes a powerful
query engine for the developer. MKQB windows can either be displayed
in modal mode or can be docked in an existing window of your application. Finally,
the source code being provided, it is always possible for you
to modify a function, a menu, a behavior.
Download the demo
MK Query Builder is actually a large application hidden under the aspect of
a Delphi component. Several years of development brought it so that it is today
and it is truly very difficult in a few words to speak about such a complete
and rich product. This is why we invite you to download the demonstration as
well as the documents which we put gracefully online , in particular product
documentation and user's manual. MKQB III supports French and English. The choice
of the language for the interface is done at the installation time and can be
modified thereafter. The user's documentation is also provided in the two languages
and the licence authorizes you to use pieces of this documentation to integrate
it into that of your own application.
The image above is screenshot during a query creation. From a data model the
user chooses the fields which appear then in the grid. He can then add conditions
or sorting. If the model is too large for the window a model map (visible Map
window above) can be displayed. It represents the totality of the model as well
as a twinkling frame symbolizing the visible part. By moving the frame with
the mouse the user moves in model.
Supported compilers
MKQB 2.x is supporting Delphi 3 to 5. MKQB 3.02 is supporting Delphi 6 and
Delphi 7. MKQB 3.03 is supporting Delphi 2006.
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