Crystal Info 4.5 is a multicomponent decision-support system designed for use on Windows NT- and Windows for Workgroups-based multiuser systems. Both 16-bit and 32-bit versions are included. Users who may be unfamiliar with the structure of a database can use Crystal Info to obtain the information they need by running standard queries and reports. Crystal Info operates on three different levels for people performing three different job functions: the decision maker, the developer, and the system administrator.
The ultimate target of any decision-support system is the decision maker. Such people, in key management or professional positions, generally have neither the time nor the desire to become experts at generating ad hoc queries or creating custom reports. Crystal Info was designed to enable these decision makers to specify to a developer what queries and reports they need and then run them once they have been built. The developer is responsible for creating queries and reports that meet the decision makers' needs. The system administrator must install and maintain the system. This includes allocating network resources so that computation and retrieval tasks are distributed to the nodes that have excess capacity.
One of Crystal Info's features is its ability to share information across a workgroup. Once a user has run a report or query, the result can be placed in a folder that is accessible to everyone in the workgroup. In cases where multiple users are interested in the same information, this can drastically reduce the number of hits on the database, with concomitant improvement in performance.
Crystal Info is divided into four major functional components: the Info APS (Automated Process Scheduler), Info Desktop, Info Servers, and Info Administrator. Different components may reside on different machines on the network, and different classes of users will use different components. The Info APS is the center of the system. It manages all user requests and rights. To get anything done, a user must connect to an Info APS.
The Crystal Info Desktop is the business user's interface to Crystal Info. From the Desktop, users can access, schedule, and analyze reports, queries, and Windows-executable programs. Developers, having upgraded access rights, can also launch the Report Designer and Query Designer from the Desktop. All Crystal Info users will have Info Desktops on their machines.
The Info Administrator is the component that the system administrator uses to configure the Info APS by defining user groups, the rights group members will have, and other objects specific to a group. It is the primary tool for protecting the database from access by unauthorized users and for scheduling the processing of jobs and other events. Crystal Info Servers are machines that perform the actual processing of reports, queries, and executables. They are the only part of the system that actually connects to a database. When a user submits a request, the APS decides how to service it by selecting an available Info Server to perform the operation.
Two of the most common client/server architectures are the two-tier fat client model and the two-tier fat server model. In the fat client model there are two tiers: the client and the server. The bulk of the database processing occurs on the client workstation, while the server does little more than respond to low-level client requests for data operations. Performance can be impacted in such a system because the user cannot perform any more database work on his or her workstation while it is doing the processing. The two-tier fat server model has the opposite problem. Most of the processing takes place on the server. This frees up the client machine, but if multiple clients are making requests, the server can become bogged down.
Crystal Info addresses these issues by putting an intermediate tier into the model. Multiple Info Servers on a system act as buffers between the clients and the database. They offload processing from both the clients and the server, leading to more efficient allocation of resources and better overall performance.
If only 20 percent of decision-support software users are interested in creating their own reports and queries (according to market research by Crystal), someone must do the job for the other 80 percent of users. Developers who are familiar with the database and with Crystal Info's design tools perform that function. These design tools include the Report Designer, the Query Designer, and the Info View Designer.
The Report Designer is derived from Crystal's Crystal Reports report writer. Crystal Reports is a mature product with numerous features for accessing and displaying database information. The Report Designer is compatible with most major PC and SQL databases, and it supports ODBC. Reports designed with it can act as OLE containers, allowing you to embed spreadsheets or graphics at appropriate spots in the report.
The Query Designer is an expert that lets you create a query from scratch, modify and execute an existing query, or modify and execute existing SQL code. Developers can use the expert's menu-based tools for linking tables, selecting fields, selecting records, and sorting results. The end product of this process is SQL code that the designer can execute directly on the data or modify by hand before executing. You don't need to be a SQL expert to generate complex queries with the Query Designer. However, people who are SQL experts can use the automatically generated query as a starting point, customizing it to take advantage of nonstandard extensions that may be available in the specific database engine in use.
An Info View is an optional meta-layer that the developer can provide to protect the database from inappropriate access or actions by end users. Rather than giving everyone unlimited access to all the data, the developer can use the Info View Designer to create customized views of the data that are appropriate for the various user groups. These views would contain only those tables and columns to which members of the subject groups should have access. In addition to such column security, row security can also be enforced. An end-user benefit of Info Views is that only relevant columns and rows of relevant tables are available, reducing the possibility of confusion and error.
Crystal Info is easy to install, with most of the process automated. Installation shouldn't be a problem for anyone familiar with installing standard Windows applications. If you do have problems either installing or running Crystal Info, Crystal provides a number of help sources. The company's Web page gives pointers to the various forms of support, including telephone, faxback, bulletin board, CompuServe Forum, and answers to frequently asked questions. A future enhancement to Crystal Info, now in the works, will expand the product's scope from a small workgroup to include the Web. In that configuration, Crystal Info will let you place predefined reports and queries on the Web for access by anyone who visits your Web site.
Crystal Info is an important product that facilitates the sharing of information among the members of a workgroup, while minimizing the loading of the group's hardware and software resources, if you consider that it offloads processing from both the workstation and the DBMS. It allows people with little or no database expertise to access the information in their databases without relying constantly on database professionals. Once they have acquired the information, users can easily share it with the other members of their workgroup. At a cost of $350 per seat, the product is a good value and should quickly pay for itself in any organization in which information retrieval and sharing is an important activity.
An interesting point is that Crystal has made the exact opposite assumption from the one made by Wall Data about its Salsa for the Desktop product (see below). Salsa assumes that small workgroup applications should be developed by the people who will be using them. Crystal contends that 80 percent of users of small workgroup database applications do not want to develop their applications, and Crystal has designed Crystal Info 4.5 accordingly. It would seem that Wall Data and Crystal cannot both be right. The marketplace will deliver the final verdict on this controversy.