ADRS II(ID:2730/adr002)for A Departmental Reporting System 4GL IBM Language References: ADRS II PERSPECTIVE ADRS II (an acronym for "A Departmental Reporting System"), available from IBM is a query-and-report-generation language designed for end users, such as accountants, engineers, and executives. With ADRS II, nontechnical end users can produce results without the assistance of the data processing department. ADRS II provides features that allow end users to perform data inquiry, data analysis, and report generation functions. Managers can use ADRS II to generate reports quickly. Although the package is intended for end users, data processing professionals can also use it for many applications. Major features the software include data inquiry, data searches, arithmetic computations, report formatting, automatic totaling, report generation, and graphics generation. ADRS II is a system based on the high-level programming language APL, which provides a number of powerful, easy-to-use commands. However, it is not necessary to learn APL to use ADRS II. APL is covered in detail in another chapter in this volume. Relative to full-function 4GLs, ADRS II provides a limited range of capability. More powerful tools, such as FOCUS, RAMIS II, NOMAD2, and MURAL (all discussed in Volume II of this work), have good query, report generation, and graphics generation features in addition to their primary application-development capabilities. Under most circumstances, ADRS II cannot be used to develop complex applications. However, ADRS II can be used in combination with other members of the APL product set, including APL Data Interpreted II (APLDI-II) and Financial Planning System II (FPS II). This combination of products supports a broader range of functions including inquiry and data retrieval, report generation, and financial modeling. PRODUCT FAMILY The ADRS H product family consists of three separate components: • ADRS II Report Generator • QUERY-BY-EXAMPLE (QBE) to ADRS II Bridge • ADRS II Business Graphics As mentioned earlier, ADRS II also links to the APL language, with which complex applications can be created. ADRS II has features such as data inquiry, data analysis, and report generation that allow end users to create their own reports quickly and easily. Simple, yet powerful, English-like commands such as SETUP, INPUT, and LIST are available. ADRS II is flexible and, most important, fairly easy to learn. The QBE to ADRS II Bridge component provides access to QBE commands, which can be used to extract data for processing and reporting by ADRS II. QBE provides a powerful, complex query capability using an easy-to-use, tabular user interface. QBE is covered in detail in another chapter in this volume. The ADRS II Business Graphics component enables end users to select specific data from reports and to present these data in the form of color graphs plots, text, or a sequence of electronic slides. The plot facility provides six graphics formats (line graphs, surface charts, histograms, pie charts, scatter- plots, and bar charts). Extensive graphics annotation capability is available. |