The Nexus Query Chameleon from Coffing Data Warehousing may ...

The Nexus Query Chameleon from Coffing Data Warehousing may be the most
sophisticated piece of software ever built in the data warehouse industry. After
evaluating hundreds of tools Microsoft chose the Nexus as their tool of choice for
their Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) customers for 3-years straight, and they still
partner with CoffingDW to deliver it internally at Microsoft and to all PDW
customers. This is because the Nexus is so pretty, easy-to-use and the only query
tool that universally works with all major database vendor platforms including
Teradata, Netezza, Oracle, DB2, Greenplum, SQL Server and SQL Server Parallel
Data Warehouse.
Not only can users query each system simultaneously, but they can also perform
advanced analytics, graphing and charting, Pivoting, Cube Building, Database
Administration, ETL and thousands of other functions on every database
simultaneously! The end goal of the Nexus Query Chameleon is to be the only
enterprise software tool needed to perform all functions on all databases.
Imagine having to pay for only one tool and that tool is the best ever seen by the
user community, the developers, power users, Database Administrators, load
experts and managers. That is where Nexus gets its name. Nexus is the point
where everything connects so Times Square is the Nexus of the New York Subway
system. The Nexus Query Chameleon is the Nexus for all databases and the Query
Chameleon allows Nexus to literally change colors and fit in any enterprise
environment.
The following pages will provide and explanation and examples of some of the
more powerful features.

A Brilliant Systems Tree
Users can choose their colors for each system and see their system trees as they see
fit. Some DBA’s need to see all databases and users while users can choose the
databases or users they want listed by right clicking on the system and choosing
My Databases! You can also right click on any table in the systems tree and
choose Quick Select which was done in the query example below.
Systems
Tables
Columns

A Join Builder for Everyone
Get ready for your life to get a lot easier because the Nexus comes with an easy-touse
Join Builder. Drag a table to the Join Builder and select the columns you want
on your report. Then drag any table you want to join and the SQL is built
automatically for you.
In the next month we will release the Super Join Builder. This will use the ERWin
Diagram from your lead DBA, encrypt the model for security purposes and then
allow you to drag any table to the Super Join Builder pad. You can then right click
on that table and all tables eligible to join will appear. You can select any of these
tables and the SQL is built for you. A column header example report will show
you exactly what your report will look like and you can rearrange, add, or delete
columns while the SQL changes before your eyes. You can also build cubes by
pressing a single button which will allow you take a table and automatically
connect all tables eligible to join within seconds. Then take any of these complex
joins and turn them into views! That should save you and your peers an enormous
amount of time, yet produce results that will have management applauding.

The Sandbox
Talk about amazing! The Sandbox concept allows users to create their own data
warehouse on their internal hard drive. Users can query any system
simultaneously and when they receive an answer set they can save that in their
Sandbox. This is a SQL Server Compact Edition database where users can
actually re-query any answer set right inside their Nexus Desktop. Yes, users can
actually query these automatically built tables without leaving their desktop. What
is so very nice about this is that this gives users the ability to join tables from
different database vendors. Wouldn’t you just love to take a Teradata query and an
Oracle query and join them together using the Join Builder? This is done by
saving your answer sets in you sandbox and then joining them together!
Just take any answer set and right click on the Result Tab and choose Rename
Tab. Then drag your newly named tab to your sandbox and watch as the table and
data are created for you and ready to be joined or re-queried at your request.
Drag and Drop an answer set
directly to your sandbox and
re-query it internally or join it
to an Oracle, Netezza, etc. table.

Graphing and Charting with Bisualize
The future of Decisions Support is to visualize your business. Nexus does this
with our product called Bisualize. Take any answer set and immediately use
Bisualize to visualize the results. Bisualize allows you to drag and drop attributes
and measures from the columns in your answer set to great dynamic charts that can
be placed into worksheets, shared with your colleagues, and comes with incredible
features to give you the detail you need to visualize your business.

Run as Many Queries on Different Systems as you want
Nexus allows you to run many queries simultaneously from different systems. Run
a SQL Server, Teradata, Oracle, Netezza, Greenplum, and DB2 on both the server
and Mainframe query simultaneously. Your answer sets will return in colored tabs
that you have chosen to recognize each system. Why buy a series of Parallel Data
Warehouses and only query serially. Nexus has the flexibility to query them all in
parallel.
Run Queries on
different systems
Simultaneously!
Answer Sets are
Placed in colored tabs!

Pivot your Answer Sets
Nexus allows you to Pivot your answers sets in a variety of ways. Many
manufacturing companies utilize Nexus and they need to be able to pivot data and
then graph and chart the data as well. Nexus has very sophisticated pivoting
techniques that allow you to see your data just like you demand.
Just right click on any answer set and choose Pivot. The Pivot Wizard will allow
you to Pivot your data in any direction. There is a Basic Pivot tool (see below) and
an Advanced Tab on the Wizard that will give you the flexibility for your more
complicated Pivots.
Right Click on any
Answer set and choose
PIVOT and the Pivot
Wizard makes it easy.
The answer set on
the left has been
Pivoted above!

Create Point-and-Click Icons that Prompt Users for Input
Too often the data warehouse is so complex that many of the companies users
don’t have the SQL training or expertise to access the warehouse. This is where
the Nexus Macro Builder comes in. The Nexus allows you to write SQL that will
prompt the user for input, but hide the SQL inside an icon. Users can click on the
Macro Icon and they are then instructed on what to do. This allows all employees
to take advantage of the information in the data warehouse.
Below is an example on how easy it is to create a Macro Icon that any user will be
able to execute and receive the information they need. The following page will
show how a user will execute the Macro Icon.
Write your SQL and place
@ signs to prompt users
1
Press the Macro Builder
2
3
Click Compile and enter
what you want users
to see when they click
on the Macro Icon
4
Press Save
and give
The Macro
a name

How easy it is for Users to execute a Macro Icon
Any user can now access the data warehouse by clicking on the icon. Then they
enter the information they are prompted for inside the Macro Icon. They hit OK
and the query runs bringing back their Answer Set. We have done a lot of
customized work so companies can allow their data warehouse to reach further into
the user community. The Macro Icons are the simplest way to allow all users to
access the data warehouse with ease, and still allow the DBA’s to maintain a
controlled environment where there are no bad performing queries.
Click on the Icon
You wish to run
2
Choose the Queries Tab
to see all Icons
1
Enter the input
you have been
Prompted for
and hit OK
3
Your Answer
Arrives instantly!
4

Prepare for Teradata Certification right at your desk for Free
We have spent over 5-months creating Tera-Trivia. This is an interactive game
that can be played right at your desk inside the Nexus. Just press on the DBA
button at the top of the screen and choose Teradata. Then you will see our DBA
menu (quite impressive with so many features). On the DBA menu choose Tera-
Trivia and choose either Teradata Basics or Teradata SQL. Then hit launch.
The idea behind Tera-Trivia is that everyone can get educated right at their desk
whenever they have a few spare minutes. Trust me when I tell you that this game
is fun, sophisticated, easy-to-play and the best darn learning tool on the planet.
2
Choose Tera-Trivia and
Learn Teradata with our
Brilliant Interactive game.
Press the DBA button and
Choose Teradata
1
3
Hit Launch

An Example of a Teradata Architecture Tera-Trivia Slide
Each game shows you a series of great slides and you answer the multiple choice
questions. Each slide builds upon the slide before it and they start easy and
gradually become more challenging. Even users who are completely new to
Teradata will enjoy and learn from this game. Even experts will be challenged, but
that is OK because you can attempt each level (chapter) as many times until you
pass that level. Miss three questions and you are dead. Each level of the game is a
separate chapter. You can choose to start at the beginning or choose to start on the
chapter of your choosing. Welcome to the new way users will learn Teradata.

An Example of a Teradata SQL Tera-Trivia Slide
Each game shows you a series of great slides and you answer the multiple choice
questions. Each slide builds upon the slide before it and they start easy and
gradually become more challenging. Even users who are completely new to
Teradata will enjoy and learn from this game. Even experts will be challenged, but
that is OK because you can attempt each level (chapter) as many times until you
pass that level. Miss three questions and you are dead. Each level of the game is a
separate chapter. You can choose to start at the beginning or choose to start on the
chapter of your choosing. Welcome to the new way users will learn Teradata.
A beginning novice to SQL will learn from the beginning chapters and yet there
are over 120 questions in the OLAP chapter that will challenge all Power Users. If
you want yourself and your peers to know everything about Teradata SQL then
Tera-Trivia at the University of Tera-Tom will be a thrilling option.

Teradata Compression with SmartCompress of Nexus
Teradata has the ability to use their Multi-Column Compression capabilities, but
don’t provide a tool or make it an easy process to compress eligible columns. The
Nexus has SmartCompress which compresses tables and saves about 35% space
savings. That can literally save a company millions. Is there any bad news? No!
Compressing every table will save space, make queries faster, help with joins, and
reduces spool. If you are not compressing your Teradata system you are leaving
easy money on the table (well, I should say In the Table).
SmartCompress is extremely flexible and easy-to-use. It provides the ability to
check your work before you compress and even provides detailed reports, graphs,
and charts showing you your space savings per column.
1
Right Click on a
Database or Table
and choose
SmartCompress
Hit Execute
4
2
Checkbox
The table(s)
You want
compressed
3
Choose
your
Many
options

Teradata Compression Reports
Nothing is nicer than showing your boss what a great job you are doing.
SmartCompress has a REPORT button on it that will allow you to show a wide
variety of reports, charts, and graphs for each table compressed. You can even run
a fake compress and check the report and then decide to proceed or omit columns.

History of your SQL
Press the HISTORY at the top of Nexus and your most recent SQL queries are
right in front of you in full screen easy-to-read mode. Double click on any SQL
and you are ready to paste it and go. Advanced search capabilities allow you to
find anything you have ever run. You can even decide how many queries you
want to see in your history view or show it all.
Advanced Search Function
Double Click and the
Query is copied and
Ready to be pasted.
Choose the number
of most recent rows
you want to show.

Right Click on an Answer Set
When you receive an Answer Set you can Right Click and have a whole lot of
options, including saving your answer set to your internal Sand Box for requerying
or joining to other Answer Sets (cross database capabilities like Oracle,
DB2, Teradata, Netezza, Greenplum, or SQL Server, etc.).
You can even save your answer sets to Excel, Microsoft Access, XML, Comma
Delimited Files or User Delimited Text. You can also move columns around or
even Group By any column you decide. You can even getting Aggregates.
Right Click on
any Answer Set
and see all your
Options.
Export your Answer Set
to Excel, Access, XML,
Comma Separated File
or User Delimited Text.

Use the Nexus Scheduler
The Nexus allows you to schedule when you want to run any query, batch job,
Load Utility, Compress or Synchronization job. Why even come to work?
Schedule any
Query, Batch Job
or Load Utility
to run when you
want or to run on
a daily/weekly
basis.

Use the Nexus Dashboard
At the top of Nexus is the Dashboard. Click you shall receive. You can see all
types of system metrics in beautiful reports, charts and graphs with fantastic search
capabilities.

Use the Nexus Dashboard to Profile a Table
At the top of Nexus is the Dashboard. You can click on that and choose the
Profiler. This will allow you to examine all your columns and see all kinds of
information including how well the column distributes and its skew factor.
Profiling data demographics will help enormously in making sure your Primary
Index distributes well. This is also a great feature for queries against tables that are
running out of spool.

Convert Oracle Tables to Teradata Tables (Step 1)
Amazed that we could save you months of work in the click of a button? It gets
even better than that. We can convert from any database vendor to any other
vendor. In the diagram below you can see that we chose the DBA button and then
chose a Teradata system. Then we decided to convert an entire database of
Teradata tables to instantly become and entire database of Netezza tables.
We are not done yet! The next page will show you the actual conversion process!
1
Convert a table or an
entire database of tables
from any vendor to another
2
This will convert all
Teradata Tables in the
SQL_Class database
to Netezza Tables!

Convert Oracle Tables to Teradata Tables (Step 2)
As you can see below we selected all 17 Teradata Tables in the SQL_Class
database and converted them to Netezza tables. Although you can only see the
first two conversions in the query window all 17 are there waiting for you to scroll
down or copy and paste these to your Netezza system. In seconds you have
duplicated the tables across systems!
The DDL of
all 17 Teradata
tables have
now been
Converted to
Netezza

Create Views in Seconds (Step 1)
As you can see below we selected all 17 Teradata Tables in the SQL_Class
database and CREATED Views for each table. How easy is this if you are a
DBA? The next page will show the actual View DDL, which easily allows the
DBA to remove any columns they don’t want users to see.
1
Create Views instantly for
An entire database of tables

Create Views in Seconds (Step 2)
As you can see below we selected all 17 Views for the 17 tables in the database
SQL_Class. What is brilliant about this Nexus function is that you can select
LOCKING ROW FOR ACCESS in all your views. You can also choose the
database where the Views will reside and the database where the tables will reside
and this is included in the CREATE VIEW Statements. It is now very easy to also
remove any columns you want restricted. Although you can only see the first two
views created there are all 17 in the window waiting for you to scroll.
17 Views have
been created
For all 17
Tables in the
SQL_Class
Database!

Build Teradata Load Scripts in Seconds
You know how difficult and cumbersome it is to build Teradata Load Scripts such
as BTEQ, FastLoad, MultiLoad, TPump, and FastExport. Not anymore! Just
Right Click on a table and choose SmartScript and then select the script you want
to build. Most of the defaults your script will need will automatically be placed in
the script, but you can still change if you want, but why would you in most cases?
In seconds you can create the script. The only thing we needed to select in the
FastLoad script below was the Source File. Then you hit Build Script and check it
out or make any minor changes you want (shouldn’t need to make any changes).
Then hit Execute or use the Nexus Scheduler and run the script when you want!
Right Click on a table and your
FastLoad script is built in 15
Seconds! Use the Nexus
SmartScript for all your
Load Utilities. You can also
Execute or even schedule your
scripts to run when you want
As you point-and-click
your Load script is built.
then hit the Build Script
button and make edits.
Then execute the script
right now or schedule it
to run later.

Replicate your System and Create a Test or Dev System
SmartReplica is a Nexus feature that allows you to replicate entire Databases from
one system to another. This has incredible flexibility. You can copy just the
objects or you can also include the data. SmartReplica even allows you to only
take a subset of the data from each table to easily create a Test or Dev system.
You can copy from one Teradata system to another or use SmartReplica to copy all
objects to a different database within the same system.
Your source system is chosen
when you Right Click. It is up to
you to select your Target System.
Replicate entire databases or
Individual objects and the data to
another System with SmartReplica.
This is an incredible way to
CREATE a Test or Dev system
or copy within the same system.
Copy No Data,
All Data or
just a Sample
of the Data!

SmartSync your data and compare Data and DDL Differences
SmartSync is a Nexus feature that allows you to compare two different systems,
databases, or objects and see the differences is data or object DDL. Below we are
comparing the Employee_Table from one system to the Employee_Table in
another system. Hit Execute and the differences are shown. You can then choose
to synchronize the data making both tables exactly the same!
1
Right Click
on a Table
and Choose
SmartSync
2
Your source system is chosen
when you Right Click. It is up to
you to select your Target System.
3
Hit Execute and you will see the
differences in the data or the DDL
between the two objects. You can
even Synchronize the data and
make them the same!

Cleanse your Data
SmartCleanser is a Nexus feature that allows you to cleanse the data in your tables.
This works for Text only, but you can actually search for a piece of text and
replace it, delete it, delete the entire row or move this data to another column. This
can save you hundreds of hours. Oh yes, we even let you preview the old data and
what it is about to look like with the preview. You can uncheck any row you don’t
want to change and when you hit execute the magic happens instantaneously. We
also allow you to backup the table with the click of a button to ensure your work!

The End!
Please contact Tom Coffing, CEO of Coffing Data Warehousing for more
information or download a free trial of Nexus at WWW.CoffingDW.com.
Tom Coffing, CEO of Coffing Data Warehousing
Direct: 513 300-0341
Email: Tom.Coffing@CoffingDW.com
Website: WWW.CoffingDW.Com