English Query Fundamentals

English Query

English Query

English Query Fundamentals

Using English Query, you can turn your relational databases into English Query applications, which allow end users to pose questions in English instead of forming a query with an SQL statement.

The English Query Model Editor appears within the Microsoft® Visual Studio® version 6.0 development environment. From there, you can choose one of the English Query project wizards, the SQL Project Wizard or the OLAP Project Wizard, to automatically create an English Query project and model. After the basic model is created, you can refine, test, and compile it into an English Query application (*.eqd), and then deploy it (for example, to the Web).

Creating an English Query Project and Model

Using the SQL Project Wizard or the OLAP Project Wizard, you incorporate the database structure (table names, field names, keys, and joins) or cube information of the database into a project and a model.

A model contains all the information needed for an English Query application, including the database structure, or schema, of the underlying SQL database or cube and the semantic objects (entities and relationships). You also define properties for an application and add entries to the English Query dictionary, as well as manually add and modify entities and relationships while testing questions and set other options to expand the model.

Creating Entities and Relationships

With the wizards, semantic objects are automatically created for the model. These include entities and relationships (with phrasings such as customers buy products or Customer_Names are the names of customers). Entities are usually represented by tables, fields, and OLAP objects. 

An entity is a real-world object, referred to by a noun (person, place, thing, or idea), for example: customers, cities, products, shipments, and so forth. In databases, entities are usually represented by tables, fields, and Analysis Services objects.

Relationships describe what the entities have to do with one another, for example: customers purchase products. Command relationships are not represented in the database but refer to actions to be executed. For example, a command to a compact disc player can allow requests such as "Play the album with song X on it."

Deploying an English Query Application

You can deploy an English Query application in several ways, including within a Microsoft Visual Basic® or Microsoft Visual C++® application and on a Web page running on Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). In the Web scenario, the interface of the application is with a set of Active Server Pages (ASP).

See Also

Developing and Deploying English Query Applications

Creating an English Query Model

Deploying an English Query Application

Expanding an English Query Model

Testing an English Query Model

Sample Applications and Client Interfaces