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There are several tools on the market that can accomplish this goal and they have varying degrees of functionality. We evaluated the three major products: InfoPump from Trinzic, Notrix Composer from Percussion, and DataLink from Brainstorm. I went to product demos for DataLink and Notrix.
InfoPump
InfoPump is the most robust product on the market and has been around for the longest. It runs on a separate OS/2 box and requires its own SQLServer database to store the information about the scheduled jobs. It has extensive error tracking capabilities. However, the software costs $25,000 and the learning curve for the proprietary scripting language is said to be steep. Based on the high price tag and the fact that it requires a separate box and SQLServer, we did not set up a demo with Trinzic. A current user of InfoPump confirmed that InfoPump has done everything they asked of it, but they have not asked it to do very much and they have had a Trinzic consultant set up all of
their transfer scripts.
DataLink
DataLink from Brainstorm is the lowest-cost product in the market at $1500. It runs on a Windows client workstation rather than on the Notes server. The interface is entirely separate from Notes. Access to SQL databases is through the Q+E ODBC drivers.
Advantages:
Cost - $1500.
Comes with Q+E ODBC database drivers and documentation.
Client-based solution means that it is easy to set up to connect to any Notes server.
Point-and-click user interface for field mapping in the data transfer.
SQL query builder to aid in writing more complex queries of relational data.
Problems:
No SQL*Net access to Oracle, all access to relational databases is through ODBC.
Need to buy a license for each developer.
Limited error logging, all done outside of Notes. For example, if the client workstation where DataLink is running is turned off and a scheduled program is missed, no error will be logged.
N* ability to create alerts to notify an administrator of problems.
Disorganized support organization (admittedly based only on the demonstration and on the run around to set up the demo)
Does not support Notes-to-Notes transfers.
Notrix Composer
Data transfer jobs created by Notrix Composer run on the Notes server. Notes forms are used to create the jobs. Scheduling is handled by automatically creating program documents in the public Name and Address Book for Lotus Notes. The product is structured in two levels. The base level, for $2500, includes a Notes-to-Notes engine, ODBC access, a flat file to Notes engine, and a 4GL for creating Notes server tasks. The next level, for $2500 more, includes the driver for connecting to Oracle 7.
Advantages:
SQL*Net direct access to Oracle 7.
Very responsive support organization.
Runs on the server.
Unlimited number of developers can use the product at once.
Comes with the Event Manager which can be set up to monitor Notes databases and initiate programs based on events in the database.
Built-in Notes-to-Notes data transfer.
All development work occurs within the Notes environment.
Problems:
Need to install SQL*Net for OS/2 on the OS/2 server and give it access to the Data Warehouse.
Needs an OS/2 box to run on (NT is in beta and will be shipping within 2 months they told me)
No error alert to notify an administrator automatically. An add-in task could easily be built with the Notrix Event Manager.
If we do need ODBC, we would have to purchase the Q+E drivers separately.
Recommendation
I recommended Notrix Composer from Percussion Software. The major reasons were:
The product is server rather than client-based.
The entire development and logging environment is within Lotus Notes.
It comes with extras such as the Notes-to-Notes driver and the 4GL for developing server add-in tasks.
The cost is not prohibitive.
The support organization for Notrix seemed much more organized than the organization for DataLink.
An unlimited number of developers can use the product, it is not limited to a single developer per license.
Hope this helps some of you who wrote me directly asking what I had found from my original query.
-lns
Notes R3 Notes R4 Notes/Domino 4.5 Notes/Domino 4.6 Notes/Domino R5