Lotus Development Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was "offloaded" to India's HCL Technologies in 2018. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1-2- ...

's DataLens, originally known as Blueprint, was a standardized system for

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

queries used in a number of Lotus products, notably

1-2-3 1-2-3; 1, 2, 3; or One, Two, Three may refer to: Brands * 1-2-3 (fuel station), in Norway * Lotus 1-2-3, a computer spreadsheet program * .123, a file extension used by Lotus 1-2-3 * Jell-O 1-2-3, a dessert Film, TV and books * '' One, Two, Thre ...

. It provided drivers for a number of common data sources, including a variety of

mainframe A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

SQL servers,

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...

database files of various sorts, and even flat-file systems. Drivers from 3rd parties were also available. Unlike the better-known

ODBC In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. A ...

, DataLens did not use SQL in the query interface. The

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

was based on a variety of

data structure In computer science, a data structure is a data organization, management, and storage format that is usually chosen for Efficiency, efficient Data access, access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the rel ...

s that were interpreted by the database drivers into their own internal query format - including SQL in some cases. In contrast, ODBC used SQL as its basic interface, and interpreted and translated it in the driver for those data sources that did not use SQL. Lotus also released two user-oriented query builders, the

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

-based Query Builder which could interact with DataLens sources but was not built on it, and the

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

-based Data Query Assistant (DQA) which was built directly on DataLens.Scott Mace
"Lotus beefs up database query capabilities"
''InfoWorld'', 5 August 1991, p. 13

References

{{database-software-stub Lotus Software software