Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Lotus DataLens
open-in-new
<p><a href="/facts/Lotus_Development/8k8vj9x2">Lotus Development</a>'s DataLens, originally known as Blueprint, was a standardized system for <a href="/facts/Database/VYcpkevb">database</a> queries used in a number of Lotus products, notably <a href="/facts/Lotus_1-2-3/tnkvSG3M">1-2-3</a>. It provided drivers for a number of common data sources, including a variety of <a href="/facts/Mainframe_computer/nrBR6rWa">mainframe</a> <a href="/facts/SQL/UjQLJcYm">SQL</a> servers, <a href="/facts/Microcomputer/ETW22UTv">microcomputer</a> database files of various sorts, and even flat-file systems. Drivers from 3rd parties were also available. </p><p>Unlike the better-known <a href="/facts/ODBC/2dV2Fm5j">ODBC</a>, DataLens did not use SQL in the query interface. The <a href="/facts/Application_programming_interface/GMlN4vUr">API</a> was based on a variety of <a href="/facts/Data_structure/yNsNvL1I">data structures</a> that were interpreted by the <a href="/facts/Device_driver/rDYnHU1G">database drivers</a> 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. </p><p>Lotus also released two user-oriented query builders, the <a href="/facts/DOS/sWwDXNmX">DOS</a>-based Query Builder which could interact with DataLens sources but was not built on it, and the <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Windows/bwhAhuSL">Windows</a>-based Data Query Assistant (DQA) which was built directly on DataLens. </p>