QMF for Workstation versus QMF for WebSphere
QMF includes a rich client (QMF for Workstation) and a thin client (QMF for WebSphere®) component.
The component you use depends on business and technical requirements specific to your situation. While all administrative functions (and a lot of the user functions) available in QMF for Workstation are also available in QMF for WebSphere, there are some noteworthy differences.
The following list highlights functionality available in QMF for Workstation only. Most of these functions provide users the capability to design more robust reporting and dashboard solutions and enhance product usability.
- Enhanced visual design capabilities
- QMF for Workstation includes a visual designer for both reports and dashboards. With little or no coding experience, users can employ the visual designer to enhance the appearance and usability of reports and dashboards. Users can graphically place charts, selectors, and controls on a report canvas or dashboard design editor. Users can embed static content such as text, graphics, hyperlinks, and supporting information (data-driven or static). These elements can also be embedded in traditional tabular reports or interactive dashboards.
- Accessibility conformance
- QMF for Workstation conforms to accessibility standards and guidelines, including robust support for keyboard shortcuts.
- Bidirectional data transformation
- QMF for Workstation supports bidirectional (BIDI) data transformation. BIDI refers to supporting data processing of text in two directions, right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR). By including BIDI support, QMF for Workstation is able to correctly display bidirectional text.
- Use of the host operating system scheduler
- QMF for Workstation includes support for using the host operating system's scheduler, in addition to the scheduler provided with the product. This allows for additional flexibility when scheduling tasks such as generating and distributing managed reports. With QMF for WebSphere, users are not able to use the host operating system scheduler. QMF for WebSphere users must use the scheduler that is included with the product.
- Enhanced drill-down editing capabilities
- QMF for Workstation provides enhanced capabilities, such as zoom editing and column dragging. The zoom editing presents the user with the capability to zoom in for a more detailed view of data on a scene or on a data point in a layout.
- Customizable perspectives and views
- QMF for Workstation provides
the capability to customize workbench views. Users can move views
around within the workbench, docking them in different locations to
suit their preferences.
Additionally, QMF for Workstation users can customize the workbench by adding and removing views from the various perspectives. This allows users to establish standardized views and perspectives that suit their design needs.
- Document editing capabilities
- QMF for Workstation provides the capability to edit data in documents. For example, users can set font size and style as well as add color to text in documents.
- Support for REXX programming language
- QMF for Workstation supports the REXX programming language, so advanced "power users" can develop and implement scripts that address complex and repetitive tasks and functions.
- Targeted printing capabilities
- QMF for Workstation supports targeted printing. Using QMF for Workstation, users can print a single document of interest. For example, users can perform a File > Print operation on a specific report or query result and get the output for that single piece of data.
- Table editing support in the data analysis grid
- QMF for Workstation provides table editor support in the data analysis grid. This support is not provided in QMF for WebSphere.
- Seamless procedure-run EXPORT command
- QMF for Workstation provides seamless support for procedure-run EXPORT commands. Users can run procedures to export data in various formats directly to their machines. QMF for WebSphere users can also use procedures to run EXPORT commands, but the process requires the user to download and save data through a download wizard.