We used to use Oracle at [company name redacted]. We used to complain about how badly it sucked, as end users. For example, if you want to print the same report for each one of a list of items, you have to do this crazy routine:
- Bring up the Create Requests window
- Choose the report you want to
request - Enter the item number
- Enter the criteria for the report
- Run the report
- Lather, rinse, repeat for each item
But getting date out of Oracle and into an Excel file for quick analysis was actually very easy! Our IT support could write a quick SQL script and get the data for hundreds of items in just a few minutes.
But the Company thought SAP would do a better job. Ha!
Try writing a query (remember, I'm a user, not a developer). Nope. You have to create an "infoset" first. But you have to get access to the Infoset transaction first. Fine, you get that. Now you have to figure out (through trial-and-error) which tables and fields to include. Then go back and set up the query, using the weird, non-intuitive query builder interface. OK, done that. Now run the new query. Did you get your data? NO, because you don't have the right infoset. So ask IT to do it. Nope. Can't be done. The data you want IS stored in SAP, but it is in some kind of strange text container, and can't be queried by normal methods.
Suppose you have a query that actually works. By default, you get the data in an "SAP Viewer" table. But you want to export it to Excel, so you can do some work. Is there a simple "export to Excel" button? No. But you can export to a "spreadsheet," which opens in MHTML by default. Why?? And every query seems to have a different method for generating this spreadsheet. If you decide to set your export method as the default, you can't easily go back and change it. The option to change the export default is buried in some arcane configuration window far, far away from where you would expect to find it. However, if you change the "Layout" of the query to "Spreadsheet," you get a quick export to Excel, with an optional pivot table.
The point is, the user experience for SAP (Dreamweaver) is terrible and bizarre. Mouse clicks and right-clicks don't follow global conventions (for Windows, Linux, or anything else). Query results in the SAP Viewer look very different from the Spreadsheet version (in some cases).
And woe unto you if you do choose to use a spreadsheet view. There are at least 3 different ways to get to the spreadsheet. And if you pick one as the default, you will have unholy hell trying to get the other options back.
Sigh.