APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REMOTE QUERYING OF DATA SOURCES

1 . A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

receive a report document at a report query engine, wherein the report document includes a definition of a report;

process the report document to extract a remote location for a data source driver for the report;

transmit a request for the data for the report via a consumer and across a communication channel to the remote location;

receive the data; and

create a report instance from the data, wherein the report instance includes the data processed in accordance with the definition of the report.

2 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the consumer:

implements the same interface as an adapter to access data sources, and

overwrites a local data source access function with a remote data source access function.

3 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the consumer is the consumer of a Web Service (WS).

4 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 3 further comprising executable instructions to implement communication from the consumer to the remote location according to a protocol defined in a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file.

5 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the report instance is processed by the application of one or more operations selected from: formatting the data; applying a formula to the data; filtering of the data; combining the data with additional data; applying a join operation to the data, and inserting logic to support a more complex data model, and adding metadata to the data.

6 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to initialize the consumer in place of an adapter to access data sources.

7 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the remote location of the data source is stored as a universal resource locator (URL).

8 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to include executable instructions to send a query to a data source.

9 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 8 further comprising executable instructions to transmit a request for the data across a communication channel.

10 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to define a local data source driver coupled to an adapter.

11 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising one or more executable instructions selected from:

executable instructions to return the report instance,

executable instructions to display the report instance, and

executable instructions to transmit the report instance across a communication channel.

12 . A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

define a data source driver configured to access a data source;

define an adapter coupled to the data source driver, wherein the adapter makes calls to an interface of the data source driver; and

define a provider disposed between the adapter and a communication channel. wherein the provider includes executable instructions to:

receive a request or data from a remote consumer,

pass the request to the adapter, and

make a query to the data source through the adapter and data source driver.

13 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the request is based on a report definition.

14 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the request is a query to the data source.

15 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising executable instructions to return the data to the remote consumer.

16 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising executable instructions to define a report query engine, wherein both the report query engine and the provider make calls to the data source via the adapter and the data source driver.

17 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising executable instructions to facilitate interaction between the provider and the remote consumer through a firewall disposed between the provider and the communication channel, wherein the firewall filters for calls received from the remote consumer.

18 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the provider is a web service (WS) provider and the consumer is a WS consumer.

19 . A computer system, comprising:

a report processing server including a consumer and a report engine that processes a report document, wherein while processing the report document the report engine makes a call to the consumer to access data remote to the report processing server;

a data server, including a provider configured to receive calls from the consumer and a data source driver coupled to the provider via a data server adapter; and

a communication channel coupling the report processing server to the data server;

wherein:

data is requested from the data server by the consumer,

the request is processed by the provider,

the provider obtains the data via the data source driver,

the data is returned to the report engine via the consumer, and

the report engine creates an instance of the report document with the data.

20 . The computer system of claim 19 further comprising a client for viewing a report created by the report processing server with data retrieved from the data server.

21 . The computer system of claim 19 wherein the communication between the consumer and the provider is via Web Services (WS).

22 . The computer system of claim 19 wherein the consumer implements the interface of a server adapter used by a report engine to access local data source drivers.