Currently, PI SQL Client can retrieve only archived data, event frames, and data that gives that data context (e.g. elements, templates, attributes, UOMs). However, PI SQL Client does not expose configuration data (i.e. the type of data that PI Builder would retrieve). Please allow this data to be queried.
PI Builder is OK for occasional, manual retrieval of configuration data. However, for programmatic retrieval of this data, we currently need to use PI OLEDB Provider for the PI Data Archive's configuration data and PI OLEDB Enterprise for the PI Asset Framework's configuration data. Compared to PI SQL Client, queries for PI OLEDB Provider and PI OLEDB Enterprise are generally slower and it is much easier to write a slow query, and most of those slow queries are so slow that they do not finish in any reasonable amount of time. Basically, PI SQL Client was created because these 2 programs were not good enough in many ways, but it also does not yet have all of their functionality.
For the sake of this suggestion, it would be sufficient for PI SQL Client to be able to query the PI Asset Framework's configuration data. However, ideally, the suggestions for PI SQL Client being able to query the PI Data Archive directly (this and this) would be implemented, and then the next step would be to allow PI SQL Client to query the PI Data Archive's configuration data, and then we can finally be done with both PI OLEDB Provider and PI OLEDB Enterprise, especially the former, which doesn't even use PI AF SDK and relies on the deprecated PI SDK instead.
For an example of a use case, I currently have a spreadsheet that has a query table of all tags and all of their attributes, retrieved using a query that uses PI OLEDB Provider, and I have another query table of all attributes of all elements in the PI Asset Framework, retrieved using a query that uses PI OLEDB Enterprise. Each table references the other, and this allows me to find tags that are not in the PI Asset Framework, find inconsistencies between the digital state set of a tag and the enumeration set of the corresponding element attribute, find inconsistencies between the data type of the tag and the corresponding element attribute, etc. It is very useful, and I can fairly quickly check the tables, fix a few issues, refresh the tables, and repeat, all much faster than if I was using PI Builder to retrieve the same data. However, the spreadsheet requires 2 PI programs, and it would be much better to use just 1 PI program that is faster, smaller, easier to use, and has more support (i.e. PI SQL Client).
