Have a single query that can look for apps installed and their versions across all host platforms

[Patagonia121]

From the customer:

trying to write a single query to check the version of a particular application (say Zoom) across both Windows and Mac, but not quite figuring out how to write it, since apps only exists on Mac, and programs only exists on Windows, so I can't do a simple SELECT 1 FROM APPS, PROGRAMS WHERE .... because it'll error out when it doesn't find whichever the other platform's table is.

Today, the customer has to write 3 separate queries when trying to find apps like Chrome and the version number on macs, windows, and linux machines. This adds a ton of complexity.

[Patagonia121]

One potential solution: When you query a table on a platform that doesn't exist/isn't supported (i.e. apps on Windows), rather than sending back an error, send back an empty table or a table with one row that says "Error, table "apps" doesn't exist on this platform" etc. Then you could still run a query on it, but filter out the rows LIKE "%ERROR%"

[noahtalerman]

@pintomi1989 @Patagonia121 I think we can also chat about this issue w/ the customer when we chat to them about device health.

What we want to learn: can software inventory accomplish this workflow? Why not? Do they send logs somewhere?

[JoStableford]

Related to a Slack conversation

[pintomi1989]

customer-honoria: Causes difficulty in policy writing. Need 3 policies to find one program.

This is still a priority, but we need to confirm pain level.