1. A method of processing an object-oriented query to retrieve data from a data source stored on a data storage device connected to a computer, comprising: receiving a Java Query Language (JQL) user query; compiling the JQL query; detecting any compilation error due to a syntax error in the JQL query; and if a compilation error is detected, then providing a notification of the error; otherwise if a compilation error is not detected, then processing the JQL query for execution.