1. A hardware computer storage device with computer executable instructions for accessing a database, comprising executable instructions to: present a user at a client computer with a set of business objects, wherein the business objects include familiar terms corresponding to information about the structure of the database; receive a plurality of selected business objects; generate a SQL query from the selected business objects, wherein the SQL query includes a SELECT clause and a FROM clause, wherein the selected business objects are associated with a selected context that includes a list of joins between tables that gives meaning to the selected business objects, wherein the selected context is chosen from several contexts applicable to the SQL query; receive a condition used to restrict the scope of values returned from the database; translate the condition into a WHERE clause in the SQL query; transmit the SQL query to the database; and receive a tabular result set.
3. The hardware computer storage device of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to: define a list of joins between tables in the database to characterize a set of linked tables, wherein a join is a relational synchronization between tables; add a union of the set of linked tables to the FROM clause if the set of linked tables is linked by one path; add a union of the set of linked tables along a particular path defined by the selected context to the FROM clause if the set of linked tables are linked by multiple paths, wherein the selected context includes a set of joins including all of the tables in the set of linked tables; and add a union of the set of linked tables arranged along all joins in the list of joins to the FROM clause if the set of linked tables is linked by multiple paths but no context exists.