CHIQ is a Client/Server based solution which accesses the data from almost any business application to produce screen displays and printed reports that are formatted by the user themselves. The controlling component of the product is the CHIQ SERVER which comes with every deployment of the solution. Amongst other things, the CHIQ SERVER stores all the information regarding serialisation, licence registrations, dictionaries and concurrency of client licences. The client side components are then deployed based on the requirements of the individual users. Each user, depending on their role and level of usage, will require the capability of an Administrator, Designer or Runtime licence and all this is controlled through the CHIQ SERVER component.
CHIQ ADMIN
Each CHIQ deployment has one or more dictionaries that describes and holds all the information about the data on that system. The CHIQ dictionary has features that simplify the definition of this data. This hides the complexity of the data from the user so that they only have to think about the reports they want to design.
CHIQ ADMIN includes the data dictionary feature. This allows the user to define the data by maintaining tables, table includes, columns, composites, constants and joins. This task is normally performed by a single individual or IT department within the organisation. The dictionary or dictionaries are created and then held with the underlying data wherever that resides on the network.
CHIQ DESIGN
CHIQ has a designer that is used to produce reports. It is easy to use and yet has the power to produce the most sophisticated reports.
CHIQ DESIGN includes the report designer. A simple user interface with tool bar and drag and drop allows the user to format the report in the style required. CHIQ DESIGN contains features for sorting and grouping the report and has more than 50 functions to help manipulate the data, producing totals and other calculations with the minimum of effort and know-how. A powerful include feature enables the user to create selection criteria that will define exactly what data is needed to run that particular report.
Once the report has been designed, it is then available to run over and over again. Each user that wants to design reports would need a CHIQ DESIGN licence. CHIQ DESIGN includes a CHIQ RUNTIME licence.
CHIQ RUNTIME
CHIQ RUNTIME runs the reports produced by CHIQ DESIGN. It can output to screen, to printer, to disk files or directly into Microsoft EXCEL™ to produce graphical displays. Using powerful features such as virtual file processing and read ahead, CHIQ RUNTIME can run the most sophisticated of reports. CHIQ RUNTIME has a PROMPT function that allows information that is needed to produce the report to be entered and passed to the reporting engine at the time the report is run, thus making it extremely flexible.
CHIQ RUNTIME can be used via a powerful Command Line Interface (CLI). This means that it can be run from within your application or from an ICON making it very easy to run reports.
CHIQ SERVER
For performance and other operational reasons it is often necessary to process the report on the server. CHIQ SERVER is available for this important task. CHIQ SERVER can be used in two ways, either from the client PC or from the server itself.
When running from the client, the user simply selects from a list which server is required for processing. CHIQ SERVER will automatically connect with the server and transfer the report details so that they can be processed on the server. The output can be produced either on the server or can be automatically transferred back to the client PC for display or printing locally.
CHIQ SERVER can also be used directly from the server itself. This can be from within the application running on a terminal, from the command line or from the CHIQ SERVER application itself.
CHIQ SERVER stores and controls all the information regarding the dictionaries and also controls all the CHIQ licencing capabilities for that particular deployment.