mpi Stylus Server
mpi Stylus Server is a backend analytical and reporting tool. Its main purpose is to serve as a content generator for web-applications and integrated reporting systems. If you are familiar with our mpi Stylus Pro Suite flagship product, just imagine Stylus stripped of its desktop-based user interface and extended with special features that allow it to execute asynchronous requests from outside applications. The power and simplicity of mpi Stylus Server lies in its template-based architecture. A template for a specific use is designed using the full capabilities of Stylus. This template then can be loaded into Stylus Server and controlled, extended or modified on the fly by requests passed from other applications. In other words, the bulk of the design is done once and stored as a template. The rest is supplied dynamically by the controlling application, which interacts and communicates with Stylus Server. The template, for example, may not include some specific information, such as, the manager(s) to be included in the analysis, the benchmark and peer group to use, the time-period to cover, etc. These extra pieces of information (and there may be just a few or there may be many) are provided by a "front-end" application, for example, by a user of a browser-based web application.
What can be generated and supplied by mpi Stylus Server?
- Charts and tables as images in a browser-compatible (or vector-based) format.
- Reports in PDF-format.
- Presentations in PowerPoint format.
- Text and numerical output produced as a result of calculations done in Stylus or extracted from databases, which can be used to feed web-pages or used by other applications.
Why do you need mpi Stylus Server?
- To provide style-analysis and performance-analysis results on your web site.
- To provide style-analysis and performance-analysis results on your intranet.
- To generate and distribute template-based reports in real-time.
- To empower hundreds (or thousands) of unsophisticated users to run quick analyses, using the templates designed by professionals.
- To integrate Stylus-generated images, tables, and text or numerical info with the output of your reporting system and automate production.
What mpi Stylus Server is not
Stylus Server is not a ready-to-use browser-based version of Stylus. It is a tool that allows you to build such a system. It is similar to backend database servers, such as, Microsoft SQL Server® or Oracle®, which are not ready-to-use business applications but are tools that can be used to build powerful applications. However we supply a sample web-application that can be used as is, although it is meant to demonstrate the capabilities of Stylus Server and to serve as a model for developers.
