Setting up CCH Interactive Checklist
The first time that you launch CCH Interactive Checklist, you may need to create a database to hold the checklist data, or link to an existing database. This can either be created on a network server so that all users have access to the data, or you can create a local database if you have Microsoft SQL Server Express installed on your computer.
Note: if you are creating a new connection for software being run from the server, please do this while running the software from a workstation as the connection will then also be available to all other workstations. If you create it while running the software on the server itself, it will only be visible to the server and not from the workstations.
On launching the software, you will be presented with the Login dialog:
Click on the New connection button and the Define a new connection dialog will appear:
Complete the fields as follows:
Connection name
Enter here the name by which you wish to identify the database, for example, if you are creating a database on your computer you could call this “Local checklists”. As will be seen later, this name is shown in the list of available connections.
Server name
This identifies the SQL server that will hold the database.
If you have SQL Express installed and you wish to create the database on your local computer, you can identify this by typing (local) as the server name. If you have followed our instructions for setting up SQL Express and created an instance called CCHSQL, the entry here would be “(local)\CCHSQL”.
To use a network server, enter the name of the server followed by a backslash and the instance to be used.
The drop-down arrow to the right of the field allows you to select from a list of servers and instances on your network.
Use windows authentication
If you are going to create a new database, you will need to log in as a user with appropriate rights to the SQL Server.
Use SQL Server authentication
If you are linking to an existing database you only need normal user access rights. If you can gain access to the selected server using Windows authentication, tick this radio button. Alternatively, you can select the SQL authentication and provide the appropriate administrative login details, for example, you could use the “sa” user.
Select or enter a database name
Linking to an existing database
To link to an existing database, select the database from the drop-down list. You can then use the Test button to confirm that the database is accessible.
Creating a new Database
To create a new database, type the name of the database that you wish to create, e.g. Checklist.
The following example will create a database called Checklist in the local instance of SQL Express:
On clicking OK, if the database already exists, the system will close the dialog and return to the login dialog. If you are creating a new database it will display the following question:
If you are creating a new database, click on Yes and the connection and database will be created. If you made a mistake and do not wish to proceed, click on No.
On returning to the Login dialog, the available connection will be listed:
If you have created a connection to a new database, the contents of the database will be created when you login to the software.
You may create connections to any number of different checklist databases, and they will be shown in the connection list