Hey everyone,
I’ve been working on an unofficial, personal side project to make writing, testing, and managing BigFix relevance a bit smoother. I'm calling it Client Relevance Studio (currently available for Windows only).
Please note that this is currently just a prototype and is in continuous development, but I’ve reached a point where I thought it would be fun to share it with the forum! It is essentially a standalone, graphical IDE that acts as a modern wrapper around the standard BigFix qna.exe evaluation engine. I am actively working on and planning to add more and more built-in relevance queries over time to build a truly robust, comprehensive, and useful studio.
I’ve attached the .zip below for anyone who wants to take it for a spin.
Features & Functionalities
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Modern Editor: Uses CodeMirror for a clean, syntax-aware editing experience, including line numbers, active line highlighting, and bracket matching.
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Built-In Relevance Library: Comes pre-loaded with a categorized library of standard BigFix queries (OS, Hardware, Registry, Network, Services, etc.). I plan to heavily expand this library in future updates!
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Custom Bookmarks: Save your own frequently used custom relevance snippets directly in the tool for quick access later.
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Persistent Query History: Automatically tracks your last 100 evaluated queries (retained for up to 10 days). If you accidentally close the app, your work isn't lost.
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Batch Evaluation: Write and evaluate multiple lines/expressions at once. (Shortcut:
Ctrl+Enterto evaluate). -
Search & Filter: Instantly search through the relevance library, your bookmarks, your history, and actively filter your evaluation results.
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Rich Export Options: Export your evaluation results to multiple formats with a single click, including CSV, JSON, HTML, PDF, XML, and TXT.
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Local Execution: No cloud dependency. It passes queries securely to your local
qna.exeprocess.
Download & Running Steps (Windows Only)
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Download the attached .zip file from the Git repository URL below and extract its contents to a local folder on your machine.
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If the BigFix Client (BESClient) is already installed on your system: You are ready to go! The studio will automatically locate and use your existing
qna.exe. -
If the BigFix Client is NOT installed: You will need the standalone QnA utility. Download it from the BigFix Download Center and place the
qna.exefile directly into the same folder asAdvanced_QNA.exe. -
Right-click
Advanced_QNA.exeand select "Run as administrator". *(Note: Running as admin is recommended so the underlyingqna.exeengine can accurately fetch deep OS metrics like Registry keys and Security states).
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS (Please Read Before Downloading)
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Unofficial Prototype: This is a strictly independent, personal project still undergoing active improvements. It is not an official HCL product and comes with no official support.
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Not Signed/Published: The attached executable is compiled for testing and is not digitally signed. Your web browser or local antivirus (like Windows Defender) will likely flag it as an unrecognized app.
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DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION: Please do not run this on a Production server, a relay, or any critical business endpoint. It is designed for use in a lab, sandbox, or dedicated testing environment only.
Since this is an ongoing project, I’d love to hear your feedback to help shape future updates. Let me know what you guys think! If you encounter any weird edge cases, bugs, or have specific suggestions for default queries to add to the growing library, please drop a comment below.