QlikView for Developers

Table of Contents

QlikView for Developers

Credits

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Customer Feedback

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Meet QlikView

What is QlikView?

How does QlikView differ from traditional BI?

Associative user experience

Technology

Adoption path

Exploring data with QlikView

Getting QlikView

Navigating the document

Slicing and dicing your data

Listboxes

Selections in charts

Search

Bookmarking selections

Creating a new bookmark

Retrieving a bookmark

Undoing selections

Changing the view

Cyclic groups

Drill down groups

Containers

But wait, there's more!

The technology and components behind QlikView

The way the data flows

When QlikView use expands

Create content

Reload, publish, and distribute content

Consume content

Meet HighCloud Airlines

Summary

2. What's New in QlikView 12?

How is QlikView 12 different from QlikView 11?

Common QIX Engine

64-bit only

Online documentation

Security improvements

Mobile touch improvements

Improved clustering and scaling

Clustering improvements in QlikView 12.1

What is new in the Qlik product portfolio?

Qlik Sense Enterprise and the Qlik Analytics Platform

In what way are QlikView and Qlik Sense similar?

In what way do QlikView and Qlik Sense differ?

What does this mean for users?

What is the Qlik Analytics Platform?

Qlik NPrinting

Qlik Web Connectors

Qlik GeoAnalytics

Qlik DataMarket

How do the products in the Qlik product portfolio fit together?

What is new in QlikView 12 for Developers?

Summary

3. Seeing is Believing

What is a SiB?

Preparing the workspace

Setting up the folder structure

Creating the QlikView document

Creating the app

The requirements

Constructing the data model

What is a data model?

Loading the fact table

Playing with listboxes

Associating additional tables

Structuring the script

Creating the dashboard tab

Creating and positioning the filters and user controls

Optimizing the screen space

Number of flights over time

One chart and multiple analyses with cyclic expressions

Adding a time drill-down group

Top 10 routes

Summary

4. Data Sources

Using ODBC and OLE DB drivers

Installing the drivers

Accessing custom data sources

Accessing web resources via APIs

Qlik Web Connectors

Qlik REST Connector

Reading table files

Extracting data – two hands-on examples

Extracting data from MS Access

Configuring the driver

How to set up an ODBC connection

Creating the OLE DB connection string

Querying the database

The Create Select Statement wizard

Adding the airport tables

Reloading the script

The resulting data model

Loading a table file

Specifying the file attributes

The CSV attributes

A word on quoting

Previewing

The transformation step

Refining the input table

The Where clause wizard

The crosstable

The resulting script

QVD and QVX files

QVD files

QVX files

Loading an Inline table

Summary

5. Data Modeling

Dimensional data modeling

Back in the day

Relational databases and ER modeling

Dimensional modeling

The star schema

The snowflake schema

Creating the dimensional model

Dealing with multiple fact tables

Dimensional models in QlikView

The associative data model

Guidelines for table associations

How associations are created

Renaming fields

Renaming fields with the Qualify statement

Avoiding data model conflicts

Dealing with synthetic keys

Creating a composite key

Dealing with circular references

The Table Viewer window

Table information

Field information

Table preview

Table viewer menu

Summary

6. Styling Up

Design requirements

The Document Properties window

The Sheet Properties dialog

Setting the object properties

Caption colors and style

Changing the caption colors

The Color Area and Color dialog windows

Setting the caption font

Setting the content font

Setting the global font

Propagating the object appearance

Setting the default Sheet Object Style

Hiding captions

Working with listboxes

Adding listboxes

The List Box Properties dialog

The General tab

The Expressions tab

The Sort tab

The Presentation tab

The Number tab

The Font tab

The Layout tab

The Caption tab

The Multi Box

The Current Selections Box

Making selections from the Current Selections Box

Adding a Bookmark Object

Aligning and resizing sheet objects

Selecting objects

Moving objects

Resizing objects

Resizing a Multi Box

Aligning sheet objects

Do a little house keeping

Creating and applying a default color map

Defining chart colors

Setting the default color map

Summary

7. Building Dashboards

User types

Dashboard users

Analysts

Report users

Applying the DAR principle to Airline Operations

Document requirements

Creating the Analysis sheet

Adding a new chart

Bar Chart

Additional bar chart properties

Style

Presentation

Expressions and the Edit Expression window

Expressions

The Edit Expression window

Fields

Functions

Variables

Images

The Expression Overview window

Line Chart

Additional line chart properties

Expressions

Style

Presentation

Combo Chart

Container

Scatter Chart

Button

Statistics box

Creating the new Dashboard sheet

Linked Objects

Gauges

Cloning the object for re-use

Adding Air Time %

More Gauge styles

Adding a Text object

Using a Text Object to display an image

Adding actions to a Text object

Adding a Pie chart

Dimension Limits

Adding the dimension value to the data point values

Creating the Reports sheet

Variables

The Expression Overview window in action

Copying sheets

KPIs per airline, origin, and destination country

Cyclic and Drill-down groups

Straight table

Not all expressions are numbers

Pivot tables

Auto minimize

The Report Editor window

Other charts

Radar Chart

Mekko Chart

Grid Chart

Funnel Chart

Block Chart

Trellis Chart

Summary

8. Scripting

The Script Editor

Menu and toolbar

Script pane

Tool pane

Script statements

Building the aircraft dimension table

Loading the aircraft information

Adding the aircraft groups

Loading the second aircraft table

Making it all right

Manipulating tables

The JOIN statement

The KEEP statement

The CONCATENATE statement

The NOCONCATENATE statement

Using MAPPING tables

Adding comments

Storing tables

Renaming tables and fields

Deleting tables and fields

Setting variables

Controlling script flow

Conditional functions

Dealing with different data types

Strings

String operators

String functions

Numbers and numeric functions

Date and time functions

Debugging script

Syntax check

Saving logs to disk

The script debugger

Using breakpoints

Limited load

Tracing script

Standardizing and organizing script

Using tabs

Comments

Adding an information tab

Script layout

Naming conventions

Table naming conventions

Field naming conventions

Re-using scripts

Subroutines

Including script files

Managing file locations and connection strings

Summary

9. Data Modeling Best Practices

Data consistency

Dealing with dimensions without facts

An alternative approach

A solo exercise

Dealing with facts without dimensions

Reducing storage requirements

Using number-based key fields

Removing unused fields

Splitting high-cardinality fields

Design challenges of data modeling

The Airline Employment statistics table

Concatenating fact tables

Structural asymmetry

Natural and forced concatenation

Natural concatenation

Forced concatenation

Concatenating the Employment Statistics table

Working with link tables

A link table example

Creating a link table in the Airline Operations document

Finding a balance

The master calendar

A final note on data modeling

Summary

10. Basic Data Transformation

Changing the source table structure

Cleansing a dirty table

File contents

Working with the Transformation Step wizard

Throwing out the garbage

Unwrapping table contents

Filling missing cells

The final result

Other transformation tricks

Loading a Crosstable

A Crosstable example

Working with the Crosstable Wizard

A solo exercise

Expanding a hierarchy

A hierarchy example

Working with the Hierarchy Wizard

The tree-view list-box

Generic load

Loading a generic table into QlikView

Summary

11. Advanced Expressions

Using variables

Creating a variable

Using variables in charts

Interactively changing a variable's value

Using the Input Box object

Using the Slider object

Using variables based on expressions

Using variables to store expressions

Variable naming convention

The Dollar Sign Expansion syntax

Dollar Sign Expansion with parameters

Double Dollar Sign Expansion

Using the TOTAL qualifier

The Aggr function

Using Aggr for nested aggregation

A word on calculated dimensions

Aggregations over the Aggr output

A word on using the Distinct qualifier

Getting the Average Load Factor per Route per Airline

Conditional functions

The If function

The syntax

A use case

Heat charts

A solo exercise

Building a heat chart with the Colormix wizard

Numeric versus text comparisons

The Class function

A solo exercise using the Class function

The Pick function

Using Pick with Dimensionality

A tip on copying expressions

Summary

12. Set Analysis and Point In Time Reporting

The magic of Set Analysis

What is it for?

Syntax and examples

Using variables in set expressions

Dynamic record sets

More assignment operators

Set operators

Using element functions

Point In Time Reporting

The challenge

Defining the set modifiers

Obtaining the base period record set

Obtaining the compare-to period record set

Constructing the expressions

Enabling additional period comparisons

More Point In Time Reporting examples

Storing set expressions into variables

Set expressions with parameters

Portable set expressions

Set variables and the Master Calendar

Comparative analysis with alternate states

A comparative analysis example

Alternate states step-by-step

State-based expressions

Combining alternate states and the default state

Applying alternate states to layout objects

Document navigation with alternate states

Clearing selections in an alternate state

Always validate

Summary

13. Advanced Data Transformation

Data architecture

Two-stage architecture

Three-stage architecture

Setting up our environment

Loading data already stored in QlikView

Cloning a QlikView data model

Loading from RAM

Resident load

Aggregating data

Aggregating the Flight Data table

The Transformation output

Aggregation functions

Sorting tables

Ordering the Order-By fields

The Peek function

Merging forces

A refresher

The objective

Getting it done

Loading the table

Sorting the table

Peeking previous records

A solo exercise

Dealing with slowly changing dimensions

The Carrier Decode table

IntervalMatch magic

Expanding the intervals

Some considerations

Applying IntervalMatch to the Carrier Decode table

Ordering, peeking, and matching all at once

The use case

Incremental loads

Summary

14. More on Visual Design and User Experience

Creating a consistent QlikView UI

Screen resolution

Background image

Themes

Applying themes

Creating themes

Adding document properties

Adding sheet properties

Adding sheet object properties

A solo exercise

Additional interactivity

Triggers

Document triggers

Sheet triggers

Actions

Advanced search expressions

A solo exercise

Dynamic bookmarks

Alerts

Conditionally showing and calculating objects

Summary

15. Security

Hidden script

Section access

Section access fields

Reduction fields

Initial data reduction

Omitting fields

Document-level security

Sheet-level security

Summary

Index

QlikView for Developers

QlikView for Developers

Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: June 2017

Production reference: 1280617

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78646-984-7

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Authors

Miguel Ángel García

Barry Harmsen

Reviewer

Steve Dark

Commissioning Editor

Veena Pagare

Acquisition Editor

Meeta Rajani

Content Development Editor

Aishwarya Pandere

Technical Editor

Dinesh Pawar

Copy Editor

Safis Editing

Project Coordinator

Nidhi Joshi

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Pratik Shirodkar

Graphics

Tania Dutta

Production Coordinator

Deeplika Naik

Cover Work

Deepika Naik

About the Authors

Miguel Ángel García is a business intelligence consultant and Qlik Solutions Architect from Monterrey, Mexico. Having worked throughout many successful Qlik implementations, from inception to implementation, and performed a wide variety of roles on each project, his experience and skills range from pre-sales to applications development and design, technical architecture, system administration, as well as functional analysis and overall project execution. He currently holds the QlikView Designer, QlikView Developer, and QlikView System Administrator certifications.

His early-found passion for QlikView led him to create and host the iQlik blog, which you can find at https://aftersync.com/blog and has been proved to help many developers, both newcomers and experienced, in their everyday development challenges. You can follow his blog updates via Twitter on @GarciaMMiguel and @iQlik.

He also delivers advanced online Qlik training at https://q-on.bi and https://masterclass.bi, so be sure to check out the courses there to continue learning QlikView and Qlik Sense development.

I also want to thank my family for their understanding and support throughout all the projects and endeavors I undertake. This book is dedicated to them.

Barry Harmsen is a business intelligence consultant based in the Netherlands. Here, he runs Bitmetric (http://www.bitmetric.nl), a boutique consulting firm specialized in the Qlik product suite. Originally from a background of traditional business intelligence, data warehousing, and performance management, in 2008 Barry made the shift to Qlik and a more user-centric form of business intelligence. Since then, he and his team have helped many clients get the most out of their investments in the Qlik platform.

Barry is one of the four Qlik experts teaching at the Masters Summit for Qlik (http://www.masterssummit.com), advanced training for experienced Qlik professionals. He also runs the Amsterdam chapter of the Qlik Dev Group (http://qlikdevgroup.com/), an open and informal gathering where Qlik professionals can share knowledge and experiences.

For his contributions to the Qlik ecosystem, Barry has been accredited by Qlik as a Qlik Luminary since 2014.

Barry and his colleagues regularly post Qlik tips, tricks, and tutorials at the QlikFix blog (http://www.qlikfix.com). He can also be found on Twitter as @meneerharmsen.

I want to thank my daughter Lucie, my sons Lex and Bob, and especially my wife Miranda for the support and patience during the writing and updating of this book.

I also want to thank the team at Bitmetric: Wesley Smit, Rik Cramer, Johan van den Bosch, and Vincent Hayward.

Acknowledgements

Writing a book is not a solo or duo exercise. This result could not have been achieved without the contributions of a great team.

Steve Dark performed the technical review of this book. His insightful comments and suggestions have added an extra dimension of quality to the book. For that we thank him. We also wish to thank Ralf Becher and Stephen Redmond, who did the technical review on the previous edition of this book.

We also want to thank Packt's team: Aishwarya Pandere, content development editor, and Dinesh Pawar, technical editor. Their guidance kept us focused and on track.

About the Reviewer

Steve Dark heads up Quick Intelligence, a business intelligence consultancy with 100 percent focus on the Qlik platform. With clients in sectors as diverse as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and finance, we cover and support the entire Qlik project lifecycle and ecosystem for our customers. Through the numerous successful implementations and challenges met for these clients, Steve has in depth expertise and a wealth of experience in QlikView and more recently Qlik Sense.

It is this experience that Steve shares through his blog at http://www.quickintelligence.co.uk/qlikview-blog/ and via other channels, such as Qlik Community. This sharing of knowledge and enthusiasm for the Qlik platform has been recognized by Qlik, as they made Steve a Luminary and a Community MVP.

Steve has also been on the technical review team for QlikView 11 For Developers, QlikView 11 For Developers Cookbook, QlikView Scripting, and QlikView Server and Publisher. All of these titles are published by Packt Publishing.

I would like to thank all those colleagues and clients who have allowed me to keep doing the work that I enjoy for so long.

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Customer Feedback

Thanks for purchasing this Packt book. At Packt, quality is at the heart of our editorial process. To help us improve, please leave us an honest review on this book's Amazon page at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1786469847.

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Dedicated to our families.

Miguel Ángel García

Barry Harmsen

Preface

The need for business intelligence (BI) solutions and data analysis has always existed, and so have different approaches to fulfill this need. Traditional BI software has heavily relied on techniques that have been around and persisted through the decades, but newer technologies have emerged in recent times that have been proven to be more flexible and, therefore, more adequate for the evolving environment in which they are used. QlikView is an example of these disruptive technologies, a kind of software that changes the rules of the game.

QlikView is different; that's a fact. It's different in an advantageous way. If you have worked with traditional BI software before, it might be necessary to let go of some of the preconceptions you may have regarding how BI solutions are built. If, on the other hand, you are a newcomer to the BI landscape, we will help you get the basics in order so that you get up-to-speed. In any case, rest assured that you are on the right track by having picked QlikView as your tool and this book as your guide.

The good news is, the material between these covers has been written in such a way that newcomers, BI professionals experienced in other tools, and even seasoned QlikView practitioners will find useful. This book will provide you with the knowledge required to understand how QlikView works, and the skills needed to build QlikView documents from start to finish—from loading data to building charts. Even if you have worked with QlikView before, you will find that the exercises presented in each chapter, and the recommended practices we discuss, will help you extend your knowledge and become more proficient with QlikView.

Among other features you will find on this book, some of the most important are as follows:

The book is practical and hands-on. It is filled with examples that will let you take the theory into practice right away. We support this hands-on experience by providing a full dataset used across the entire book, and around which we build a fully-functional QlikView document that contains a dashboard, various analyses (both basic and complex to build), and reports using the Dashboard-Analysis-Reports (DAR) approach.

In every chapter, a piece of a final QlikView document is built, which allows you to follow its evolution from start to finish. It also enables us to cover different development challenges that you may encounter in a real-world QlikView project.

We made sure to cover both backend and frontend development, so you will find that all 15 chapters cover different topics, from scripting and data extraction to data modeling, design, charts and expressions, as well as security, and everything in between. We also talk about various best practices related to each of these topics.