QlikView 11 for Developers

Table of Contents

QlikView 11 for Developers

Credits

Foreword

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

About the Reviewers

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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

Disclaimer

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

List-boxes

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. 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

3. Data Sources

Using ODBC and OLE DB drivers

Installing the drivers

Accessing custom data sources

Third-party custom connectors

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

Where Clause wizard

The crosstable

The resulting script

QVD and QVX files

QVD files

QVX files

Loading an Inline table

Summary

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Security

Hidden script

Section access

Section access fields

Reduction fields

Initial data reduction

Omitting fields

Document-level security

Sheet-level security

Summary

Index

QlikView 11 for Developers

QlikView 11 for Developers

Copyright © 2012 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: November 2012

Production Reference: 1161112

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84968-606-8

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Cover Image by Barry Harmsen (<barry@qlikfix.com>)

Credits

Authors

Miguel García

Barry Harmsen

Reviewers

Ralf Becher

Steve Dark

Stephen Redmond

Acquisition Editors

Rashmi Phadnis

Joanne Fitzpatrick

Lead Technical Editor

Ankita Shashi

Technical Editor

Nitee Shetty

Copy Editors

Aditya Nair

Alfida Paiva

Project Coordinators

Sai Gamare

Anugya Khurana

Proofreaders

Joel Johnson

Bob Phillips

Indexers

Monica Ajmera Mehta

Rekha Nair

Tejal Soni

Graphics

Aditi Gajjar

Production Coordinator

Nilesh R. Mohite

Cover Work

Nilesh R. Mohite

Foreword

At QlikTech we often describe ourselves as an American company with a Swedish soul. We celebrate our roots in the delightful and urbane university town of Lund in southern Sweden; indeed, the development teams who built QlikView are still mostly based there. We power our business from our headquarters and major offices in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Mateo.

Nevertheless, we have more than a Swedish soul and a US business; in fact the QlikView community of customers, partners, and consultants is truly international. To understand that scope, you need only look at the authors of this excellent new book. Barry Harmsen is well known in the Netherlands as an independent Business Intelligence consultant. He is undoubtedly a star of the QlikTech community. Miguel García, from Mexico, has worked globally consulting on QlikView.

The sheer range of experience that Barry and Miguel bring to this book is one of its most valuable qualities. Their examples are carefully thought out, and very thorough; but they also take time to explain the business background to their thinking.

At QlikTech we often say that QlikView is not so much a tool for Business Intelligence as it is a platform for Business Discovery. This is not just a marketing term: we do not want only something different to say. In fact, every day we see customers making discoveries—finding new information and insights—with QlikView.

A traditional BI report simply tells you what you already know and is packaged and formatted to keep that knowledge up-to-date and share it easily. A typical dashboard enables you to track key indicators and, with some good design, also drill down to understand the details or trends underlying those indicators. But Business Discovery does this and more. Business Discovery enables users to formulate new questions and explore the answers and implications with very few restrictions.

From the very first chapter, Barry and Miguel show you exactly how this happens. Here, they introduce the associative model that makes QlikView so powerful, along with the clues in the user interface (look for the green, white, and grey) that make this model easy to use.

As they progress along a thoroughly practical path, the authors introduce you to the mechanics of collecting data from sources. They guide you through numerous techniques for transforming, modeling, and exploring this data. They provide practical advice on best practices for security, visualization, and more complex analyses.

In short, for new developers, this is an excellent guide to get them started. For more experienced users, the thoughtful examples and careful notes make this an excellent companion in your work.

Donald Farmer,

VP Product Management, QlikTech.

About the Authors

Miguel García is a Business Intelligence Consultant and QlikView Solutions Architect from Monterrey, Mexico. Having worked throughout many successful QlikView implementations, from inception through implementation, and performed across a wide variety of roles on each project, his experience and skills range from applications development and design, to pre-sales, technical architecture, system administration, as well as functional analysis and overall project execution.

He currently holds the QlikView Designer and QlikView Developer Certifications, backed by QlikTech, for versions 9, 10, and 11.

His passion for QlikView led him to create and host the iQlik's blog (http://iqlik.wordpress.com). You can follow his blog updates via Twitter on @iQlik.

He currently works for DataIQ, a QlikView consulting firm with presence in Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

I want to thank my family for their understanding and support throughout all the projects and endeavors I undertake.

Barry Harmsen is an independent Business Intelligence Consultant based in the Netherlands. Originally from a background of traditional Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Performance Management, in 2008 he made the shift to QlikView and a more user-centric form of Business Intelligence. Since then he has completed many successful QlikView implementations in many different industries, from Financial Services to Telecoms, and from Manufacturing to Healthcare. He writes a QlikView blog at QlikFix.com.

I would like to thank my daughter Lucie, my son Lex, and especially my wife Miranda for their support and patience during the writing of this book.

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.

We want to thank Donald Farmer for writing the foreword and for helping us acquire permission to use some of QlikTech's materials in this book. Thanks to John Trigg for supporting this project as well.

Ralf Becher, Steve Dark, and Stephen Redmond performed the technical review of this book. Their insightful comments and suggestions have added an extra dimension of quality to the book. For that we thank them.

We also want to thank everyone on Packt's editorial team; Rashmi Phadnis, Joanne Fitzpatrick, Sai Gamare, Anugya Khurana, Ankita Shashi, and Nitee Shetty. Their guidance kept us focused and on track.

About the Reviewers

Ralf Becher was born in 1968. He had his apprenticeship as an Information Technology Officer at the Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL) in 1992. He worked as an IT System Architect and as an IT Consultant in the areas of banking, insurance, logistics, automotive, and retail. He co-founded TIQ Solutions in 2004.

The Leipzig Company specializes in modern, quality-assured data management; since 2004 it has been helping its customers process, evaluate, and maintain the quality of company data. TIQ Solutions supports its customers from the initial problem analysis on, helping them introduce, implement, and improve complex solutions in the fields of data architecture, data integration, data migration, master data management, meta-data management, data warehousing, and business intelligence.

He is an internationally recognized QlikView expert with a strong position in the community. He has contributed QlikView add-on solutions for data integration, especially in the Java and Big Data realm.

Steve Dark was a SQL Server / MS ASP developer, building web based reporting solutions for ten years, until he was shown a demo of QlikView. Soon after this revelation, he left his previous employer to set up Quick Intelligence—a consultancy focusing entirely on QlikView and delivering Business Intelligence solutions. Preferring to stay at the coalface, he spends the majority of his time with clients, building QlikView applications, managing servers, and running projects.

He will never tire of showing QlikView to new users and seeing that jaw drop moment.

He is active on QlikCommunity and other social media sites, where he shares his enthusiasm for QlikView and assists other users. Through his blog he shares tutorials, examples, and insights about QlikView. Read it at http://www.quickintelligence.co.uk/.

I would like to thank Barry and Miguel for writing this book and the publishers for making it possible. I honestly believe it fills a vital gap in the QlikView universe.

Stephen Redmond is the CTO of CapricornVentis Limited (http://www.capventis.com), a QlikView elite partner. He is the author of several books, including the very popular DevLogix series for SalesLogix developers.

After many years working with CRM systems, reporting and analysis solutions, and data integration, in 2006 he started working with QlikView. Since then, CapricornVentis have become QlikView's top partner in the UK and Ireland territory and, with Stephen as the head of the team, have implemented QlikView in a wide variety of enterprise and large business customers across a wide range of sectors from public sector to financial services to large retailers.

He regularly contributes to online forums, including the Qlik Community. His QlikView blog is at http://qliktips.blogspot.com and you can follow him on Twitter—@stephencredmond—where he tweets about QlikView, BI, data visualization, and technology in general.

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Dedicated to our families.

Miguel 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 proven to be more flexible and, therefore, more adequate for the evolving environment in which they are used. QlikView is an example of this kind of disruptive technology, 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 for you to 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 in this book, some of the most important are:

The book is practical and hands-on. This book is filled with examples that will let you move from 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 DAR (Dashboard-Analysis-Reports) 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 14 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.