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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
QlikView Unlocked will provide you with new insights to get the very best from QlikView. This book will help you to develop skills to work with data efficiently. We will cover all the secrets of unleashing the full power of QlikView, which will enable you to make better use of the tool and create better results for future projects.
In the course of this book, we will walk you through techniques and best practices that will enable you to be more productive. You will gain quick insights into the tool with the help of short steps called ”keys,” which will help you discover new features of QlikView. Moving on you will learn new techniques for data visualization, scripting, data modeling, and more. This book will then cover best practices to help you establish an efficient system with improved performance. We will also teach you some tricks that will help you speed up development processes, monitor data with dashboards, and so on.
By the end of this book, you will have gained beneficial tips, tricks, and techniques to enhance the overall experience of working with QlikView.
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Seitenzahl: 199
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Table of Contents
QlikView Unlocked
QlikView Unlocked
Copyright © 2015 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 2015
Production reference: 1051115
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78528-512-7
www.packtpub.com
Credits
Authors
Roger Stone
Andrew Dove
Reviewers
Christopher Murrell
Xavier Segado Recio
David Stone
Acquisition Editor
Subho Gupta
Content Development Editor
Dharmesh Parmar
Technical Editor
Siddhesh Ghadi
Copy Editor
Shruti Iyer
Project Coordinator
Paushali Desai
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Indexer
Mariammal Chettiyar
Graphics
Disha Haria
Production Coordinator
Conidon Miranda
Cover Work
Conidon Miranda
About the Authors
Roger Stone is a freelance QlikView consultant based in Oxfordshire, UK. He entered the computer industry in 1977 and has worked with a huge variety of programming languages and tools all over the world. Finally discovering QlikView in late 2009, he has worked on numerous successful QlikView implementations in a wide range of industries, from insurance to healthcare.
In 2010, Roger founded One QV Ltd with coauthor Andrew Dove, and together they developed 1HR, a QlikView-based human resources application aimed at the National Health Service in the UK. 1HR has since been deployed to more than 25 NHS Trusts.
He currently holds QlikView Designer, Developer, and Systems Administrator Certifications for QlikView 11. Roger enjoys travel, Belgian beer, and military history, all of which are combined in his frequent trips to Belgium.
Andrew Dove is a freelance QlikView consultant based in Darlington, UK. He has more than 35 years of experience in various IT development roles and developed a highly successful payroll system in the 1980s and 90s.
Andrew began his QlikView journey in 2010 and joined coauthor Roger Stone to found One QV Ltd. He has since worked on several large QlikView projects in healthcare, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and financial services.
Andrew holds QlikView Designer, Developer, and Systems Administrator Certifications for QlikView 11. He enjoys travel, French wine, and cheese, all of which feature in his frequent trips to France.
About the Reviewers
Christopher Murrell is a QlikView consultant who started working with business intelligence tools during a year in industry placement while at university. He has worked in a variety of roles, including network administration, web development, C# programming, and data analytics, before starting with QlikView in 2010. Since then, Christopher has worked in a wide range of industries, including insurance and medical research with the National Health Service in the UK, and Australian Health Service in Melbourne, Australia.
Xavier Segado Recio is a hybrid senior data/process/business analyst and applications trainer with over 30 years of experience in the IT industry. His experience spans numerous applications, products, tools, and industries, including retail, accounting, IT methodologies, distribution, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and treasury services.
Xavier currently works as a BI specialist with a leading UK property group, where he uses QlikView as a tool to change the way information is managed and used.
David Stone first started using QlikView in 2010, testing dashboards built by One QV Ltd. He worked on several small projects for the company while still at university, honing his design and development skills, and he eventually joined a UK-based Qlik partner after graduating in 2013. After 18 months there and having covered all aspects of QlikView development in a leading investment bank, he moved to his current role. He is now busy architecting and developing new QlikView solutions for one of Europe's largest online casino and sports betting companies. David lives in London and enjoys traveling and sampling new beers.
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Preface
Welcome to QlikView Unlocked. We hope that you find this book a useful guide when planning, executing, or maintaining a QlikView deployment. This book isn't intended to be a "mastering" guide, nor is it intended to teach you the basics of QlikView. We're assuming that you have been using QlikView for a while and are looking to expand your knowledge. We will highlight some important or interesting things for you to consider along with some guidance on best practices. You don't have to read the book from cover to cover; just dip into the chapters when you're interested in a particular topic. Things get more technical further into the book. Chapter 5, The Right Data Model Pays Dividends and beyond will be of most interest to developers, but we think there's something for everyone in every chapter.
The QlikView Unlocked project
In order to put some of the explanations into context, we based the book loosely around a project, but this is only for the sake of consistency in the examples. We will not give you a step-by-step guide to learning QlikView, which is what you might find in some teach yourself books, instead we will focus on insights that will give you an edge and show you things that you probably didn't realize could be done with QlikView. For this, we created a project at Borchester Models, a fictitious chain of model shops. Their business is the sale of unusual, short-run plastic aircraft kits. The chain has three shops in different towns in Borsetshire, the Borchester shop being the head office.
They have a website that sells a few models online, but most sales are through their point of sale system that runs in all three shops. We'll use some of the situations that might be encountered in this simple QlikView implementation for the examples in this book.
QlikView is huge
If you're reading this book, chances are that you belong to the growing army of QlikView professionals. So, when we say QlikView is huge, not only do we mean that it's big news, but also that it's a big product. On the surface, QlikView is just another programming tool. In reality, it's a complete, powerful, and very sophisticated environment. It sometimes seems that there's just no end to the things you can do with QlikView. While the focus is very much on being a powerful business intelligence tool, we have seen QlikView documents that draw a rotating Christmas tree complete with lights, a media player, and an analog clock (QlokView—brilliant!). We hope you enjoy using QlikView as much as we do and maintain the momentum by following up on some of the ideas in this book. Stay keen and keep your users or customers engaged by offering them new and interesting insights that you will find in all the following sources.
Qlik Community
QlikView people are, on the whole, a very helpful lot. Sometimes, we all come across a problem that we don't know how to solve or are maybe just curious as to how some piece of functionality works. We all know that no manual covers every situation, but fortunately, there are people out there who have seen most. You will find that many of them hang out on Qlik Community (https://community.qlik.com/welcome), and they know a heck of a lot about QlikView. Always try searching for an answer first, but when you're stuck, ask a question. Chances are someone will have the answer. Don't forget to mark the response as "Helpful" or "Answered"—and say thanks too. These people do it because, well, they're helpful and love messing around with QlikView.
If you haven't joined any of the LinkedIn QlikView groups, we encourage you to do so. Qlik Community is the best place for technical questions and answers, but LinkedIn has more general discussions about Qlik products and a number of groups dedicated to jobs. If you're looking for your next QlikView job or contract, QlikView Gigs is a good place to start. Members include recruiters and hiring managers as well as QlikView professionals.
QlikView blogs
Many of the experts on Qlik Community also have their own blogs, and these can be a great place to pick up new tips and tricks.
If you want to see a lot of blogs, try www.askqv.com/blogs/; at the time of writing this, it lists 37 QlikView blogs of varying quality and frequency of postings.
Books about QlikView
The last couple of years have seen a number of books about QlikView appear on bookshelves, many of these published by Packt Publishing. They're all very useful to anyone serious about getting the best out of QlikView.
Service releases
Some of the things to keep an eye out for are the regular service releases (SRs) of QlikView. Each SR has a number of bug fixes and often some minor improvements to functionality. At the time we started writing this book (March 2015), QlikView was at version 11.2 SR10. As we draw to the end of writing (July 2015), version 11.2 SR12 is out. Qlik are set to release QlikView 12 later in 2015, and this will be the first major release in about four years. We encourage you to look out for it as there will be some exciting new features.
Qlik events
Every year, usually around October, Qlik has a world tour, showcasing new features and customer applications. If you only get out of the office once a year, try to get along to one of these events. You'll see some great innovations and hear lots of interesting QlikView stories.
From time to time, Qlik runs smaller local events, often in conjunction with a partner. These normally focus on a specific business area and are usually by invitation only. It's worth going along if the topic is relevant to your business.
If you're working for a Qlik Partner, there's another must see event, and this is Qonnections. Up to 2015, this partner-only event was held each April usually in the USA. Along with presentations about product direction and new features in QlikView and Qlik Sense, there are numerous workshops on a wide range of topics, from sales and marketing to very technical sessions. If you get the chance to go along sometime, take it. In 2016, we understand that it will be open to partners, customers, and prospects, so it will be a massive event. They have beer too, and there's a lively social side; so, come prepared for several days of intense QlikView, lots of partying, and little sleep.
Local groups
If you really can't get enough of QlikView, we know of a few local groups that you can go along to. Here, you can swap stories with other Qlikkies, and there will usually be a presentation or two on specific QlikView or Qlik Sense topics. Try searching LinkedIn groups to see if there's a physical meeting in your area. If you're in or around London, UK, you might like to attend one of the meetings organized by Qlik Dev Group (www.qlikdevgroup.com).
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Behind Every Successful Project Is a Plan, covers the basics of a QlikView environment, how to organize a QlikView project, and how to ensure that the development has clear deliverables.
Chapter 2, Building the Correct Environment, sets standards for the project or site as a whole, understanding that getting the environment right is a vital foundation for everything else.
Chapter 3, Are you Sitting Comfortably? Be More Productive, discusses some useful settings for the desktop workbench that save lots of time and open up features, making development more productive.
Chapter 4, It's All About Understanding the Data, looks at data and how it relates to the task at hand as well as at prototyping, how to correctly structure the data environment for performance and ease of use, and how to tackle common data problems.
Chapter 5, The Right Data Model Pays Dividends, identifies and fixes issues in the data model that could cause poor performance or difficulties in presenting data to the user.
Chapter 6, Make It Easy on Yourself–Some QlikView Tips and Tricks, provides you with some great time-saving tips.
Chapter 7, Improving Chart Performance and Usability, helps you unlock the power of charting by understanding little-known features and nonstandard ways of presenting data.
Chapter 8, To Deployment and Beyond, talks about how to implement security, deploy and protect the source code, and how to investigate and solve problems on QlikView Server.
Appendix, Hidden Image List, provides over 450 built-in images that can be used in any QlikView document.
What you need for this book
For the examples in this book, you need to have QlikView Personal Edition, version 11.2 with a recent Service Release (preferably SR9 or later).
Who this book is for
QlikView Unlocked is intended for anyone with at least some experience in designing, developing, or supporting QlikView applications. This book is carefully constructed so that the subjects discussed become more advanced in later chapters. Whether new to QlikView or a seasoned developer, there is something for everyone in this book.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "This can be stored in the 9. Documentation subfolder."
A block of code is set as follows:
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply e-mail <[email protected]>, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.
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Downloading the color images of this book
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/5127EN_ColorImages.pdf.
Errata
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To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.
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We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.
Questions
If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at <[email protected]>, and we will do our best to address the problem.
Chapter 1. Behind Every Successful Project Is a Plan
In this chapter, we will cover the following key topics:
Why infrastructure is important
As QlikView deployments get bigger, the need to have suitable infrastructure becomes increasingly important.
Background
When embarking
