New Functionalities in Qlikview 10

General features

Metadata
A number of features have been added to QlikView 10 with the purpose of providing possibilities to add metadata to the QlikView document. Adding metadata remains entirely optional for the developer.

Field tags
Fields can now be tagged with system defined and custom meta-tags. A number of system tags are automatically generated for the fields of a document when the script is executed. The user may amend these tags using simple script syntax. Tags may also be set interactively (script-generated tags and interactive tags should however always be separated) from the Tables page of the Document Properties dialog. The tags are currently shown in the Tables page of the Document Properties dialog and as hover tooltips in places such as the Table Viewer and various property dialog field lists. In future releases the tags, if defined, will be used for intelligent sorting of field lists and for field filtering in various dialog.


Field comments
This new functionality provides a way for making use of field comments (metadata) often found in ERP/DBMS data dictionaries (or manually defined in e.g. Excel spreadsheet) etc as help text to developers when designing QlikView layout. Comments are read from a file/database or set individually as part of script execution. Once in, the comments are shown in the Tables page of the Document Properties dialog and
as hover tool-tips in places like such as the Table Viewer and various property dialog field lists.

Table comments
In analogy to field comments it is also possible to read or set comments to source tables. Comments are shown in the Tables page of the Document Properties dialog and as hover tool-tips in the Table Viewer.

Expression comments
Chart expressions can be given an explanatory text comment. These are visible and editable in the Expressions page of the Chart Properties dialog.

Variable comments
Variables can be given an explanatory text comment. These are visible and editable in the Variables page of the Document Properties dialog and in the Variable Overview.

Improved Script Editor
The script editor has been redesigned. A number of new commands can be found in the menus, e.g. the ODBC administrator can now be opened from inside the script editor; also the 32 bit OCDB administrator can be opened from a 64 bit QlikView.

Separation of the database thread from QlikView
The basic idea is that QlikView at script run spawns a second process – QVConnect – that in turn connects to the data source. Data is subsequently streamed from QVConnect to QlikView. Not only does this lead to a more robust architecture, but it is also possible to use 32-bit ODBC from a 64-bit QlikView by using a “Connect32” statement in the script. Two different QVConnect files are installed in the QlikView folder: QVConnect32.exe and QVConnect64.exe. It is also possible to develop custom connect programs.

Parallel load
The interpretation and transformation of data is now done in multiple threads, which speeds up the load process tremendously. This does not imply any changes to the load script, i.e. the load script is still sequential: no parallel branches can be defined.

Presentation and Layout features

Getting Started Wizard
To help new users getting started working with their own data, a wizard has been introduced for creating new documents. The wizard guides the user through the process of loading an Excel file and creating a first chart. The wizard can be disabled. Also, it can be restored via User preferences.

Container objects
A new object type – the Container Object – has been developed. This object enables the user to define an object that sometimes shows e.g. a bar chart, sometimes a pivot table and sometimes some other object type. Small tabs or a drop-down allows the user to choose which object to show. The container object can thus be used instead of “fast type change” to toggle between object types, but has the additional advantage that the objects need not have the same set of dimensions, or even be of the same type.

List Box expressions
Whereas list boxes previously could display a frequency number it is now possible to add any number of arbitrary QlikView expressions for display next to the list box field values. The expressions are defined in the same manner as chart expressions and all of the display options available in table charts are also available here. For example you may show the expression results both as text, images, gauges and mini charts. This feature is available in QlikView Desktop, in the QlikView Plug-in client and in the Ajax client.

Mekko charts
This is a new chart type requested by several of our customers. In essence it is a bar chart where the value of one expression or dimension is used to determine the width of the bars. This feature will be available in all clients.

Linked objects
It is now possible for several sheet objects to share a common set of properties. When two or more objects are linked they share all properties with the exception of size, position and display state (minimized, normal, maximized). When you change the properties of one object the change is immediately reflected in the other linked objects. Linked objects may reside on the same sheet or on different sheets.

Associative search
A new optional search logic has been introduced: By clicking the small chevron in the search control, it is possible to enter the associative search logic. This means that it is possible to search in other fields and get the result set in the field to which the search control belongs. It is then also possible to simultaneously search in several fields.

Sheet object backgrounds
The wide array of possibilities to define backgrounds (transparency, images etc), which have long existed in bitmap charts and text objects, are now available also in other types of sheet objects. This feature is available in QlikView Desktop, in the QlikView Plug-in client and in the Ajax client.

New selection styles
A couple of cool new list box selection styles have been added. “LED” style retains classic selection behaviors while “LED checkboxes” combines the new LED look with the Windows Check boxes selection behavior. Both styles look extra good in combination with the new transparent or semi-transparent list box backgrounds (see above). The new styles are available in QlikView Desktop, in the QlikView Plug-in client and in the Ajax client.

Improved Current Selections Box
It is now possible to configure the current selections box with a selection drop-down for each
displayed field. This makes it possible to freely modify selections directly from the Current
Selections box. This feature is available in QlikView Desktop, in the QlikView Plug-in client
and in the Ajax client.

Menu caption icon
A new caption icon has been added. When clicking on the new “Menu” icon, the context menu of the sheet object is opened. This feature is available in QlikView Desktop, in the
QlikView Plug-in client and in the Ajax client. Default on mobile browsers (e.g. Mobile
Safari on iPhone/iPad).

Web view / Ajax mode in QlikView Desktop
Via a single click on a toolbar button it is now possible to switch between traditional rendering and Ajax rendering when running QlikView Desktop. This feature provides a convenient way for the developer to see exactly how the layout will look when used from an Ajax client. Naturally the Ajax property dialogs are available when running in web view, providing for some nice functionality that is not available to the developer in standard view. It should however be noted that some functionality, e.g. report editing, is not available in web view.

Ajax client improvements
Apart from the new layout features listed above, a number of Ajax specific features have been
added:

Ajax performance
Several measures have been taken to improve the performance of the Ajax client. Most notably the Ajax client’s communication with QlikView Server is now asynchronous, just like it is when using QlikView Desktop or the QlikView Plug-in client. This means that you do not have to wait for the entire layout to be updated after a selection, but can continue clicking e.g. in list boxes while heavy charts are still calculating. The result is a perception of considerable performance increase.

UI upgrades
A number of graphical upgrades have been added to the Ajax client, e.g. the sheet tab row.

Extension objects
Via a new simple API it is now possible to write plug-in extension sheet objects for integrated display in QlikView layouts (works in the Ajax client and web view only). The extensions build on a QlikView chart object and may be written in any modern web language, e.g. Flash, Silverlight, JavaScript etc.

Session disconnect button
A disconnect button has been added in the Ajax client. With this a user can actively disconnect from a session, thereby releasing server resources.

Session recovery
There is now a setting on QlikView Server enabling intelligent session recovery for Ajax and mobile clients. When this setting is used, the current selection state for each user will be saved when a session is ended and re-applied the next time the same user reconnects to the same document. This feature is currently “all or nothing”, meaning that it affects all users and all documents on a server.

Server Components

Management APIs
In order to enable new integration options for enterprise customers and OEM partners, new management APIs for QlikView Server and Publisher have been developed. The long-term ambition is to expose the full management capability. The APIs are exposed via a web service to the new unified management console.

User Management
A new high-level tab in the enterprise management console provides a unified view of all settings, listed by users across your entire QlikView deployment. From this view it is also possible to change the settings for e.g. user CALs, distributions and documents.

Document Administrator
A QlikView administrator can now delegate the responsibility for managing tasks to one or more selected users. The QlikView administrator can also set limitations to where the document administrator is allowed to distribute a document.

Section Access Management
The QlikView Enterprise Management Console now provides the functionality to create, manage and store tables that can be used to define authorization in Section Access in QlikView documents. This feature consists of three parts:

The creation, management and storing of the actual tables which are all handled by QEMC.

The created tables are accessed from the QlikView load script using a load statement that loads from an http address. A command in the script editor facilitates the creation of a script snippet containing this load statement.

This feature will require a Publisher license.

Improved document lists
The QlikView Server will only show documents to which the user has NTFS permissions. In
QlikView 10 the document lists will be filtered further: If a document has Section Access, the
server will now only show the document to users that also are listed in the Section Access.

Directory Service Provider for Configurable LDAP
A new Directory Service Provider has been added to make it possible to connect to any LDAP directory service. The user is given the possibility to configure the DSP so that it suits the particular LDAP Directory Service. It is important to know, though, that QlikView only provides
the functionality to extract user information from the Directory Service; any authorization needed against it has to be handled separately.

Directory Service Provider for ODBC
A new Directory Service Provider has been added to make it possible to connect to any database using ODBC instead.

Trigger that fires when multiple events are completed
In addition to the existing triggers which operate with OR logic when combined, we have added a new trigger with the possibility to combine the other triggers with AND logic.

Copy/Paste tasks and import task
In order to improve the usability when having an enterprise environment we have now implemented the possibility to copy and paste tasks and the possibility to import tasks from another Publisher installation.

QlikView Server CPU throttling
In order to control how much CPU the QlikView Server is using it is possible to set a CPU throttling threshold. If the CPU usage gets above this value the CPU priority is set to lower than normal and when the CPU usage goes back below this value the priority is set to higher than normal.

Granular collaboration permissions
On a document level it is possible to specify if no, all, or a list of selected users should be allowed to create collaboration objects.

Browsable mount check box
The browsable mount check box is now respected in Access Point.

For cases where the Access Point should list the documents, but the “Open in Server” in QlikView Desktop or QlikView Plug-in should not, another check box, “Respect browsable mounts”, has been added to the Access Point settings.

Notification E-mail
It is possible to send a notification e-mail after distribution. Please note that there is not yet any way of optimizing the sending: there will be one mail for each task that has the notification e-mail option set.

Audit logging
Selection of values, sheet activation, usage of bookmarks and reports, clearing of a specific object, clear all and downloads for a specific user can now be logged for the QlikView Server. In QlikView Publisher, all changes to tasks and some changes to the settings can be logged.

Minor changes

• File modification date is shown in Access Point

• Possibility to sort files in Access Point on file modification date

• “Mobile clients” is now treated as one of several possible clients, which gives the possibility to specify that a document should be e.g. visible only to mobile clients, or invisible to mobile clients.

• Possibility to make shared objects visible to anonymous users.

• Possibility to connect to the QlikView Distribution Service and to the Directory
Services Connector using a user name.

• PDF distribution to folder

• Possibility to use bookmarks as reduction rules

WebParts and WorkBench

Workbench
The QlikView workbench has been simplified and there is now only one ASP.NET control for all QlikView standard objects. Workbench supports QlikView Extension Objects in Beta 2 as an alternative to extended workbench controls.

APIs
Version 10 will provide two new documented APIs in addition to the Core COM API. The documentation of these APIs is still a work in progress and not yet available. Documentation updates including samples are scheduled for the Release Candidate version.

COM API
This API will continue to be documented within a QlikView Document.

QlikView Server Management API
The QlikView Server exposes a web service using WSDL. Documentation will be provided in html format.

QlikView JavaScript API
The new JavaScript API is a client-side API for use with the Workbench or the standard QlikView Ajax client. This API is also for use with the development of QlikView Extension objects. Documentation will be provided in html format.

Source: QlikView 2010 Build Beta Release Notes

Insights into an Xcelsius (XLF) File

Xcelsius is a powerful dashboarding tool, but sometimes We are facing the problems with Qaaws connections while moving the development to production environment.
I discover a very nice solution to this problem. I also found out about extra capabilities that are not available through the Xcelsius interface.

Getting straight to the point, there is an XLF file at the end of a standard archive file. All you need to do is rename it to .ZIP and extract it in any folder. You will find the following files inside:

Xldoc: This is the Excel Data model used in Xcelsius (you can open it using Excel)
Document.xml: This contains your Xcelsius definition (graphs, canvas, connections…)
Folder(long name): This contains the pictures embedded in your Xcelsius file
The most interesting file for the purposes of this article is the Document.xml. In this file you will find the entire definition of your Xcelsius model; which provides great capabilities and opportunities! Let me give you three examples:

Replace the server of your QAAWS connections: just search for your server name to find the entries of your QAAWS connections (with the credentials if they are hardcoded in the model) then replace them for the new server.
Change the color schema: To change the color schema, all you need to do is replace the old color with the new one in the XML file and you are done. If you have defined a customized color schema you will also find it in the file.
Change the logos/pictures: You just need to overwrite the logos that you get after unzipping the XLF.
You can play around as much as you want with these files. To get your new XLF file all you need to do is add the folder back to a zip file and rename it to XLF!

The Five “Unorthodox Principles for Dashboard Success”

These five “unorthodox principles for dashboard success” are

1.Definitions don’t always help
2.Visuals matter
3.Users always want more
4.Beware of end-users and large data sets
5.Knowing is nothing, doing is everything

And, they are explained in detail in a new Antivia eBook.

Together, the 5 principles provide a bit of a sideways look at the world of dashboards, and although they might seem a little tongue in cheek at times, each principle contains advice that I believe will genuinely help you to deliver dashboards more successfully and more valuably across your organization.

Courtesy by Xcelsius Gurus...

BI-Qlikview Compared to other BI tools

I came across the discussion about compare Qlikview features with other BI tools.

Brief View about the Qlikview:

>>Qlikview is a new kind of business intelligence software that changes your world. Its BI software that lets you stop guessing and start knowing how to make faster and smarter decisions

>>QlikView is an in memory BI tool with a limitation of the amount of data based on the RAM size; where as other tools are highly scalable.

>>The performance of QlikView is mind blowing, and works best for users looking for instant analysis.

>>QlikView has a unique drill feature which is called Associative Search

>>Best tool for doing What If Analysis.Users can actually start doing the analysis with limited trainings

>>The concept of QVDs (QlikView Data files) is amazing for replacing ETL tools.

>>QlikView is User & Insight Driven and not IT & Data Driven.Supports Heterogeneous Data Sources Enforce group, role-based and individual user policies from individual documents to granular row and value restrictions.

>>Offline Analysis – Once data is refreshed, users can do their analysis offline also.

>>Set Analysis – logics which takes months to implement in other tools takes minutes in QlikView

>>QlikView Scripting – gives you the power to transform your data the way you want and incorporate the Outside objects into Qliview.

>>It is very User friendly and Installation is in minutes of time,Other tools takes time to install.


>>If you are looking for pure adhoc reporting where users would be using the tool just to extract/fetch data in excel format BusinessObjects serves the purpose.

>>I know Business Objects is capable of doing a lot more, but most of the users use it just to extract/fetch data and feed it into their charts.

>>Complicated logics can be put on to the BusinessObjects Universe (Meta data Layer) making it easy for users just to select the objects and creating their own reports. These reports can be saved, scheduled or used in a dashboard.

>>If the users have licenses of Xcelsius, then they can leverage the Query as a web service to feed data to Xcelsius from the already existing BusinessObjects Universe.

>>Business Objects also has LiveOffice as a plugin which enables users to Import WebI report into excel without actually logging into Info View.

>>QlikView is a completely different tool. There is no comparison between QlikView and BusinessObjects.

>>In QlikView the dashboard would be pre built by the developers, users can change the filters to do their analysis.

>>They cant really add more data on the fly as QlikView scripting is not that easy when large volumes of data and complicated logic comes in.

How to display current Date and Time in Crystal Xcelsius

Xcelsius is a nice presentation tool to design and display dashboards. I was recently working on a the requirement of showing current time on the dashboard.At Finally I discover solution to this.

First I tried using Excel's NOW() function.The problem with now function is that it only displays the static time when you first open the dashboard. The time won't change after that even when you refresh dashboard connections.

There is a trick using History component to achieve this functionality.

>> Use now() function to populate current date and time in a cell (say A1) and format the cell to display time in HH:MM:SS format

>> In another cell (say E1) put the formula "=A1". Now E1 displays the current time as A1.
>> Drag history component (under other) on to the canvas

>> Put the formula "=E1+TIME(0,0,1)" in a cell say C1

>> Map data filed of history component to C1 and map Data Insertion field to E1 and select on interval 1 second option.

>> The E1 cell displays the current time. Map E1 cell to a text label component to display it on the dashboard.