There is no substitute for experience.
QlikView is a great technology for delivering information and, unusually for a "BI" product, is quite easy to get up and running with simple data sets – they even have a wizard that can get you up and running off an Excel file without having to do any scripting. If you need to bring in more complex data sets, you need to get into the script. Even then, there are some wizards available that will write most of the script for you.
To start your learning process, there are free resources available from http://www.qlikview.com/training. There is a very active community forum on http://community.qlikview.com, where you can ask questions and get answers. There is a really excellent book that teaches you how to develop in QlikView, QlikView 11 for Developers by Barry Harmsen and Mike García (http://www.packtpub.com/qlikview-11-developers/book). Then, if you still need it after all that, you can attend official QlikView classroom training. But, there is no substitute for experience.
At CapricornVentis, we don't just train and leave. We schedule time with the trainees to sit with them, one-on-one, and work on their data, to give them the benefit of our experience, to answer all of those, "How do I do that" questions. We do this because we understand that training isn't enough. It is a great start, but there is no substitute for experience.
And this, I hope, is what this book is—the benefit of my experience.
I have been working with QlikView since 2006. As well as working at the coalface, delivering great solutions, I have also been delivering QlikView training for most of that time. I was one of the first two people in the world (neither of us is sure who was first!) to be certified when QlikView brought out their first developer certification on Version 8. I was one of the earliest certified on designer for Version 8. I have since been recertified on every version up to the latest certifications on Version 11. I have been writing about QlikView on my blog, http://qliktips.blogspot.com, since 2009. I have quite a lot of experience with QlikView. And there is no substitute for experience.
Chapter 1, Charts, will look at advanced charting topics such as creating custom pop ups, box charts, bullet charts, and the Redmond chart. We also look at some tips and tricks to create great visualizations.
Chapter 2, Layout, will look at how to modify some of the default layout options and colors, as well as discussing better ways to layout objects.
Chapter 3, Set Analysis, shows some advanced examples of using set analysis in different scenarios.
Chapter 4, Advanced Aggregations, looks at parameters such as TOTAL and functions such as AGGR and the Range functions that allow us to perform vertical calculations.
Chapter 5, Advanced Coding, uses VBScript coding to extract data from QlikView, generate reports, create QlikView objects, and enhance QlikView functionality.
Chapter 6, Data Modeling, covers the area of key tables and link tables, an area that can be confused with new QlikView developers.
Chapter 7, Extensions, introduces the ability to create new visualizations with web technologies and integrate them into QlikView documents.
Chapter 8, Useful Functions, gives you examples of using some of QlikView's very useful functions in different scenarios.
Chapter 9, Script, takes your QlikView scripting a step beyond training. Includes discussion on creating flags, exists and keep, default formats, partial loads, peek and previous, and interval match.
Chapter 10, Improving Performance, shows how to improve the performance of a QlikView data model. Discusses strategies such as reducing data sizes and optimizing expressions. Also, when and when not to denormalize for performance.
Chapter 11, Security, goes through some of the most common issues around section access security in QlikView.
You need a copy of QlikView Desktop, which you can download for free from http://www.qlikview.com/download. After that, you shouldn't need anything else.
To demonstrate the different techniques and functions, I will usually get you to load a table of data. We do this using the INLINE function. For example:
Load * Inline [ Field1, Field2 Value1, Value2 Value3, Value4 ];
This will load a table with two fields (Field1 and Field2) and two rows of data.
Most of the time, this type of table is enough for what we need to do. In the few examples, where I need you to use more data than that, we will use publicly available data sources.
This book is for anyone who has loaded data in QlikView, created a few charts, and then asked the question, "How do I?" If you have either attended QlikView Developer training or have taught yourself QlikView from books or online sources, this book is meant for you. You might be working for a QlikView customer, partner, or even QlikView themselves (or want to) and want to improve your QlikView skills.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "We do this using the INLINE function."
A block of code is set as follows:
Sales: Load * INLINE [ Country, Sales USA, 1000 UK, 940 Japan, 543 ];
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
Sales:
Load * INLINE [
Country, Sales
USA, 1000
UK, 940
Japan, 543
];Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
C:\Program Files\QlikView\qv.exe
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click on the Extension Objects menu."
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