Welcome! The purpose of this book is to help you learn about Qlik Sense®, Qlik's self-service visualization platform. Our aim is to help you get more from your data by applying Qlik Sense and its unique capabilities to your analytic needs. At the beginning of the book, we'll cover why Qlik chose to develop Qlik Sense, what data discovery is and can do, and the strategy and vision behind the product. In the subsequent chapters, we'll address practical considerations, including the Qlik Sense application's life cycle, how to meet the needs of different types of users, how to develop and administer engaging Qlik Sense applications, data modeling and getting the most out of the QIX engine. The book concludes by outlining a series of example applications built using Qlik Sense, to address analysis needs in sales management, HR, T&E management, and demographics.
Chapter 1, Qlik Sense® and Data Discovery, covers why Qlik chose to develop Qlik Sense, what data discovery is and can do, and the strategy and vision behind the product. This will include:
Qlik's history in business intelligence and the evolution of data discovery
The Qlik philosophy and approach to data discovery
The difference between traditional BI and data discovery
Chapter 2, Overview of a Qlik Sense® Application's Life Cycle, covers the Qlik Sense application's life cycle overview as a backdrop to highlighting key features and benefits of Qlik Sense in meeting these requirements. There are thousands of features in this initial release and this chapter will serve as a guide to the major components, features, and benefits to start your exploration of Qlik Sense. This will include:
Overview of the hub
Starting application authoring
Components of a Qlik Sense application
Sharing an application
Chapter 3, Empowering Next Generation Data Discovery Consumers, highlights the key features in the context of specific user requirements that Qlik has identified as a consumer. This will include:
Data discovery consumption requirements
The hub
Navigating and leveraging the associative experience
Chapter 4, Contributing to Data Discovery, highlights the key features in the context of specific user requirements that Qlik has identified as a contributor or someone who seeks to share key findings from their analysis. This will include:
Data discovery contributor requirements
Bookmarks
Private sheets
Private stories
Publishing to an existing application
Chapter 5, Authoring Engaging Applications, highlights an approach to building engaging applications to meet your business problems. This will include:
Data
KPIs and measures
Dimensions
Security
Chapter 6, Building Qlik Sense® Data Models, highlights the techniques and principles behind building a data model. This will include:
Tables, fields, and records
Joins and concatenations
How to link tables and how not to link tables
Normalization and de-normalization
Synthetic keys and circular references
Chapter 7, Qlik Sense® Apps in the Cloud, briefs us on using Qlik Sense Cloud. This will include:
Sharing Qlik Sense Desktop apps in the cloud
Creating Qlik Sense apps directly in the cloud
Maintaining Qlik Sense Cloud apps
Adding external data to apps using Qlik DataMarket
Chapter 8, Extending the Qlik® Analytic Platform, gives an overview of the key APIs and how to use them to extend Qlik Sense solutions. This will include:
API overview
Dev Hub
Single configurator
Web mashup editor
Extension editor
Engine API explorer
Qlik Branch overview
Chapter 9, Administering Qlik Sense®, highlights the administration of Qlik Sense applications within an organization. This will include:
Architecture
Clustering and nodes
Licenses and tokens
Streams and security concepts
Chapter 10, Sales Discovery, applies Qlik Sense to the challenges of analyzing sales performance within your organization. This will include:
Common sales analysis problems
The unique way Qlik Sense addresses these problems
How the application was built
Chapter 11, Human Resource Discovery, applies Qlik Sense to the challenges of analyzing human resource data. This will include:
General information about common KPIs
What a typical data model could look like
An example of how to use the global selector
Examples of dimensions and measures
Chapter 12, Travel Expense Discovery, applies Qlik Sense to the challenges of analyzing travel expense management within an organization. This will include:
Common travel expense management problems
The unique way Qlik Sense addresses these problems
How the application was built
Chapter 13, Demographic Data Discovery, applies Qlik Sense to the challenges of analyzing demographic data. This will include:
General information about common KPIs
Examples of how to use the lasso selection with maps and scatter charts
Examples of dimensions and measures
You will need a copy of Qlik Sense Desktop, which is available for free at http://www.qlik.com/us/explore/products/sense/desktop. After that, you just need some time and a good comfortable chair. Additionally, the sample application's examples and many others are available for you to explore live on http://sense-demo.qlik.com/. Please bookmark this link as additional demonstrations and examples are constantly being added and updated.
This book is for anyone who has struggled with decision-making and is looking for an intuitive way to analyze data through Qlik Sense. This can include casual users who are looking for an easy product that helps them understand their data and helps transform their data into actionable information. Additionally, this book provides information to analysts, developers, and administrators who seek to help organizations improve the performance of decision-making across their organization through the Qlik Sense enterprise server.
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, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Note that Pat has renamed the sheet to Pat-Product Analysis."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
Load CustomerNo as CustomerID, … From Table1 … ; Load CustomerID, … From Table2 … ;
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: "There is no need to save the sheet but rather just click on the Done button."
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The examples and many others are available for you to explore live on http://sense-demo.qlik.com/. Please bookmark this link as additional demonstrations and examples are constantly being added and updated.
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