How to introduce a web developer to Qlik Sense

[Anonymous]

Hello

I work as a Qlik Sense developer (with a background in writing code for SQL Server databases) for a company that sells its own software - a retail application. We offer Qlik Sense to our software customers so that they can analyse their own sales data.

At present the front end for Qlik Sense is the 'out of the box' hub, with a stream for each of our customers. Authentication is via an Active Directory user directory connector. It works really well but now we want to replace the front end branding to use our own company identity instead of all the Qlik branding.

(Someone at Qlik provided a document which detailed how to update things like page titles, logos, favicons etc but it doesn't really work, was provided without warranty and is completely unsupported, so that 'hack' approach is no help.)

I have no background in web development but I do know Qlik (not the dev-hub bit)

My company has just hired a web developer who will be working on this with me, but he doesn't know Qlik.

So, the question is, now that I have access to a developer who can build me a front end that will ideally replicate the functionality of the hub, including the authentication and responsiveness, how do I get him started when there are so many resources available to developers?

I can't just give him the dev-hub link and leave him to it - he won't know what he's supposed to be doing - so I'm hoping to get some advice on which bits of documentation to read, and which of the available tools will be most helpful.  I think we will need to use mash-ups instead of iFrames (because iFrames look rather limited in terms of responsiveness for one thing) to get the flexibility we need, and we will use visualisations already created rather than making them on the fly, but beyond that I don't have much idea of how to direct the developer.

Any advice gratefully received.

Many thanks

[Francis_Kabinoff]

Hey Jeff,

The docs is a good place to start. http://help.qlik.com/en-US/sense-developer/3.1/Content/Home-developer.htm

There’s also Qlik Playground - http://playground.qlik.com/

There a developer can check out some projects, and start editing one.

Those are some good places to start.

Francis Kabinoff

Web Developer

Skype: francis_kabinoff

Email: Francis.Kabinoff@qlik.com

Qlik

150 N. Radnor Chester Road

Suite E-120

Radnor Pennsylvania 19087

qlik.com<http://www.qlik.com/>

<http://www.qlik.com/us/explore/products/sense/desktop?SourceID1=Corporate_Email_Signature>

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.

[Alexander_Thor]

In addition to what Francis shared I can also recommend to join the slack channel for the Branch community.
Especially if you are starting out it's always good to have a place to throw out a question before bashing your head against the wall for a few hours

Join Qlik Branch on Slack!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Jeff

That is a very good question.  I have just had a Web Developer start for me yesterday, so very poignant for me.

I have taught myself how to hack together QlikSense Extensions, both Visualizations and Mashups.  I certainly come at them from the Qlik viewpoint and whilst my extensions work [mostly] their code is certainly hacked together and not best practice yet......

What I am hoping to achieve is that he can introduce Web Dev best practice, I can already sort QlikDev / data modelling best practice.  And thus hope to achieve overall best practice.

I would suggest that you both learn from each other.  Your new starter can teach you some Web Dev and you can teach him some Qlik things to reach a mutually achievable boundary overlapping between your 2 skill sets.

I would also suggest you start very simply.

I found this post Mashup Editor - Toggle charts with jquery by jvs a good starting point for mashups.  It uses the sample Helpdesk Management qvf example that comes when QlikSense Desktop is installed.  It just displays some visualisation objects from the qvf and allows one to toggle between which are displayed with jQuery.  It also exploits BootStrap that hopefully your Web Dev is familiar with.  Once you have it sussed against the sample qvf, then you can duplicate it and point at one your internal qvf's.

For visualisation extensions the Help is a good starting point https://help.qlik.com/en-US/sense-developer/3.1/Subsystems/Extensions/Content/extensions-introductio... and has some examples. mto has also made some videos Integration and Mash-Ups and API (videos).  They are somewhat out of date [ 2015? ], but the concepts are still the same even if some of the details have moved on.

I'd suggest you start with a very simple table extension using AngularJs, extracting data into a hypercube and simply presenting it in a simple table via ng-repeat.  If your Web Dev knows Angularjs, then using ng-repeat will be no surprise.  Then improve the extension so that things like font sizes & colours can be configured in the Accordion Properties.

Also do take the opportunity to learn from your Web Dev.  What I believe is ultimately required is a fusion of WebDev & Qlik.  You certainly will need to learn some of the Web Dev lingo and your Web Dev will need to learn some Qlik lingo so that you can converse together.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to you all for the swift and helpful replies. I think the main thing I'm taking from this is that there are many routes through the path from our starting point (of a standard hub implementation) to an embedded OEM solution, and so this question is really hard to answer because of all the options.

bill.markham‌ - we'll definitely be working on the project together; I've no interest in just handing what I've done over to a web dev - this is a great opportunity for me to learn something new, while teaching my new colleague what I know. Your words are very encouraging.

akl‌ - I had no idea that Slack channel existed. Thank you for the great tip.

@francis.kabinoff - Playground is new to me, and looks very useful. Thanks for the pointer.

Looking forward to a fascinating learning curve!

[Anonymous]

Jeff

I have found the Learn to code | Codecademy website good for picking Web Dev lingo and skills.  For me it was well worthwhile spending some time going through their tutorials on html, css, javascript & angularjs.

[Anonymous]

I am so glad you took the time to post this Bill - it occurred to me weeks ago that this would be a good idea, but it got forgotten. I will definitely run through some Codecademy web oriented stuff; I've certainly found their format useful in the past.

Thanks again

[websy1985]

Jeff,

My apologies in advance for the shameless sales pitch but, if you're interested in some formal training for this stuff then we can help. We specialise in getting the 'non' web developer skilled up in the arts of web tech while explaining where they fit within the Qlik API ecosystem - Websy Limited - Advanced Qlik training and consulting.

We offer UK classroom training and we'll shortly have virtual classroom training as well in case you're not UK based. We could also do something bespoke for your new web dev to help get them up to speed as well.

Thanks

Nick