So why AccessPoint and QVWS?

[#1]

Hi all,

I think I asked this a while ago but didnt get any takers....

Why would I want to run QVWS instead of IIS? I realise this gives Qliktech advantages in terms of control but if they are going to support IIS anyway.....

QVWS cannot handle asp pages either. Thats fine if you want to control access using AccessPoint but.....

Why would I want to use AccessPoint? The interface is none too pretty and I can do provide a better job using eg asp. I havent yet got AccessPoint running but I dont get why:

You would want to offer a variety of clients to the user

(do they still see documents that Section Access will exclude them from anyway?)

Enabling download - is that a good idea (how do you control it at the user level?) and isnt document distribution Publisher's role?

I mount a folder and all the documents within it are visible - including those versions created by reload

I seem to have to login to accesspoint if I want to see any documents at all (ie no anonymous)

What protocol is used - how can I pass parameters (eg initial macro) using qvp?

Yours (confused)

Gordon

[#2]

.....Emperors new clothes perhaps?

[stephencredmond]

Hi Gordon,

You are asking a lot of questions here so I will answer as best I can. Feel free to post a follow up.

Prior to version 9, we had an AccessPoint that was part of Publisher Enterprise (although it could be made to work for Publisher Standard). It wasn't that easy to set up but what it did was give users access to those documents that they had access to with Windows Security. However, this was probably not the primary link used by most implementations to get users access to the document. It worked OK for users using Plugin or Java clients (or download) but was a bit tricker to get right for AJAX/Zero Footprint. Of course, there was all the other steps of having to generate the HTML for the Zero Footprint client and having to create virtual folders and manage permissions, etc.

In version 9, AccessPoint is much more prominent - it is the primary way of interacting with your documents. It gives you a list or thumbnail view of available documents and allows you to open them in whatever allowable method (btw Download is off by default). It makes it really easy to publish documents in Zero Footprint because you, as a system admin, do not have to do anything to configure that. Users can configure their own preferred access method so that they just have to click the thumbnail to open a document.

It also does some cool things around load balancing if you are using clustered servers so you don't need to manage that separately.

By default, AccessPoint will use Windows security but you can create your own custom layer using QlikView's DMS security. It will only show the user documents that they have security to see (using either Windows ACL or DMS security) so, for non-UI documents (loaders, etc.), you can configure appropriate access so that users don't see them.

I can configure all of the settings from the QEMC - everything in one place, so that makes administration more straightforward.

I don't write stuff in ASP anymore. The QlikView Web Server does run ASPX though.

Document distribution via Publisher is more straightforward too because you can get Publisher to apply the necessary security so that a user only sees their documents in AccessPoint (BTW, this is the same as with 8.5 - AccessPoint was used as an option for download). For the user this means that they have one location for accessing all their documents - Server based and download.

If you don't like the UI, you could play with the CSS! However, it is a pretty simple UI and easy to work with from a user point of view.

Let me know if you need more.

Stephen

[stephencredmond]

BTW, did you notice that I didn't mention IIS once.

Don't need to mention it. Don't need to use it. At all.

Stephen

[#5]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks very much for such a comprehensive reply - really appreciate your time.

I should have mentioned that I am looking to upgrade from 8.20 so AccessPoint is all new to me. I am struggling to get going with it and as a 'sanity check' I wondered why I should persist. I can get to AccessPoint (from a client with the IE plugin installed) but it always seems to want a login to it (setting QEMC for the QV Web Server to anonymous just results in no documents being displayed); if I log in I then see all the documents. I use windows security so that only members of my Qlikview user group have read authority to the document folders and then control access using 'Section Access'; I assume logging on to AccessPoint controls what documents are shown to the user based on the object authority? As I mentioned, AccessPoint will show ALL the documents including the versions created by the 'Use Backup' option in 'User Preferences' which I obviously don't want.

In QEMC I have defined IE Plugin as the 'Default Preferred Client'; in QMC under the Server Settings for the document I have 'IE Client' checked as an Access Method but AccessPoint has 'Open with…IE Plugin' greyed out. Perhaps this is because the client plugin is v8.20 but I want to be able to update the server before having to upgrade all the clients. Forgive my ignorance here - why would I want to give my users the options of Plugin/Java/Ajax? As for 'download' I would think that any document distribution would be better controlled by a 'push' from Publisher rather than allowing anyone with access to the document to do so.

With my old asp 'menu' I can also initiate documents passing parameters and the name of an initial macro to run using the qvp protocol, but how would I manage this with AccessPoint?

Sorry for so many questions but I work in an isolated environment and so when I get stuck I REALLY get stuck!

Regards,

Gordon

[stephencredmond]

Hi Gordon,

One of the things that AccessPoint does is query for the plugin to see if you have it installed. If you have an older version it probably won't respond correctly and then you won't get the option to open with the plugin.

Is your AccessPoint site in your local intranet (or detected as such by IE)? If not, you can add it manually to that zone and IE should pass through the authentication automatically.

The "download" option would only be available for certain documents and AccessPoint is a location for Publisher to "push" them to. Otherwise you need to have a shared path somewhere - AccessPoint just gives you a central repository. I would never advocate that users get to download your main application - only a reduced application such as that "pushed" by publisher.

I am sure that you have a good reason for having a macro in your document so not sure about passing parameters to it. Have you looked at "Actions" in v9 to replace that functionality? You can also make initial selections based on Section Access if that is useful.

Personally, I wouldn't keep backup documents in my main Server folder so having them displayed wouldn't be an issue for me.

Why would you want to allow users run Ajax? For the reason that you have encountered - you need to upgrade all your users from 8.2 plugin to 9.0 plugin. With Ajax you don't need to upgrade anything (well, except make sure that you are not on IE6!). The Ajax client in 9 is way different from the Ajax client in 8.2 - it will very probably be a good solution for many of your users.

Regards,

Stephen

[#7]

Hi Stephen,

Ah - that solved the IEPlugin problem!

Re the opening macro, thats historical. I came up with a macro that was triggered by OnActivateSheet to perform a 'zoomtofitwindow' but the sheet that is initially displayed doesnt fire that trigger; my workaround was to pass a macro to be called in the URL and as a result of this (usually empty) macro running the trigger DOES fire. As for parameter passing, these populate corresponding variables and I have used them for a variety of reasons eg invoking one document from another with current selections. I guess that more recent functionality could replace this so I need to do more research.

The backup documents are automatically created by the reload process (User Preferences > Save > Use Backup) and you dont get the choice of where they are created, simply being placed in the same folder. I think I can get around this by specifying DMS Authorisation in QMC then adding groups/users to those documents I want to show.

Its good to know Ajax is now a more practical method and again I need to research this more.

Thanks for your help, Stephen.

Regards,

Gordon

[stephencredmond]

Hi Gordon,

Are you reloading by batch on qv.exe? That will get those - you shouldn't get those by using a Reload task in QMC. Of course, a simple enhancement to the batch file could just move those to another folder if you need them. Changing to DMS and adding groups could work OK, just adds complexity if you are using Windows authentication anyway.

Ajax in 9.0 is way better than 8.2 - including users being able to create their own collaboration objects. In v10 it is even better.

Stephen

[bullish35]

Hello Gordon. I have encountered similar issues with resize macros in AccessPoint: they don't run on open document; and, buttons I've configured with 'run macro' actions are not triggered when clicked. I am running QV 9, SR 6; AJAX for AccessPoint. Can you post additional information or an example of your solution? Thank you!

[#10]

Hello Ellen,

I 'discovered' that putting a msgbox in the macro seemed to get over a timing issue and make the resize work; this is my typical OnOpen macro:

sub OnOpen
' Attached to the document OnOpen trigger.

set doc=ActiveDocument

vReload = doc.Variables("VRELOAD").GetContent.String

if vReload = "0" then ' not running under /r switch

set app=doc.GetApplication

app.WaitForIdle

if app.QTProduct = "QlikOcx" then ' client = plugin

set sheet=doc.ActiveSheet

width = app.ScreenWidth
height = app.ScreenHeight

if width = 1280 and height = 1024 then
set sp=sheet.GetProperties
sp.ZoomFactor = 1.0
sheet.SetProperties sp
else
msgbox "Qlikview will make a 'best fit' for your resolution (" & width & "x" & height & ").",,_
"Document is optimised for 1280x1024 resolution"
sheet.FitZoomToWindow
end if

app.WaitForIdle

sheet.ApplyZoomToAllSheets

app.WaitForIdle

end if

doc.ClearAll false

end if

end sub

Regards,

Gordon