idea Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView - Status changed to: Open - Not Planned in Suggest an Idea

Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Jeff_Koch — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:05:15 GMT

Qlik Sense done NOT support cycle groups today. At best it supports alternate dimensions.

This is one of the features that is a show stopper for customers to move from QlikView to Qlik Sense.

The strength and value of QlikView-like Cycle Groups is that they are dimensional and global. When you change a Cycle Group is works like any other field used as dimension. The value applies to every chart where it is used.

For example, if you have 20 charts spread across multiple sheets and you change a cycle group to a new dimension, then ALL 20 charts reflect that new dimension. The charts stay synced together. The charts are 'Product' charts …cycle... now they are all about 'Store' …cycle… now they all show 'Product Category' as the dimension.

It is a very powerful way of looking at a group of visualizations because you see a collective story across the charts.

Plus it helps solve the expression problems associated with the way Qlik Sense does things today with alternate dimensions and drill down groups. Without the getCurrentField(groupname) function we cannot support complex aggr expressions without creating a lot of different charts that cannot use drill down group or alternate dimensions.

Because of the lack of cycle group support, to implement a set of 6 charts in Qlik Sense that exists in QlikView means replacing 6 QlikView charts with 1,296 Qlik Sense charts. That doesn't scale well.

Along with the implementation of Cycle Groups means bringing back the getCurrentField(groupname) function that returns the currently selected dimension for the group: Cycle Groups and Drill Down Groups.

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView - Status changed to: Open - Not Planned

Patric_Nordstrom — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 13:17:02 GMT

Thanks for your feedback on ways to improve our product. While this is something we understand would be useful, this is not in our short-term roadmap. Please show your support for this idea by clicking on the "like" button.

Please note that Cyclic groups behavior can be achieved by using a variable, the button and getobjectfield()

For an example see sheet "Cyclic groups" in https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-Sense-Documents-Videos/Top-10-Viz-tricks-Qonnections-2019/ta-p/1580174

Credit Juraj Misina, article: GetObjectField() function and Alternate Dimensions

Thanks,

Patric

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Henri_Rufin — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 07:51:16 GMT

Hi @Patric_Nordstrom ,

Yes the workaround suggestion you made works but requires two objects on the sheet (one button and on variable input) which can be confusing for end users. Also it doesn't work with hierarchy dimensions which is a bummer. Cycle dimension are a very cool feature and I really think as a customer it would improve the overall navigation experience and therefore should be on the roadmap.

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

juraj_misina — Mon, 04 May 2020 12:30:11 GMT

Agreed, I would also prefer to have this out of the box instead of coming up with workaorounds.

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Jeff_Koch — Thu, 14 May 2020 18:20:16 GMT

Hi @Patric_Nordstrom ,

Alternate dimensions and measures do not take into account the true dimensional value of drill down groups and cycle groups as implemented in QlikView. Alternate Measures and Alternate Dimensions have their place but they are not a replacement for drill down and cycle groups.

If I have twenty charts with 10 identical alternate dimension sets, the time it takes to add all of those dimensions to every chart is very high. Edits are time consuming increasing cost of ownership and increases time-to-market.

Once your twenty charts are setup, if I want a consistent view I have to go each chart (which may be on the same sheet or spread across several sheets) and click multiple times in each chart to set them to the same field. Yuk!!! 40 clicks (or more if charts are spread across several sheets) instead of one!

Workarounds are a lot of work. Var creation, data islands, etc. While they work; they break when you get to self-service. Users, especially end-users can get to the data model. It increases the complexity for expression development requiring a more intimate knowledge of the data model, vars and their use.

Data islands impose addition performance overhead and can negatively affect the end user experience. While some of this overhead can be minor, it adds up and gets worse as data model size and complexity increases couple with an increase in use of the server for multiple users and multiple documents.

GetObjectField() does NOT work with Drill Down Groups so I lose the dimensional advantage of drill down groups and still have no dimensional cycle group.

This really is a serious feature gap. Give me a call and I'll give you a QlikView demo 🙂

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Carl_Hunter — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 19:31:59 GMT

+1 to all the comments here. The workaround for cyclic groups works "okay" but is complicated and unnecessary when QlikView supported natively.

@Patric_Nordstrom can this be re-evaluated?

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView - Status changed to: Open - Collecting Feedback

Patric_Nordstrom — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 09:56:44 GMT

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Carl_Hunter — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 11:02:05 GMT

Power BI are close to implementing something similar. Looks like they had this in SASS tabular, and has been ported to Power BI Desktop via an external tool:

https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/introducing-calculation-groups/

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

msan — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 15:22:11 GMT

Cyclic dimension is also important for getting more out of a simple table...

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Henri_Rufin — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 09:06:21 GMT

I found a way to do this using the new button object Qlik released this year. In the example below I created a cycle dimension with calendar dimensions (Year, Year-Semester, Year-Quarter, Year-Month). This will work with any dimension ( except calculated dimensions and hierachies)

1) Create a variable vDimension

2) Drap the button object onto your sheet and set up an Action as "Define a variable value"

3) Set up the possible values for your variable as following :

=if('$(vDimension)'='Year','YearSemester',
if('$(vDimension)'='YearSemester','YearQuarter',
if('$(vDimension)'='YearQuarter','YearMonth','Year')))

4) In general settings change the title of the object as following :

='$(vDimension)'

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

devan9876 — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 04:17:25 GMT

Yes, please add cycle groups!
I have found cycle groups in Qlikview to be far more useful than the drill groups so the fact drill groups were ported to Qliksense instead of cycles was pretty disappointing to me. I would have thought that they'd both be included but if I could have only chosen one I would have preferred cycle groups.

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

devan9876 — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 04:23:40 GMT

@Carl_Hunter

What you linked in regards to powerbi looks more like cycle MEASURES than cycle dimensions but now that you mention it master measure groups would actually be really cool/useful to have in addition to dimension groups.

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

devan9876 — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 03:40:34 GMT

Just wanted to add that the # of votes for cycle groups is technically in the 70s rather than just the 31 you see here.

There was a another post requesting cycle groups back in 2018 that was 'closed' and has 48 likes/votes.

So if you add the 48 from that one to the 31 likes on this post that brings the total votes to for cycle groups to 79. Not sure if everyone was already aware of that or if it even sways the needle towards getting cycle groups added but I thought I'd mention just in case.

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Henri_Rufin — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 07:31:17 GMT

An addition feature to the button object would be great.

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

devan9876 — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:52:19 GMT

@Patric_Nordstrom

Is there a specific threshold of votes it needs to reach in order to be added to the roadmap?

There was another request for cycle groups that had 48 votes that you closed and marked as already available. If you combine votes on this and the votes from the previous post that was closed the # of votes is over 80 which I think puts this in the top 10 most requested.

Also from a technical perspective do you know if there are any reasons why drill groups were added but not cycle groups?

For example is there some sort of limitation or obstacle that prevents or makes it difficult to add cycle groups compared to drill groups?

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Patric_Nordstrom — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 07:21:26 GMT

@devan9876 There is no specific threshold, the community is one important source but there are also other channels for feedback that we consider.

When deciding what to implement a number of factors matter. We do a cost versus benefit analysis of new ideas. Cost in this case mean the complexity to implement, time to build, amount of developers, designers, testers, tech writers as well as the impact on architecture, maintenance and performance. Benefit is the value to the end users and number of users affected, and also counting in the strategic value of the feature. And we also weigh in if there are alternative ways to solve the problem the feature addresses. To that there are also overall priorities, there are many other areas besides visualizations that we invest in.

The last year we added more than 80 new visualization features and I hope that we can continue in that pace going forward. Cyclic groups is, as you guess, an expensive feature and at this point there other features are more pressing to handle first.

Thanks,
Patric

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

devan9876 — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 19:30:07 GMT

@Patric_Nordstrom

Thank you for the detailed response/explanation.

I understand there is a lot more that goes into these decisions that we aren't privy too. I guess conceptually I just couldn't understand why drill groups were added and not cycle groups as in my head I imagined they would share a lot of core functionality/code under the hood and that one wouldn't be significantly more difficult than the other.

Are you aware of any apis available that would allow extension developers to add cycle group functionality themselves or would it necessitate getting very hacky to the point it wouldn't be worth it?

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

Patric_Nordstrom — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 08:41:06 GMT

@devan9876 note that the idea is still open, we might have more room for development during next year.

Meanwhile, as workaround I recommend the approach using a variable and the button, see description and example here:

https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-Sense-Documents/Cyclic-Groups-in-Qlik-Sense/ta-p/1763172

Thanks,
Patric

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

hendrikgruss — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 15:44:13 GMT

This is the most important feature i would like to have implemented!

Workarounds can be used, but are really confusing for the user and not easy to use in self service.

It seems that this is a really highly requested feature, would be great to have. This is the first question our dashboard users ask when they move from a qlikview to qliksense application.

Looking forward for your re-evaluation of that feature

Re: Implement TRUE cycle groups that work like QlikView

francesco_menin — Tue, 25 May 2021 07:53:50 GMT

Looking forward to see a simple solution without additional objects needed!
Many customers are surprised to see this feature has been overlooked.