topic NPrinting - first impressions? in Qlik NPrinting

NPrinting - first impressions?

william_fu — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 18:40:54 GMT

So I've just started testing NPrinting and it's been a little underwhelming so far.

As a start, I tried to build reports with simple requirements: I just wanted to drag and drop objects from existing dashboard to a blank canvas that would then be exported to a pdf, but I came across some barriers.

For example, it's a pain to identify objects based on their ID alone. When inserting them into the report, I have no idea what they will look like unless I hit preview, which is also a painfully slow process. Finally, in most cases, the sizing of the objects on the report is also hard to get right (charts often get cut off).

Is there a more intuitive way of working with the designer? More content on the subject (besides the Qlik manual) would be appreciated.

Thoughts?

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Ruggero_Piccoli — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 07:10:10 GMT

Hi,

What kind of report are you developing (Word, Excel, ecc)?

In the Qlik NPrinting Designer you can search the object by start typing its ID or title in the search form:

The official help site has also a lot of videos that explains many different features and a getting started tutorial. So my suggestion is to start from them.

What you see during the template development depends on the kind of template and on the type of object you are inserting. For example when you insert an image in a Word template you will see a placeholder. If you create a table in a PixelPerfect you work on the details line and you will see the content only by running a preview but you see the characters format in the template.

With latest version you can continue to edit the template until the preview is build.

About object sizing it depends on the type of report and object. All the options are explained in the help site.

I suggest you also to ask a demo to your partner.

Best Regards,

Ruggero

---------------------------------------------

When applicable please mark the appropriate replies as CORRECT https://community.qlik.com/docs/DOC-14806. This will help community members and Qlik Employees know which discussions have already been addressed and have a possible known solution. Please mark threads as HELPFUL if the provided solution is helpful to the problem, but does not necessarily solve the indicated problem. You can mark multiple threads as HELPFUL if you feel additional info is useful to others.

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

william_fu — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 17:51:48 GMT

Hey Ruggero,

Thanks for the thorough response.

I guess this is just a case of "it is what it is". Sorry for the rant.

It just seems hard and time consuming to design reports for the first time (what if my objects don't have titles, what if I don't know how each object behaves in each template)

I expected more of a plug and play solution (e.g.: get Sheet 1 from Dashboard A, apply filters XYZ, insert into a pdf and share via e-mail),

Is the PixelPerfect template recommended for pdf reports?

I'll also get in touch with our partner to see their thoughts.

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Ruggero_Piccoli — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 07:14:23 GMT

Hi,

Yes, PixelPerfect is suggested when you want PDF output and you want to have a complete control of the output layout. You can export in PDF also other types of template like Word or Excel with less control on the layout. The cons with PixelPerfect is that the development time could be long.

Development time for a Word report could be lower but sometime you cannot do the same. For example, in PixelPerfect you can create sophisticated formatting rules that are not available in Word.

So there is not a correct choice in absolute, the best choice depends on your goals and your resources.

The plug and play solution. It depends on what you want. For example, Qlik NPrinting supports Qlik Entity reports that let you to directly export a QlikView or Qlik Sense object without the need of a template. Very fast to create, zero control on the output. The opposite of PixelPerfect.

In Word or Excel you can add an object in the Tables node and drag and drop it. Very fast and you will have a report with the same object as in the connected source.

Best Regards,

Ruggero

---------------------------------------------

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

william_fu — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 16:04:43 GMT

Understood, thanks.

One more thing: can you confirm that Qlik Entity reports work with Sense?

I looked up some content on it and all the examples reference QlikView.

When I tried creating a entity report on my own, I got stuck when it prompted me to choose a connection (no options were displayed)

I'm on the June 2018 version for both Qlik Sense and NPrinting.

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Ruggero_Piccoli — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 09:55:53 GMT

Hi,

Unfortunately at the moment, September 2018, Qlik Entity reports support only QlikView objects. I don't know when it will be added.

Best Regards,

Ruggero

---------------------------------------------

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

william_fu — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 13:33:30 GMT

Hi @Ruggero_Piccoli ,

An update on this matter: the help page for Entity Reports on NPrinting February 2019 now mentions Qlik Sense objects

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/February2019/Content/NPrinting/QlikViewEntityReports/Create-Entity-Reports.htm

Can you confirm that this functionality is now available?

Thanks!

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Lech_Miszkiewicz — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 21:39:27 GMT

Well. My voice on this topic was always clear and has never changed. Nprinting is an advanced tool and requires training both on QlikView/Qlik Sense and Nprinting. Your baby steps with it just proved, that you cannot lay your opinion on the tool unless you have thorough knowledge about it.

As an example the other day i tried to play with Power BI just for a sake of exercise. I was not able to do anything in it as opposed to QlikView or Qlik Sense where i think your imagination is the only limit. So do i think that Power BI is so bad? No i do not. I am just aware that i was not able to use it as good as it allows. (sorry about this comparison!)

Conclusion:

if you would observe Nprinting evolution for last x years you would see how far product has gone and how quick new features are beeing introduced. Some of your comments are spot on: especially about Entity reports with Qlik Sense. I also think that having them is essential.

Rest of your comments i think touches topics which you are not aware of yet due to short experience with the tool. For example:

-using ids for objects-the best solution ever. You can have many objects with the same type and the same name in your app, but you want to ise this particular one. How to identify objects easily in qliksense? It is a built-in functionality:

https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-Design-Blog/Developer-menu-in-Qlik-Sense-client/ba-p/1471915

I can go on like this for a long time....

my opinion is: you need to be a good Qlik Sense or QlikView developer in order to be a Nprinting developer. Without knowing how Qlik model is built and works you are likely to bump into a lot of issues!

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Lech_Miszkiewicz — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 21:42:26 GMT

Sorry-regarding your update. I hope (and i will test it asap) this is supported.

By the way - how is your impression of Nprinting after all this time you spent with the tool? Are you a pro yet?

Cheers

Lech

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Lech_Miszkiewicz — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 22:17:23 GMT

This seems to be documentation BUG. I have reported it ages ago. It was fixed and looks like it came back again.

i tried to build Entity report on Feb 2019 and connection did not appear in there, so i just couldn't.

regards

Lech

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Ruggero_Piccoli — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 07:29:08 GMT

Hi,

I'm sorry for this, but it is an error in the February 2019 help site. I ask immediately to correct to the documentation team.

QlikEntity reports, at the moment February 2019, do not supports Qlik Sense charts. This feature could be added in the future but I don't know an estimated delivery version.

Best Regards,

Ruggero

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

william_fu — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 20:53:12 GMT

Hi Lech,

Thanks for the response and the developer menu tip for grabbing object ids, that's indeed very useful!

Unfortunately I haven't put in the time to become a pro at NPrinting yet - some of it is frustration/inexperience like you said and some of it is due to me being the only Qlik stack person in the company until recently.

We don't have many NPrinting solutions in production, but we do see it as a tool with huge potential. For example, the NPrinting On Demand extension could be a game changer for us, since many users like to have their customized report summarized in a .pdf to share (and the native "Export sheet to pdf" feature is terrible). In theory, our use case for NPrinting is quite simple, basically compile the main existing charts/visualizations in our Sense dashboards and fit them neatly in a .pdf page.

Your point is valid, and I do understand that each tool has its learning curve. With Qlik Sense, I felt it was much easier to get to a working, good looking dashboard, but to get a similar result in NPrinting there's a lot of tweaking that it almost feels like double the work, even though I have the chart/visualization ready in Sense. It's not necessarily that it's hard, it's just time consuming and a little annoying. Below are some examples:

For example, I feel like it's hard to get a feel for what fits and what doesn't in a page. This might be a stupid question, but when does the page break in the PixelPerfect template? Is there any indicator I'm missing?

For charts, sometimes I have to make the object way bigger than I'd like to because the legend doesn't show up.

When I try to use a table object as a image, the # of rows in the table gets reduced when I reduce its size horizontally, when there is clearly room for more rows. I tried my hand at creating tables with Detail Reports, but I also found them complicated to build and customize.

Also the fact that there's no support for themes (the PixelPerfect reports go back to the default color palette which sucks in my opinion).

Since you seem to be very experienced with NPrinting I would love to hear your thoughts (and more "hacks" like the developer menu). Hell, maybe some of my concerns are even already addressed in more recent versions.

Thanks again (sorry for the long post)!

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

william_fu — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 20:54:29 GMT

Thanks Ruggero, let's hope it comes soon.

If it does come, do you think creating an entity report with entire Sense sheets will be possible, or just individual charts?

Re: NPrinting - first impressions?

Ruggero_Piccoli — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 08:51:29 GMT

Hi,

Sheets are supported for QlikEntity reports from QlikView but I don't know right now if they will be supported also for Qlik Sense.

Best Regards,

Ruggero