topic Re: How to "license" parts of an application in QlikView

How to "license" parts of an application

cbushey1 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 16:17:48 GMT

Hey all,

I am looking to integrate two applications into a single QVW but I want to control them based on what a client would have licensed.

For example, let's say that each application has 20 tabs. I want the ability to say if the client has only licensed application 1 show the first 20 tabs, if they licensed application 2 only show the last 20 tabs, and if they licensed both show all 40 tabs.

I know I can control that with a variable set in a configuration file but let me complicate things more.

Each application has a series of QVS files that run to create the QVDs and then another set that run to create the data model. I would like to apply the same logic here as well so that I can control what scripts are being run based on what they have "licensed" from me.

I guess in general I am looking for best practices from others who have designed applications and licensed them out to their clients. What is the best practice here?

Thoughts?

Tips?

Thanks.

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

Digvijay_Singh — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 16:33:30 GMT

Not sure but you may think if Section Access can help here. Use OMIT system field to remove access of columns based on Users group.

Also I saw this detailed post o sheet level security access but haven't used it yet.

Sheet or App Object Level Security Qlik Sense

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

Peter_Cammaert — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 16:43:10 GMT

Wow, you got some challenges on you plate.

Before discussing any practical implementations, one question:

how do you plan to restrict script execution to a licensed code set if it's sufficiently circumvented by copying the unlicensed code in the licensed script file at the end? Or aren't you planning to ship a self-contained application to your customers, just planning to provide access to it (e.g. in an AP in the cloud)

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

cbushey1 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 16:44:57 GMT

Thanks for the quick response.

I plan to deliver an app through a hosted accesspoint. The users will only see the final qvw and will not be able to access the code in anyway.

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

cbushey1 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 16:46:46 GMT

SA wont help me here as I dont want to limit on fields but more tables.

Think of it like partitioning out the data model so that if a client licenses the full suite they get the full data model but if they only license certain parts the data model is only for those parts.

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

Peter_Cammaert — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 16:55:05 GMT

OK.

Either you load (really) everything in your document and let Data Reduction filter out what a particular user shouldn't be able to view. This affects all data, sheets and objects (the latter two by disabling them),
Or you create three different documents from the same base (requires a Publisher) and grant access to the correct one depending on what license a particular user has paid for.

The latter is way simpler to maintain and use.

Regular QlikView security will help in making sure that a user cannot circumvent or accidentally enable unlicensed stuff.

Peter

[Edit] spelling mistakes

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

cbushey1 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 17:16:31 GMT

Interesting.

Well I dont have publisher so that option is out but I am not sure it would have helped in the way I would like. You see we take one client's data and run it through the application. If they have licensed both parts then they would get the full application however if they only licensed one part then I need to create the data model and visual layers that are only relevant to that one part. Since my application contains client data, each client gets their own installation of the app. I am trying to find a way to integrate essentially a 2nd stand alone application into their existing application. It should work fine, I just need to find a way to control when to build what tables based on what app they have purchased.

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

Peter_Cammaert — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 17:41:21 GMT

There are a number of supporting features in QlikView that make life a lot easier when dealing with such a situation. It's a pity that you either don't want to use them or you're not considering an extension to your current QlikView setup. They would take a lot of work off your hands.

Anyway, you plan to create a new document copy for every other customer? QlikView cannot do that by itself, so you need to devise a strategy to do some meta-programming to correctly configure a document for a new customer. The document itself will then do as told when performing a reload and refresh the data for this customer only, skip all tables that are unlicensed and use a pre-configured template document for display purposes that doesn't have any unlicensed objects (one of three versions). Is that what you want?

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

cbushey1 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 18:24:58 GMT

I am interested to learn about these supporting features as if I can prove a use case we can probably add them to our setup. I was simply saying that we dont currently have publisher so I need to find a solution that works without it.

The reason we have separate documents for each user is that their data needs to be saved in separate databases. I have to contend with privacy laws etc. So we store each client's data in separate databases and then we have what you could call a template app that is setup for the client. We handle where to get the data from by using database strings etc. So really each client has the same version of the application, we just cant put all client's data together into a single application. When an application is reloaded, it only pulls that clients data from and only from their database.

So what I have done is created a second application that will use the same client's data and perform a totally different analysis, although some tables would be shared across the two data models (which is why it will integrate well).

So now I want to put these two applications together and offer it to clients as additional analysis that they can then license. Each application has a set of script files (qvs) that run in tiers 1 and 2 of our 3 tiered setup (QVD generator, Date model, visual layer). I am trying to control running all scripts if the client has only licensed 1 of the 2 applications. No need to perform all the extra analysis if they haven't licensed it.

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

rwunderlich — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 20:00:40 GMT

You can use variables for each client to control IF THEN blocks in the script ton conditionaly execute blocks of script. It's pretty straightforward. You can use those same variables to control visibility of licensed sheets.

-Rob

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

cbushey1 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 20:07:20 GMT

Thanks for jumping in Rob.

This is likely the way I will go as it is what we already do in each application already to run certain parts of the code.

What I was hoping for was a more streamlined process that makes adding these new applications into a single application more of a plug and play situation. I can foresee us adding a few more enhancements and I wanted to make this process as easy as possible for turning on both the code and the tabs that are licensed without making the application to heavy.

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

rwunderlich — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 20:14:55 GMT

I've seen this done before and it's not heavy at all, assuming that each customer has similar data structure. There is a "common" folder and a folder for each customer. At the start of each batch update, copy the template into the customer directory. Each customer directory has a permanent "config.txt" file that sets the license variables and the connection string. So the template script looks something like this:

$(include=config.txt); // This customer configuration

IF vLicenseProdA = 'Y' THEN

$(include=..\common\proda.qvs)

ENDIF

IF vLicenseProdB = 'Y' THEN

$(include=..\common\prodb.qvs)

ENDIF

and so on...

-Rob

http://masterssummit.com

http://qlikviewcookbook.com

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

cbushey1 — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 21:45:50 GMT

Thanks Rob.

I took a very similar approach.

I created a sub routine that will identify which QVS files to include and run based on which application I pass through a call statement. This will ultimately build my table of scripts taking into account which applications they have licensed and then I will run all of the scripts that make it to this table.

I will then add show/hide condition on the front end based on the same variable I used to determine which scripts to run in order to show the right tabs.

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

Peter_Cammaert — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 21:55:08 GMT

Actually, I was thinking along a slightly different line when this magical word "automation" got stuck in my brain.

Assuming that

customer information, including what part of your document is licensed, is probably available somewhere (either in an RDBMS or an Excel file)
the DB-per-customer is accessible (DB type, DB location, DB name, user credentials) via a standardised method, in such a way that the connection string can be "calculated" (or alternatively, lifted from the customer information mentioned in item 1)

then you could create a QlikView document that

in the load script, loads information of all current customers (and immediately calculates what is missing or not readily available like a full connection string) and prepares a field that allows you to select a single customer (probably new) in an unambiguous way
in the UI, offers a button that - based on the customer selection - sets a series of variables and then runs a predefined macro.

and then, for the heavy lifting, the macro does things like:

loading all variable values
creates a new document subdirectory where QVS can pick-up the end result
copies the correct report document template (either 1 of 3 types, or a single common document if you want to make the licensed features configurable by means of variables) from a predefined location
creates a qvs with a customer-specific connection string
in the same subdirectory, creates links that refer to (see Rob's example) either proda.qvs, or prodb.qvs or both. The includes in the script of the copied document will always be there, but an include can also refer to a non-existent qvs without complaining. Makes configuration a simple matter of "is this script file available or not". If you then add a variable creation loop in each script, and make the sheet conditional show for each sheet depend on those variables, you will have configured the licensed sheets at the same time.
Note that you may have to repeat the document and link generation steps if you want to configure the different data stages as well.
log the different steps to a text file, a global repository or wherever you want your audit information to be stored

and to top it off (but you may keep these for a later finishing stage), if all goes well let the macro

contact the QMS to assign a CAL to a predefined accountname lifted from the customer information table, if the CAL isn't already assigned
contact the QMS again to create reload jobs for the different customer-dependent data stages and the final report refresh.

The latter macro part may be a bit too far-fetched for the time being, but the former can be easily assembled from the many examples that exist in the community, in the Tools available from Rob's site (http://qlikviewcookbook.com) and on the internet.

If you plan to sell many more products to customers, a technique like this may save you quite a lot of time and provide consistency and reliability in your deployment and traceability.

Peter

Re: How to "license" parts of an application

Peter_Cammaert — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 21:56:27 GMT

Sorry, it took a while to compose this reply. Hadn't noticed that you already found your solution.

Good luck.