topic Locked out QVW in QlikView

Locked out QVW

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:19:17 GMT

As a newbie to QV I have made a mistake with Section Access.

I have logged with admin, then reloaded the data when apparently the permissions table in the DB was empty.

Saved the document, closed it.

Now I can't get in.

I have put days of work in it, and my backup is pretty old.

Is there any solution? Can I atleast save the script?

Re: Locked out QVW

Sun, 26 Oct 2014 23:15:26 GMT

I was able to save the script. If you open the qvw file with notepad and scroll down, pass the binary data. You will find and XML structure that includes the script.

With some reverse engineering you can build it back again.

Re: Locked out QVW

ashfaq_haseeb — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 05:05:32 GMT

Hi,

I don't think you can open corrupted file or you can get objects back

If you open it please post steps to reproduce, so that it will help others who struck with the same issue.

Regards

ASHFAQ

Re: Locked out QVW

Bill_Britt — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:00:42 GMT

Hi,

I am sorry to say that if you have locked yourself out of section access there is no way to recover the document. It is always recommended that you never use the original to setup section access.

Bill

Re: Locked out QVW

Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:22:55 GMT

Am I the only one that think it doesn't make any sense?

The best practice for Qlikview (so I read) is to store the permissions in some DB.

Let's say the data in the permissions table in the DB was somehow deleted (human error).

Then you try reload your QVW (not knowing there is no permissions data) and it's locked now.

Even if you gain access to the permissions table and re-populate it, you have nothing to do?

I think, it is bad design.

Ofcourse, now that I am aware of it, it probably will not happen again.

I have a lot of experience with different BI tools, but I never encountered something so bizzare.

You should have a way to see your code even if you have no data permissions.

Zeev

Re: Locked out QVW

Bill_Britt — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:29:44 GMT

Hi,

In the case you stated the reload would fail and it would convert back to the old data. This isn't bad design and in the classes I have taught, I would always recommend that you have a backup copy. If there was a way to get to the code what good would section access be?

Bill

Re: Locked out QVW

Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:34:34 GMT

Why didn't it fail for me then? Because I was working with ADMIN ?

The section access should protect you from getting DATA as I understand, not the code.

Re: Locked out QVW

Bill_Britt — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 12:40:30 GMT

Hi,

29.3 Security Using the Section Access in the QlikView Script

If the Section Access in the QlikView script is set up to handle security, then one single file can be made to
hold the data for a number of users or user groups. QlikView will use the information in the Section Access
for Authentication and Authorization and dynamically reduce the data, so that the user only sees his own
data.
The security is built into the file itself, so also a downloaded file is to some extent protected. However, if
the security demands are high, downloads of files and offline use should be prevented. The files should be
published by the QlikView Server only.
Since all data are kept in one file, the size of this file can potentially be very large.
All information below refers to the security method of using Section Access in the QlikView script.

So, if the document is messed up and it can't Authentication you, it will not let you in.

Bill

Re: Locked out QVW

Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:08:32 GMT

Bill, thanks for your answers. I completely understand what you are saying. Also I was able to extract my script from the QVW file in some reverse engineering of the file itself, as the QVW file itself contains an XML with the script (so if you know your script, with some work you can get it back).

I am not familiare with the way the QlikView server works, as I am using a stand alone license.

I would think that you should have 3 entities:

1. Your report (QV app)

2. Your security implementation

3. A combined product fo 1 and 2

But what happens is that 1 and 2 are incorporated into each other, meaning data permissions lock you ability to maintain the code. It just looks weird to me. In real life the person developing has 0 data permissions.

Is it possible in the server to apply section access without incorporating it in the QVW ? If so, it makes sence.

Re: Locked out QVW

ngulliver — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:35:34 GMT

Hi, Zeev.

While I have no solution to your problem, there's a blog on this that provides useful advice prior to switching section access on.

Have a look.

http://www.quickintelligence.co.uk/help-ive-locked-myself-out/

Cheers,

Neil

Re: Locked out QVW

flipside — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:39:17 GMT

Further to Bill's answer, I tend to put all my security in the document as a load * inline, but you could hard code just the admin password with user security loaded from the DB. This would cover you in case the data in the DB had been deleted.

Section Access;
SecTable:
LOAD * INLINE
[USERID, PASSWORD, ACCESS
Admin, adminpassword, Admin];

LOAD USERID,
PASSWORD,
ACCESS
FROM
[Security.xlsx]
(ooxml, embedded labels, table is Sheet1);

Section Application;

flipside

Re: Locked out QVW

Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:50:24 GMT

Thanks flipside,

I understand that it is a possible solution.

Probably I will use it myself.

The issue is that in various places this sort of solution is regarded as bad practice.

Re: Locked out QVW

flipside — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:04:49 GMT

I agree, at first it seems odd, but if the script is placed in the hidden script section (which is itself passworded), then I don't think it's recoverable from the file without knowing the passwords, so is secure. Unless someone knows otherwise!

Re: Locked out QVW

sohailansari201 — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 15:54:49 GMT

Not sure about this but just want to throw out this idea:

Let's say a user is locked out of QVW file because of Section Access. The sample Section Access security was like this:

ACCESS,SECURITY,USER_AD_NAME

ADMIN,*,COMPDOMAIN\USER1

ADMIN,*,COMPDOMAIN\USER2

But you forgot to add your user name as the ADMIN, then you can either try to login as either USER1 or USER2, install QlikView and open the file and edit the script and add your username as ADMIN.

Or alternately, install a Windows Server on a stand alone machine and keep the name of this machine as COMPDOMAIN. Create a user on this machine called USER1 and login with this user. Install QlikView and the license. Then just try to open this file on this computer. This should work.

Thanks.