topic What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal? in QlikView

What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

renisonc — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:19:17 GMT

I have read in different posts about Document Cals. Our License now has the information about User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal. What do each of these signify? how is a Named Cal different or similar to any of these?

If i take a wild guess,

User Cal is same as Named Cal - which would be assigned to each user on the web server

Usage Cal is same as Document Cal - which would be assigned to each document per user on the web server

Session Cal - Same as user cal? but why is it specified separately then?

Do any of these count if you are not using the qlikview web based authentication but are using NTFS authentication on the server?

Any quick response would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Renison

Re: What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Miguel_Angel_Baeyens — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:50:23 GMT

Hello Renison,

Pasted from the Server Ref Manual:

There are four different types of CALs available:\
Named CAL (an identified user on a server) - Access is based on user identity and valid for alldocuments on the server, that is any number of concurrent sessions from one user on one machine ata time is allowed.
Document CAL (an identified user within a given document) - Just as above, the access is based onuser identity, but the CAL is valid only for one document. If the same user connects to twodocuments using this licensing method, he will hence consume two Document CALs.
Session CAL - Each Session CAL allows one user on one computer to access QlikView documents,that is any number of concurrent sessions from one user on one machine at a time is allowed.Anonymous users are allowed, no identification of the client user is necessary.
Usage CAL - Each Usage CAL gives the right to initiate one session (single document) per running28-day period. The session may last a maximum of one hour. Any activity after the first hour hasexpired will count as a new session (albeit without visible interruption). No identification of theclient user is necessary.
Note! CALs are used for purposes of licensing only and they have nothing to do with user authentication for data access purposes

Licenses are assigned to users, either NTFS (Windows Active Directory) or any other value directory (LDAP, Novell) when using DMS authorization (Enterprise Server, for example).

Hope that helps.

What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

renisonc — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:49:26 GMT

Thanks Miguel. This was very informative. A couple of questions more.

"Note! CALs are used for purposes of licensing only and they have nothing to do with user authentication

for data access purposes." - Does this mean that users will still be able to authenticate on the accesspoint without any cals, but will not be able to open and view the qvw documents?

Also, there was no mention of User Cals. We have some user cals mentioned in our license information as well. Is this same as Named Cal or Document Cal or both combined?

Regards,
Renison

What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Miguel_Angel_Baeyens — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:38:41 GMT

Hello Renison,

To your first question, yes. Any user with access to the Accespoint webpage, with valid credentials in your security directory will be able to log in, even if he doesn't have a license. If this is the case, he will receive a message indicating that there are not available or assigned licenses for him. So the best thing is allow access only to the users that can access documents.

To your second, my understanding of User CALs is what QlikView call Named CALs (one user, many documents). Named because the license is assigned to a user, who is allowed to open any number of documents.

Hope that helps.

Re: What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

marcohadiyanto — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:32:19 GMT

hi, Miguel

i want to ask,

Named / User CALs is the license assigned to a user, so we have a user for many document. is that right for my understanding?

how about Document Cal? a document can be access many user or a document only can access by one user, concurrency?

if i want buy user cal, i must buy document cal?

thanks ,

Marco

Re: What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Miguel_Angel_Baeyens — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:46:09 GMT

Hello Marco,

Name or User CALs are licenses assigned to one user that allows this user to view any document available in the server. The same user cannot be in two different machines, otherwise one of the sessions will be released.

Document CALs are licenses assigned for one user to one document, so if this user needs to see two different documents, he will use two licenses. Document CALs have some limitations regarding the document design as well, they allow very limited logic islands and they cannot be allocated to documents where the farther tables have more records than inner tables (cardinality). Document CALs cannot be leased (you cannot edit a document in your Desktop Application with a Document CAL).

You can buy some User CALs and no Document CALs. Anyway, the best you can do is check your requirements with your partner or your QlikView sales rep.

Hope that helps.

Miguel Angel Baeyens

BI Consultant

Comex Grupo Ibérica

What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

christian77 — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:51:07 GMT

I´m I missing Concurrent CAL?

What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Miguel_Angel_Baeyens — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:01:51 GMT

Do you mean Usage CALs? They may be used for more than one person at a time, provided the session doesn't last longer than one hour and some other restrictions you can find in the Server Ref. Man.

Apart from those four, I don't know of any other user license type.

Regards,

Miguel Angel Baeyens

BI Consultant

Comex Grupo Ibérica

Re: What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

marcohadiyanto — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:07:44 GMT

hi Miguel

thanks for your quick response,

can we check document cal usage on server?

on browser user can modify document. which license can do that? how we set user can modify document or not?

@Chirstian77 only four license for qlikview: User Cal,Document Cal, Session Cal, Usage Cal.

for SBE(Small Bussiness Edition) only two license : User Cal and Document Cal

for EE (Enterprise Edition) : User Cal,Document Cal, Session Cal, Usage Cal.

Thanks,

Marco

What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

christian77 — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:15:33 GMT

Yeap. Concurrent CAL is an ancient term that comes to be Session CAL

What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Miguel_Angel_Baeyens — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:46:05 GMT

Hi,

The IE Plugin doesn't allow to change documents, rather than, if any, create or modify shared object (with the Enterprise Edition server license).

Document CALs can be checked either looking for a user in the QlikView Enterprise Management Console or selecting the different documents available, a tab "Document CALs" will appear on the right side.

Any user with security permissions granted to modify the file and that has QlikView Desktop installed is able to modify the document. If you want to avoid User CAL assigned users to do that, then you need to add a section access in your document, or make it available only by client (AJAX, Plugin, etc).

Hope that helps.

Miguel Angel Baeyens

BI Consultant

Comex Grupo Ibérica

Re: What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:44:51 GMT

HI Miguel,

I checked QLikview server license. It has

NUMBER_OF_SESSIONCALS;20;;

NUMBER_OF_USERCALS;180;;

What does that means.. How many concurrent users can work on this system and per user how many sessions are allowed.

To my understanding 180 Named users are allowed and 20 anonymouse users can login. So is that mean that 200 users can work simaltaneously on the system..

Pls guide

Thanks in Adv

Re: What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:51:02 GMT

Hi Tarun,

That means you have 180 users who have dedicated licenses. All of these people can access simultaneously, but it needs to be these specific users.

The 20 session CALs are additional concurrent users, not tied to specific user names. So besides the 180 dedicated users, you can have an additional 20 users on the system at any given time. When one of the concurrent Session CAL users leaves the application, the session CAL will be made available should another user connect.

Hope this explains the license.

Re: What is a Named CAL? What is the difference between User Cal, Usage Cal and Session Cal?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:03:01 GMT

That means 200 concurrent users can access the system in best case scenario.

Thanks Johannes Sunden .