topic Re:Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView in QlikView

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:04:55 GMT

Dear all. I would like to start a discussion thread regarding one of the, from my point of view, weaknesses of QlikView: formatted reporting. The aim of this discussion is to share experiences, solutions for common problems, best practices,...

From my understanding, the only way to generate formatted reports is enclosing previously generated qlikview objects (charts, tables, etc.) in pdf or ppt. The main problem is that these objects are designed for analysis and not for reporting. To work this problem around, we usually create a new (and hiden) tab, with the same objects but incorporing some changes in order to adapt them for a print-prepared report... Nevertheless, the result is not as good as using reporting specific tools such us Crystal Reports, Oracle Publisher and so on...

What is your experience with this?

Regards,

Julio.

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

prieper — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:12:40 GMT

Have you tried the report-section in QV? We use this (with selections either made manually before printing the report, or by macro) in most cases.

Peter

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:50:21 GMT

Hello Peter.

Actually, we use the report-section functionalities in QV. From my understanding, the main problem is you can only use/enclose previously generated objects in this "report-section". And these "previously generated" objects (charts, tables, etc.) are designed for analysis within QV interface and not to be used in "reports to be printed".

To clarify this situation, lets take QV tables as an example. Within QV interface, pivot tables work fine, but if you print a table, you may need more formatting options such us:

- Merging colum headers

- Subtotal / Total rows behind rows to be totalized and left alligned

- ...

I mean: specific objects to be included in reports to be printed are needed.

Regards.

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

prieper — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:41:39 GMT

Apart from the analysis-part we create objects, which are specially designed (actually cloned from existing objects and then reworked) in order to be included in reports (typically from a hidden sheet).
Might be a possible solution for you as well.

Peter

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:42:30 GMT

Julio

I fully agree with your view of making reports in Qlik. It requires a lot of additional work without giving the needed control - so it might be better to do reports with a reporting tool and do analysis with Qlik.

e.g.
- create dynamic growing textboxes with current selections
- print multiple diagrams when getting scrollbars on the screen
- only single level of banding

Just the tons of functions usually available with a reporting tool are missing.

Jürg

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:26:10 GMT

That´s my point, Jürg.

I miss some of the typical reporting functions. We usually workaround this issue cloning and adapting objects,a Peter said. QlikView is absolutelly great for analysis, but I think next QV releases should include better reporting functions.

Does anyone know of any reporting-specific tool, similar to Crystal Reports, integrated to QlikView?

Regards,

Julio.

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:27:45 GMT

I also struggle with the Qlikview reporting functionality as a production worthy format. It can be extremely frustrating working in the small "preview" mode. Text scales so a single page with multiple tables has several font sizes. Hard to make a report you can sit on your bosses desk.

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:03:00 GMT

Just a question... has anyone used / is it possible to use specific reporting tools, such us Crystal Reports, over QlikView???

Regards.

Re:Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

pablolabbe — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:16:17 GMT

Qlikview 8.5 provides an ODBC driver. Not sure if supported with v9, maybe it was deprecated.

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:26:41 GMT

All,

I have been working on QlikView projects for years. The issue of how to take advantage of QlikView's analytic power in corporate reporting is one which I have faced in many if not all QlikView projects. Users love the speed and flexibility in terms of analysis, but don't find corresponding ease of use when it comes to reporting.

It seems that you are looking for a reporting tool for QlikView which:

- doesn't modify the underlying QlikView document

- doesn't require you to duplicate, modify or maintain objects you've already created

- lets you re-use the report templates you develop

- doesn't require the use or maintenance of macros

- lets you apply advanced formatting

- is not expensive in terms of license cost and training

Because of this, we have developed NPrinting; a tool which lets you port data from QlikView into Excel templates which are then populated with data dynamically. It requires a bit of work up front to prepare the templates, but they are easy to maintain and share, and output is in Excel format which means you can use all of Excel's formatting tools. The time it takes to create an Excel template is about the same amount of time it takes to create a QlikView report but maintaining and modifying reports is far faster in NPrinting.

There is a free version available for download (link below).

Reports can be sent by e-mail in .pdf or .xls formats using our scheduling tool (NScheduler) which will be available later in March.

NPrinting: QlikView reports made easy .

Pixel Perfect (Formatted) Reporting in QlikView

chrisbrain — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:28:14 GMT

Hi,

We have been developing an Excel Add-In for creating reports from QlikView in Excel. It works as follows:

- You drag objects from your QlikView documents into your Excel file (this is a standard QV feature), for example listboxes, charts and tables.
- The Add-In allows you to either 'map' entire charts/tables to excel ranges or run any QlikView expression in an Excel cell using a new function which is made available through the Add-In.
- You build your pixel perfect reports then in Excel using the familiar environments.
- The data is then 'live' and making selections in the listboxes you have dragged into your Excel file cause the reports to update.

We think it's particularly suited to creating financial reports and have a comprehensive guide here showing a P&L developed using the Add-In

http://bit.ly/bvuVMe

You can see further blog posts about the Add-In here along with a download request link:

http://www.qlikster.com/?tag=/excel

Would be interested in your thoughts - please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.