How to develop Qlik Sense Dashboards with a large coding team

[tanmay_bhardwaj]

In my organization we have installed Qlik Sense Qlik Sense Enterprise Client Managed for Windows on windows servers commissioned separately for development and production environment.

Using Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) a developer logs in to work on Qlik Sense development server for coding and development. But the constraint here is that only two developers can do remote access a time to the server as limited by the RDC. In this situation other developers either have to sit idle or we do time slicing to identify who will work when.

I wonder if this problem could be solved, there must be many organizations working in similar settings. To get maximum productivity from the team I wish if all can code at the same time on their individual work items.

Please advise.

Environment: Qlik Sense Enterprise Client Managed for Windows

Version: QlikSense February 2023, QlikSense Server: 14.113.2

[jonashertz · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure I understand your question?

Normally Qlik Sense Enterprise Developers accesses the applications via the Hub in a web browser that can communicate (check ports etc.) with the Qlik Sense Server(s). Roughly the workflow is (in the browser): they take a copy of the app, do their changes and publish the app back to the stream/space when done. They should never need use RDP to login to the machine where Qlik Sense Enterprise services are running from.

Using RDP was how we worked in the glory old days with QlikView when virtual machines wasn't used by everyone yet. Back then small clients sometimes only had one physical machine with QlikView server humming in the basement that we also developed the apps on 🙂

[Or]

RDP is only limited to two connections if you haven't licensed it for more. If you'd like more people using it at the same time, you just have to license accordingly.

As suggested by @jonashertz , there's no reason to use RDP in the first place, though. Everyone can develop locally. There are also third-party tools intended for a multi-developer environment to deal with version control, promotion to environments, change tracking, etc. - see https://community.qlik.com/t5/Official-Support-Articles/Version-Control-Solution-Suggestions-for-Qli...

[tanmay_bhardwaj]

@jonashertz , your understanding is absolutely correct. I just checked the development ecosystem after your response. I found out that the QMC link is not working when I access it outside the server, may be it is restricted/blocked. Probably for this reason all the developers are forced to login to the server for coding. If the networking team can help to make the QMC link accessible outside the server will the development approach that you suggested work seamlessly?

I have recently joined this team wherein we are migrating dashboards from QW to QS and found this access issue as a limiting factor in the development and thought of reaching out to the Qlik community.

Many thanks for your response!

[tanmay_bhardwaj]

@Or I did explore the option to get more RDP licenses but they proved to be a bit costly. As you also agreed to  suggestion from @jonashertz I will explore more on its feasibility.

Thanks for your help! 

[jonashertz]

@tanmay_bhardwaj yes seems you need to figure out how you can access the Hub/Qmc from your developers machines!

Let us hope that making sure the developers are on the same network and opening the correct ports will be enough for everyone getting to the Hub. Qlik help is really good but it can be a jungle to find the right place:

Below are links to the ports page (I would start checking thoose first), then there are more extensive documentation in the Guides that might come handy should the server not be 100% correct deployed.

Ports | Qlik Sense for administrators Help
Guides for administrators | Qlik Sense for administrators Help

Note that the management console (QMC) normally does not need to be used by your developers. Once the spaces are setup with developers having the right access rights they will use the Hub just as everyone else but with rights to change and publish apps.