Creating a master measure data dictionary for users

[thomasmercer]

My app has 100+ master measures across several sheets and I'm finding it isn't always easy for users to understand what underlying measures represent of how they are calculated.

I've started to add descriptions to all master measures for this purpose, which they can see by going into edit > master measures > find the measure and click it for the description. It is a lot of clicks and I'm wanting to keep non-advanced out of the edit menu as much as possible also as it can be quite complicated for non-advanced users.

Ideally I'd like to have a 'data dictionary' sheet that populates a table with all master measure / dimension names and descriptions directly from the app but haven't had any luck finding a way to do this. I could do this in a separate data set but that would be a pain to maintain.

I'm open to any suggestions and keen to know what other developers have done to help facilitate user definition understanding.

Cheers

Thomas

[mkamal]

did anybody have a solution to this issue?

[rwunderlich · Accepted solution]

I find the simplest technique is to enable "show details" for each chart.  Then when the user selects "details", they will see the descriptions for the Dimensions and Measures used in the chart. 

Another option is to install the qcb-qlik-sse Server Side Extension https://github.com/RobWunderlich/qcb-qlik-sse and use GetMeasures() in the script to extract the names and descriptions to a table.  Soon I'll get around to adding a GetDimensions() to the SSE if someone doesn't beat me to it. 

-Rob
http://masterssummit.com
http://qlikviewcookbook.com
http://www.easyqlik.com

[mkamal]

Rob, thank for your response.  

It sounds like if I go with your first recommendation then I have to create master items for each of my descriptions and measures and then enter in a description like the threat below suggests?

https://community.qlik.com/t5/New-to-Qlik-Sense/Show-Details-Options-on-Charts/td-p/1304033

[rwunderlich]

Yes, the show details on works for Master Dimensions and Master Measures.  So the downside is that you must use Master items to get descriptions in show details. The upside is that this imposes an amount of discipline that can be valuable. 

-Rob

[mkamal]

Thank you Rob!

[rakeshshah]

Another option here is to store the data in an excel (or GoogleSheets) with say 3 columns, MeasureName, MeasureLabel, and MeasureDescription.

and you can load this data in as (and auto-create) variables with the values. Then in the master item the label could be ='$(vMeasureLabelA)'

the description or footnote on the measure you could have ='$(vMeasureDesccription)' - this way you can change all references if the description ever changes - without having to go to every visualisation.

Slightly different version to the other answers.

Rakesh