The use of metadata with QlikSense

[#1]

Hello,

I am a complete newbie to Qlik and I would like to ask the following; What are the options of integrating / working with metadata in Qlik Sense? Are there any extensions, web application or can QlikSense do it natively? Or can it do it at all? I am asking about both metadata in general (technical, operational etc.) and business metadata.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[ogster1974]

Qlik can work with lots of data. what you need to do is make sure you can connect to it.  where is your data stored? What is it stored in? Chose a connection that will allow you to connect to it and then you can select which data you want to pull in through the load script the getting started videos will show you how to setup a basic connection.

[#3]

It is a part of my bachelor thesis, to test how Qlik (and other tools) can work with metadata. So at this moment I am just asking about the possibilities of working with metadata before I start putting the theory into practice. So Qlik can do it natively I take it? Set up two tables and Qlik will pull data from both and show the metadata to reader as tags or description?

[petter · Accepted solution]

QlikView and Qlik Sense have access to their meta data natively yes:

During a load script execution which is the phase during which a Qlik application retrieve data from various sources, transform the data and finally creates the in-memory structure of fields and tables fully indexed and associated.

During load you have these functions available:

• FieldName( <field_number> , <table_name> )
• FieldNumber( <field_name> , <table_name> )
• NoOfFields( <table_name> )
• NoOfRows( <table_name> )
• NoOfTables()
• TableName( <table_number> )
• TableNumber( <table_name> )

By utilizing all of these functions with the procedural language of the "load script" it is very easy to get to the major meta data of a Qlik Data Model and possibly export, report or make a meta data "data model" of some sort.

The Data Model Viewer is an inspector that can be used in Qlik Sense to view the table structure, the fields and meta data about these like for instance cardinality of field values, key fields and much more.

Furthermore the load script has the special statements TAG and COMMENT that allows both table and field comments as well as multiple tags to be associated directly with any field and table. This feature is quite sophisticated so you are allowed not only directly tag and comment one field and table one by one but also do a tagging and commenting which utilize mapping tables. So external database tables can be read and the values there can be used to massively tag and comment all the fields and tables enhancing and enriching the meta data in both Qlik Sense and QlikView.

Qlik also offers very extensive APIs that will let you interrogate the meta data structure of both a QlikView application and a Qlik Sense application. Qlik Branch

Document Analyzer that is a free tool that is specifically for QlikView has been available for years and is continously updated:

For Qlik Sense there is an Open Source program available on Qlik Branch that allows for storing an app in a JSON-file which then can be read by any suitable tool to inspect all kinds of meta data not only the data as such but meta data about the UI, dimensions, measures , expressions, variables etc etc.Document Analyzer V3.0 Update Available This also shows the power of the Qlik Sense API.

When it comes to operational meta data both QlikView and Qlik Sense provides a wealth of information through their logs. There is both an application log which is a transcript of the execution of the load script of an application during reload. There is also a task execution log that is information about the task reloads the level above the load script log. Not to forget both performance logs and auditing logs. All can be harnessed for operational meta data and there are various tools that can be used to report on these. The operation aspects covers both the batch execution environment and the application execution environment.

I haven't covered all bases when it comes to meta data - but this is all I have time for just now. Hope it gives you inspiration to investigate the subject deeply. Would love to see the report at some point

[#5]

Thank you very much for your insightful answer! Would it be ok if I messaged you if I required further assistance? I assume it would be generally theory-wise questions.

[petter]

Sure - please do.