Top 5 Things to Know When Using Qlik Cloud Analytics

Troy_Raney · Jul 31, 2023 5:16:33 AM

This session addresses:
- Creating, Uploading & Scheduling Apps
- User & Space Management
- Email Sharing Functionality
- Best Practices

Environment

Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS

00:00 - Intro

01:14 - Creating a new app

04:48 - Uploading an app to SaaS

05:28 - Making Multiple Selections

06:34 - Scheduling a Reload

08:19 - Troubleshooting Reload Failed

09:28 - How to Download an App

10:07 - Difference between space types

11:02 - Moving an app to a different space

12:58 - How to Publish an app

15:14 - How to Manage Users

15:48 - What if an app is deleted

16:37 - How to Setup Email Notifications

19:30 - Qlik SaaS Documentation and Resources

20:09 - Questions and Answers

Resources

Q&A

Q: If we want to reload on real time basis. then what approach we follow?
A: You should be able to follow the same reload schedule functionality as we discussed. Whenever the reload occurred it will refresh the data automatically. Article - Reloading Apps Cloud Hub

Q: Is a "space" the same as a "Stream" in the server edition?
A: When an app is published to a stream in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows, distribution policies created by your Qlik Sense administrator determine the target cloud hubs that will receive the app with tags using custom app properties or Streams are created in QMC and access to streams is set in QMC. Published apps have restrictions with how content can be added to it after publishing. While in SaaS Spaces are sections of the cloud hub itself used to Collaboratively develop apps and Control access to apps.

Q: Is there any maximum App Size (.qvf) limitation when you import an app into SaaS QMC?
A: Direct uploads of apps are limited to 250 MB for Qlik Sense Business and 500 MB for Qlik Sense Enterprise on Cloud Services, while the quota measured during reload is set to 1.25 GB for Qlik Sense Business and 2.5 GB for Qlik Sense Enterprise on Cloud Services. Article - Qlik Sense Business and Enterprise SaaS App Size Storage Size

Q: Wait, your telling me there is ZERO backup of apps. so, if someone in a self-service capacity accidently deletes an app, its gone for good? is it possible to use the API to export a copy of all apps on a nightly basis? Can the data be removed from the apps prior to export?
A: Yes you can export an app using Qlik- CLI. Please check the compatibility before use: Article - Qlik CLI support and compatibility

Q: How to upload an App from Qlik Sense Enterprise into "Managed Space" (or Shared Space) automatically. For instance after each daily reload in Qlik Sense Enterprise.
A: You can publish the app into managed space and perform reload task from there.

Q: How do I get Data from my QS Enterprise Server?
A: Using a multi-cloud environment.

Q: Can I create qvds?
A: Article - QVD files scripting

Q: Can you use Section Access in Qlik Sense SaaS?
A: Yes, section access can be implemented. Please see Managing security with section access for more information. Article - Manage security with section access

Q: Hi, how can we monitor the usage on app level? e.g. how many users opened a particular app and for how long they used it?
A: The App Analyzer for Qlik SaaS customers is available NOW

Q: Can you trace users access to SaaS? Logon to the hub and opening of apps and so on.
A: No Trace is available at this moment, but you can control the access of the user via your administration rights.

Q: Can you make folders in personal space? for different apps?
A: No, but a feature request is in progress. Currently you can make more than one personal space in your tenant.

Q: It might be not related to this topic....how to migrate qlikview to QlikSense Saas?
A: QlikView - Qlik Sense Overview - Help.Qlik.com

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to the December edition of Support Techspert Thursdays.
Today's presentation is: Top 5 Things to Know When Using Qlik Sense SaaS with Akshesh Patel.
Yes, hello everyone. Welcome to the Techspert Thursdays. My name is Akshesh Patel and I’m a technical support engineer at Qlik.
Today's agenda, we will discuss how we can create an app, how we can upload an app, how we can schedule that app and how we can download the app. User and space management. That is very important, because that's the place where you can manage your apps in Qlik Sense.
The next thing we’re gonna discuss is an overview of email sharing functionality. That is also a very cool feature. We will be going to discuss how we can set up the SMTP function and we will be going to see the live action of how that works. And last but not the least, I’m going to include some help documents and articles that can help you along your work.
Akki, if someone's new to Qlik Senses, where would you get started? What would be the first thing you would do?
Yes, the first thing we will going to do is to log in to your Qlik Sense SaaS with your tenant id and password. So, here is my screen. This is my tenant id. So, first thing I’m gonna do is go to my Qlik Sense tenant. As soon as you go to your tenant id, you will be redirected to your login page. So, you have to enter your email id and password here; and just hit the login button. And as soon as you hit the login button, you will be redirected to your home hub.
This is your hub.
Okay. And how would you get started creating an app?
Yes. To do that, it’s very simple. You just have to click on the add new button here; and there is an option called ‘New Analytics App.’ And just name your app. Let's say “My First App.” And the second option is you just have to decide in which space you want to put this app. We're going to discuss more about the spaces in a little bit. So, for now, I’m just going to keep this in my personal space. Descriptions: ‘first app in Qlik Sense SaaS.’ So you can put anything that can describe your app. So, and these are the tags that can help you to find your app if you have like you know a bunch of apps. Just hit the create button. And ta-da! Our first step is ready.
You see “My First App.” So, let's open it up.
I imagine it's empty at the beginning. You need to add some data to it.
Yes. The first thing you're going to do is to add the data to app. We have like two ways to add the data. You can directly drag and drop your file over here; or you can go to script editor and create a connection and upload there. For now, we're going to use add data from files and other sources.
So, we just have to hit here. And there is a ‘Data File’ file location. Data file’s is available by default in Qlik Sense SaaS. So, every time you will see it. For example: CSV or Excel file. You just have to hit here and ‘data file.’ And then you know, you can just say we have like a Test_Data.xls. We're going to use that.
So, you got a lot of test data files there. Are these ones you've already used for creating apps in the past?
Um, yes. Okay, so and the first thing is like; let's say this is um the Excel file. And it has three sheets in there. For now, we just gonna use all three of them, because all three is interrelated to each other.
Let's just hit next.
Okay the first thing it is to the data manager, where you can relate your tables together. We have like a very nice functionality, you know. There is a recommendation association on the right side. It will automatically analyze the data and give you the recommendation. We will just going to use these intelligences.
Is that the Insight Advisor recommending those connections?
Yes. Once you hit the “apply all” association, you just have to hit the load data one more time.
There is two options available here. ‘Go to Insights:’ it will be going to generate a few pre-loaded charts and KPIs for you. And the, another options we have is ‘Go to Sheets’ directly. We're just going to go to Sheet directly.
You see, here is our data. All these fields. So, let's just create a basic chart from this data. Let's just drag and drop the bar chart. And of course, we need to add the dimension and measure. Let's just add the dimension: city. And let's just add the measure: sales, which is gonna see the sum of sales by city. Here it is. So, we have a nice chart over here, showing the sum of sales by city. See the done editing button, and there is. You can just play with your data here.
So, what if I've already been using Sense for a while, and I have some apps I just want to bring to my SaaS environment?
Oh, that is pretty good question. Let's go back to our hub. This is your hub. This is your first impressions when you log into Qlik Sense. So, for uploading an app, what you have to do is you just have to click again on the “Add New” button. And there is an option called ‘Upload an App.’ So, you just have to hit here. And again, this is very cool feature. You can just drag and drop your existing applications to here. Let's just hit the ‘browse’ button. And let’s say, we have an app here. It's called “Test_App.” Just double click on it. Just assign the space. Okay, so now we have the Test_App over here. So, let's just open our Test_App, and see if it's there. Wow! Our Test_App is here.
I would like to show you a very cool feature of Lasso. So before, we had the impressions that Lasso only allows you to select the values in loop, but it's not like that. The Lasso allow you to select any values in the chart. So, for example, let's say you want to select the first bar. So, we just hit the first bar, and now you know, you want to select the last one. This one: Columbus. So, you don’t have to drag everything here. What you have to do is, just click on it, and just take your mouse to here. You see. We just selected it. And now you want to select the middle value. So, you just have to take your lasso back here. Now you want to go, you want to select another value. Just you have to take this, here. Now you have to select this one. So, you can select multiple values you know by going anywhere. So, it's not a loop anymore. So, it's a very cool feature, you know.
All right. We both know that data changes all the time. How can you schedule your apps to reload and make sure the data is up to date?
Okay. So, let's go back to the hub. Let’s see that in action. In terms of scheduling an app; um, let’s go back to our Test_App; uh, My_First_App, let's say. That's the app that we created. Or the Test_App that we uploaded. You see the three dart buttons over here? You just have to click on that. And there is option directly available to you; and that is ‘Schedule a Reload.’ Let's just click on it.
All you have to do is just to set that to ‘Active.’ These options will give you how frequently you want to schedule your app. So, for now, let's just say we want to schedule this app weekly. The next option we have, the interval. So, let's just say every week. Okay, we want to schedule our app Tuesday, because our data refresh every Monday. And the timing. So, let's say uh, we want to select the time at 10:30. So every 10:30 am at Tuesday, every weekly. So, you just assign the time frame to schedule this app accordingly as you want. So, let's just save it. Okay, now you successfully schedule your app. Now let's say you want to see the schedules of this app. So, what you can do is: you can just directly go to your administration window. And then there is option called ‘Schedules.’ So, you can see um the schedules in detail over here.
Cool! So, here's where you can see all the different scheduled reloads, and they’re organized by app.
Yes. If you want to see in detail; you just have to select this. And just, you know, view it so you can see all the settings that you have done.
Is this where you would look if any of the reloads failed? Will it tell you if there have been any issues with these reloads from here?
Ah yes. That's a very good question. So, what we can do here is: we can just go back to our hub. And so here is the Reload_App. Uh-oh. So, you see there is a red exclamation mark over here. So, whenever the app reload got failed, there is a red exclamation mark over here. We just have to hit this red button; and then there is a reload history.
Now let's say you want to see why it failed. So, you can take a look at the log file here. So just you have to hit the log file; and there is an error in the log files. If you understand, it very nice. But if you don't understand, and you are not sure what to do with this error; what you can do is: you know you can always take this error. You can copy this error. Let's go to our support site.
And you can paste your error over here. That is just hit the search button; and it will going to give you a bunch of articles over here. And just take a look. No worries if you do not find any article over here. You can always open a support case with the logs, and support team will be definitely happy to help you.
How can you download an app from Qlik Sense SaaS?
Yes. So there are two ways to download an app. So, let's say, we have this, our My_First_App, and if we want this app to be stored on our local directory also. So, what you can do is: just hit it, hit the button over here, the three-dot button. And then there is option called ‘Export with Data’ or ‘Export without the Data.’ So, we’re gonna hit ‘Export with Data.’ So, it will automatically download the QVF file to your local directory. So, one thing here is: you can only download an app that belongs to you, or in your personal space.
Speaking of spaces, what’s the difference between the three types of spaces?
So, we have a personal space, shared space, and a manage space. Personal space is your own private work area in the cloud hub. So basically, where user can create their own personal apps in a private mode. The next, we have is shared space. The logo itself speaks about the spaces. If you have an app, you want to build that app in a team, so you can put that app in a shared space.
Okay.
And the last we have is a managed space. This is used for providing governed access to the apps with strict access control. So basically, in a managed space, only the space owner and target app-consumer can open the apps. And the one thing to note here is: managed spaces are only available with Qlik Sense Enterprise edition version. It is not available in Qlik Sense Business yet.
Could you show us how you move an app from one space to another?
Um, yes. So, we have an app, and you want to share it. So, let's move this app to the shared space, so we can get some help from our colleagues also. If we go to our personal space, we will be going to see this app. Okay. This is our My_First_App. This is in our personal space. So, if we want to move this app to the Shared space, what we can do is uh, we can just hit the ‘Move.’ And we just select the Shared space. And hit the ‘Move.’ It will be going to move it. So, you see now, if we go to our Shared space, there is our app: My_First_App.
Okay so it's in the space. How do we actually share it with the different users?
Yes. What you can do is: you can add your members to this shared space. So, they can see this app. Let's see that in action. To do that, what you have to do is click on the gear button, here. And there is a ‘Member’ section over here. And now let’s just add more members in here. We just hit it. So, let's just add the Ray over here, so he can also see the app.
The next thing is very important. Once you select the users, you can give them what kind of access you want to give them. They can only able to view it, the admin of the app or they can just edit the app.
Okay.
So, let let's just give: ‘Can Edit’ permission to Ray. Just hit the add member. And we have the Ray here. So, whenever Ray login to his Qlik Sense hub, he will going to see this app. Let's just login with Ray’s credential and see.
Okay, I’m just gonna login with the Ray’s credential. There we go. So, we have Ray logged in here. So, if you go to Explore, and here is his app. Shared space. Now he can able to see our First_App. Let's go back to…
I've heard the term ‘Sharing’ and ‘Publishing’ being used as if they’re the same. How would you explain the difference between those two terms?
So yeah. Sharing is like moving an app from Personal space to Shared space.
Like what you just did, yeah.
Publishing an app, it means you are publishing the whole copy of your app to a Managed space environment. So, once we publish the app into Managed space, the app itself will make a copy. App will not go anywhere, but the whole copy of the app will be published to a Manage space environment.
Okay.
So now let's just try to publish an app. To publish it, what we have to do is: just click on the three dots, and there is option called ‘Publish.’ It will give options to our Managed space. So, this is our Managed space. If we hit the ‘Publish.’ But you see the app is still there, in the Shared space. If we go to our Manage space, there is app. You see: My_First_App. Now it’s got published.
So, it's been developed enough to show and use; and it's in a little more public area for use. Okay.
Um-hmm. And the one thing is: you cannot download the published app. Please, please note that you cannot download it. You see so there is no option to download it. That's why it keeps the copy of the app in Shared space or a Personal space; so, you can still work on the app.
As the admin, how would you control who has access to this Managed space?
So, to do that, we just have to go to our Managed space. There is a section called ‘Members.’ Just have to hit that; and same thing, you just have to add here. Let's just add. Okay so in Manage space, it's a little bit different. We have here more kind of like a strict access, and more features available. He can View, he can Contribute, he can Manage, or he can Publish. So, it allows you to configure the way the admin wants. To add members, see. Now Ray’s here.
Now let's just go back to Ray’s portal. We already been logged in here. Just go to Explore. And let's see, just go to - now he can be - a now he's a part of a Managed space, so he can also able to see our space that is called a Managed1, and see we have the app here.
I see you already had yourself and Ray; but how did you manage users in Qlik Sense SaaS?
Yes. If you want to manage the user in Qlik Sense SaaS, what you can do is: you can just go to simply go to your Administration panel. And then here, there is a ‘Governance’ section called ‘Users.’ So, you can add and invite users, you know. Here, so for example, we have like four users currently, and it says their user ids, and roles. If you want to invite the user, simply just hit the ‘Invite’ button, and type the email address, and just you know, send the invitations.
So, what if someone accidentally deletes an app?
Let's just go back to hub. This is very important. And we have seen cases in the past, you know. Once you delete the app, there is no way to restore it back. The reason behind that is: currently Qlik Sense SaaS does not hold any backup bin that can store it. For example, if you have this Test_App, and if you want to delete the app; we can hit the ‘Delete’ button. It says “Are you sure you want to delete the app? Because this cannot be undone.”
So Akki, what would you suggest for best practice when handling apps?
Yes. The best practice is to make a copy of the app, so you can just create a Personal space; and you still have a copy of that app. That's a best practice for now.
Okay, so if you want to have some email notifications for changes that are made; how do we set that up?
Yes, that is a very cool feature. Configuring an email server enables you to receive notifications and share charts by email. To set up SMTP, you just have to go to our Administration panel, here. There is option in configurations, it’s called ‘Settings.’ Let's just hit on that. And there is a section in the bottom says, ‘Email Server.’ So, this is where we gonna put our SMTP credentials.
So, for example, I am using Office 365. You just have to open your Outlook. And click on the gear icon; and search for I am IMAP setting or POP setting. There is a section called, you just have to click on: ‘Sync Email.’ We will be going to use this our SMTP settings.
So, let’s put this into our Qlik Sense environment. Just have to test it. It will open up pop-up. And I’m just gonna send the email. So, if you have a successfully set up your email address, it will give this message. It’s a test email, this confirm your setting are configured correctly. So now let's see this feature in action.
Now let's go back to our hub. Okay. Let's go back to our Test_App. And let’s say if you want to share this chart to your colleagues. So simply what you can do is: you can just click; right-click on the chart. Hit the ‘Share’ button. Let's see, if you want to set this image - now there is option of the email address. Let's say I want to share this chart to myself. Let's say “…sales by city.” Just share it. Now we have email sent successfully.
Voila! We did receive the email successfully with the chart that we said.
Nice.
It’s a bar chart showing sum of sales by city. If the user is already a part of the space, they can directly click on the ‘View in Qlik Sense’ redirected to their Qlik Sense SaaS environment.
If you are not sure if your local IT or if your admin already has set up the email server for you, or not. Go back to our Administration panel. If we go back to our Settings. And then let’s just erase all these settings. So now it should not work now.
Let's go back to our app and let's just try to share the chart that we did previously again. And if we right-click on it; click on the ‘Share.’ And see, let's try to share it. See - we got the error: “This feature requires an email server. Please verify the configuration.”
This is great Akki. Thank you very much. If people wanted to learn more, what are some resources they could use to read up on things?
Yes, definitely. If you go to, like, Help.Qlik.com, the documentation we have available that is Qlik Sense Help about Qlik Sense Business, and also Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS edition, and getting set-up. Also, it has all the sections that can - that is very useful, you know. So, if we talk about the spaces, we have a very nice description of spaces over here. Here is a very nice video-tutorial. Describes about the spaces, that can discuss in more in detail.
Okay, now it's time for some Q and A. Please submit your questions through the Q&A panel on the left side of your On24 console. Akki, which question would you like to address first?
Yeah, I see a very good question here is: a difference between Qlik Sense Business and Qlik Sense Enterprise edition?
I think both products are very similar to each other. The only difference we have is Qlik Sense Business is more kind of like a Personal Edition of subscription. And Qlik Sense Enterprise is kind of more like a corporate level product. So, for example, Qlik Sense Business does not have the capability of data Alerting, or Managed spaces, or you have limited number of Shared spaces you can create, it's like five. I guess that's the maximum amount that you can create, the spaces. In Qlik Sense Enterprise editions, you can create a Manage spaces, and also you have the feature of data Alerting.
We have a very good help site where you can compare the both products, and also features of both products. So, here is, we have Qlik compare product feature, and we also have the pricing over here. There is a section called Qlik Sense Business and Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS feature overview. Once you click the ‘expand all’ feature, you can just see all these in detail, you see. We don’t see much difference. But there is a difference, called like Managed spaces, data Alerts, single sign-on… This is a very good site to refer, and you know, differentiate between the two products.
That's great. And we'll be sure to include this link as well. Nice. Thank you. Next question?
Yes, the next question I see is: can I run a site of one SLK that is a site dedicated to testing?
I will say, Qlik might help to assign you a single license key, you know, Signed License Key for testing purpose; but I’m not sure if you can you run a site off on one SLK that is the site dedicated to testing. You can definitely talk with the Customer Support, and they will definitely be able to help you.
Okay.
It says: replace app when publish option is not available; is it in the road map?
So, it will be an Enhancement Request for the feature. Definitely you can go to our community site and put this is as an enhancement request; and our RnD team will be happy to address this.
So, the next question we have here is: how to handle mashups in SaaS?
We have a very nice descriptions of this: how you can create and how we can handle the mashup in SaaS. So, what you have to do is: just go to Help.Qlik.com, and search for your query, and you will - we have very nice section called “Building Your First Mashup” with SaaS Edition of Qlik Sense. And it will give you a very nice description here, how you can do that.
So, the one I see: Is our Microsoft OneDrive file supported for refreshing data in Sense Cloud Business?
Yes! In terms of connectors, if you have a OneDrive available in your connectors, and you have connected to your OneDrive, you can definitely able to refresh data and refresh your app.
The next we have is: What connectors are available on Qlik Sense SaaS?
So, we have basically more than 60 connectors available in Qlik Sense SaaS. For a detailed descriptions of the connectors: so, we have like a bunch of data, but a bunch of connectors available over here. These are the list of database connectors that is available for now. These are the all ODBC database connectors and then Essbase, REST, Salesforce, SAP. And then these all, we have a very nice connectors called Qlik Web Connectors, where you can connect to your web data. This is all available in the help site.
Yeah, in terms of that um data connections, I would like to address one thing. You know, if you have the data connections that requires passing through a Firewall; go through our help site and look for these IP addresses that you need to white list it, okay.
Okay, we have time for one last question.
Okay, the next question I see is: we want to give access to only publish app, create and manage task?
So yes. As we seen previously, you can manage the permission as you want in your Managed space. So, let's say, if we go to our Managed space. And then if we go to our Members. There it is. You can manage it; you know from here. It says: Can View, Can Contribute, Can Manage, or Can Publish.
So, I guess, to publish, create and manage tasks, that would be…?
That will be: Can Publish and Can Manage, yes. You don't have to go through the QMC again anymore, you know.
Great.
I would like to say thank you for taking the time today to attending Techspert Thursdays, and I’m very glad that I can able to demonstrate. Again, thank you so much
Okay great! Thank you, everyone. We hope you enjoyed this session. And thank you to Akshesh for presenting. We appreciate getting experts like Akki to share with us. Here is our legal disclaimer. And thank you once again. Have a great rest of your day.

Top 5 Things to Know When Using Qlik Cloud Analytics