How to activate Qlik answers on a distributed app ?

[thomasmaure]

Hello , 

We are in a business context where apps are reloaded in qlik sense client managed and then pushed to Qlik cloud tenant via multi-cloud distribution mechanism . 

This is working fine but we have no access to app settings in the qlik cloud tenant for a distributed app, and thus we cannot activate qlik answers on it . 

Can someone explain if this is a design choice or just a temporary limitation ?  

Thanks
Thomas

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See the difference for a 'distributed' app 

And the same app exported from QS client managed and reimported in QlikCloud tenant 

 

[isacstigenhed]

I have the exact same problem! 
Hope we can get some answers on this topic soon. 

[Greg_Taffer]

Hey Thomas,

This behavior is a design choice inherent to the multi-cloud architecture, not a temporary limitation. When apps are distributed from Qlik Sense Enterprise on-Windows (Client-Managed) to Qlik Cloud, the on-premise environment maintains master ownership, locking app settings and preventing direct modification—including activating Qlik Answers—within the cloud tenant. 

Key Reasons for this Design:
 

• Source of Truth: The hybrid model treats the client-managed site as the "source of truth," where reloading, metadata management, and publishing happen.
• Metadata Synchronization: Subsequent reloads from the on-premise side will overwrite app settings in the cloud to keep them synchronized, preventing direct modifications from persisting, as outlined in.
• Read-Only Consumption: Distributed apps are designed for consumption by end-users in managed spaces, not for in-cloud editing, as explained by. 

How to Activate Qlik Answers:

To use features like Qlik Answers, the app must be managed directly in Qlik Cloud. You have two options: 
 

1. Manual Upload: Export the app from the client-managed environment and import it manually via the Qlik Cloud hub, as suggested in.
2. Automated Migration: Use Qlik-cli and the app import command to fully migrate the app, bypassing the multi-cloud distribution restriction, as recommended in. 

[thomasmaure]

Hi Greg , 

Thanks for answering although I understand this is indeed not in the plan. 
If I may say, I totally understand that app distribution is only for "Read-only consumption", but it does not prevent from using self-service activity such as bookmarks, alerts or custom sheets creation. 
In this regard , I struggle to understand why it would be impossible to interact with your data using an AI agent ...
Honestly, it sounds a little bit like a subtle way to force people to move out of Client managed. However , the use case addressed by cloud distribution is the possibility to reload apps on Qlik client managed where we have secure data access, legacy app pipeline, monitoring, alerting etc... and then to automatically 'clone' the app on a Qlik cloud tenant to allow the user to benefit from enhanced Qlik cloud capabilities (collaboration, alerting, reporting). 

Unfortunately , this is not something you can get with manual upload or automated migration where the reload shall be fully performed in Qlik Cloud.

As such, I will add a third option that was proposed to me by a Qlik consultant: 

Manually import the app in the tenant, then replace the script with a binary load from the distributed app. 
With an automation forcing app reload on distributed app data update, you will get a Qlik cloud  'native' app with Qlik answers accessing data from the distributed app. 
Not ideal, but working.   

[Greg_Taffer]

Thanks for your feedback, Thomas.

[PiotrWodzinskiEltel]

@Greg_Taffer What about MCP server and applications published from on-prem to cloud? Is it possible to use MCP together with these application or we need cloud 'native' applications? 

[mikaelsc]

@PiotrWodzinskiEltel  possible yes 🙂 

[Daniele_Purrone · Accepted solution]

Hi! This has been possible for a while now:

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/cloud-services/Subsystems/Hub/Content/Sense_Hub/QlikAnswers/working-with...

Qlik Answers supports applications distributed to Qlik Cloud from Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows. Before distributing the application to Qlik Cloud, you must do one of the following:

Make the application available to Insight Advisor Chat.

Add the variable crossAppsSearchEnabled with a definition of 1.

After distribution to Qlik Cloud, the application will automatically be indexed for Qlik Answers once it is moved from staged to a managed space.

[thomasmaure]

Thanks ! 
definitely simpler than solution I proposed (and implemented)  

[korsikov]

Hi All,

I am testing Qlik Answers with applications distributed from Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows to Qlik Cloud using Cloud Distribution.

According to the Qlik Help documentation, Qlik Answers should support applications distributed to Qlik Cloud from Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows if, before distribution is  application is made available to Insight Advisor Chat in app properties. 

After the application is distributed and moved from staged to a managed space, it should be indexed automatically for Qlik Answers.

This worked once in my environment, but now the behavior is inconsistent. However, when I tried to repeat the same process with another application, Qlik Answers did not activate.

The behavior is now:

1. The application is successfully distributed to Qlik Cloud.
2. The application is moved from staged to the managed space.
3. When I try to use Qlik Answers, it stays for a long time on a message similar to “Almost there / we are almost ready”.
4. Then it fails and shows a message saying that, to activate the application, I should open the application settings and enable it there.
5. This does not help, because for a distributed app the relevant setting cannot be changed directly in Qlik Cloud. The configuration should come from the source app in Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows.

I tested several variants:

• I created a complete application in QSEoW and added the variable crossAppsSearchEnabled = 1 before distribution.
• I created a completely new minimal test application and enabled “Make application available in Insight Advisor Chat” through the QSEoW application settings UI before publishing/distribution.
• I deleted the originally working distributed application from Qlik Cloud, triggered distribution again for the same unchanged source application, moved it again from staged to the same managed space, and Qlik Answers no longer worked for it either.

So the issue does not look like a simple app configuration problem. The same approach worked once, but then stopped working even for the previously working application after redistribution.

Questions:

1. How I can deal with it?  Is there any tenant-side cache/indexing state that may need to be reset when a distributed app is deleted and redistributed?
2. Is there any way to check the Qlik Answers indexing status or indexing error details for a distributed app?

Thanks for any advice.