App migration: QlikView ❤ Qlik Sense

[ArturoMuñoz]

I've been asked quite a few times about QlikView and Qlik Sense compatibilities, questions such as, how to “migrate” an app from QlikView to Qlik Sense? How compatibles are the two products? Let's explore the possibilities.

How to

The procedure to move an app from QlikView to Qlik Sense couldn’t been any simpler, you just need to drag a QVW app (QlikView file extension) and drop it into your Qlik Sense Desktop, that’s it. This will convert the QVW file into a QVF (Qlik Sense app file extension) and load the same data for you.

Please note that this process is not reversible so please make sure that you have a secure copy of the QVW file that will be converted.

Same load script

Once your file is transformed you will find that the Load Script has been ported and Qlik Sense will contain the data from the previous QVW so you can start discovering and create charts right away. That’s it, any data normalization/transformation you created in QlikView will work just fine in Qlik Sense.

However, if you hit the reload button right after an app conversion you most likely will find an error popup with a message like this:

LOAD statement only works with lib:// paths in this script mode

To solve this inconvenient and be able to reload normally you just need to recreate the connection to the data sources using Qlik Sense Data connection libraries or switch on the QlikSense Legacy mode.

Are the charts compatible?

If you have tried to convert one app from QlikView to Qlik Sense or the other way around, then you already know the answer, no they aren’t.  However since expressions are fully compatible, any formula or complex expressions can simply be copied and pasted into the new environment.

Dimensions and expressions

Jacob Vinzent jvi‌ has created an utility to get all QlikView 11 dimensions and expressions and convert them to Qlik Sense as master items. Check it out at Qlik Branch‌ # Fasttrack QlikView to Qlik Sense.

What about variables?

If you use variables in QlikView to reduce complexity in some expressions or if your goal is to reuse expressions in multiple objects then you probably should create them as a measure in the Qlik Sense Master Library. For the rest of variables to be automatically migrated we will have to wait a little bit yet... stay tuned.

UPDATE: since the release of Qlik Sense 2.1.1 variables (both script and design) are created automatically when migrating an app from QlikView.

Can I reuse my QVDs?

Yes, you can reuse the QVDs created with QlikView and load the data really fast into Qlik Sense and the other way around.

Note: Please note this information applies to the current scenario and current versions (QV11SR2 and Qlik Sense 2.0.2)

[stevedark]

Thanks for sharing Arturo.

Regarding variables, I would suggest that even in QlikView it is a good idea to create your variables in the load script.  This way they can be re-initialised on reload, persisted when project folders are used and common variables can be created in an include file.

If variables are created this way then they will also be created in Sense after app migration.  The UI doesn't make it clear what variables you have available to you, and there is no way (AFAIK) of looking them up - but if you know the names then you are good to go with variables.

[ArturoMuñoz]

Fantastic feedback. Thanks Steve!

[gardenierbi]

and the other way around.

Afaik you can use QVD's created with QlikView 11.2 in Qlik Sense but not in the other way around because the new format of the QVD's created with Qlik Sense.

[stevedark]

This is one of the things that, I presume, will get resolved with the

imminent QlikView 12 release.

[Alexander_Thor]

Hey Steve and Sander,

This was actually solved in Qlik Sense 2.0 but perhaps we were lousy at communicating it

We listened to the community, thanks!, and changed the way Qlik Sense handles QVDs to promote product interoperability so now you can use a QVDs in both products regardless of where they were created.

P.S yes, optimized loads work

[stevedark]

That is good news. Thanks for sharing Alex.

[gardenierbi]

‌I missed that one 🙂

Great !!!

[qlikviewwizard]

Hi,

Very nice information. Thank you for sharing.

[isorinrusu]

Such a pity that there's no section showing all the variables as it was the case in QV. Using variables in the UI feels like a trick or a hack in QS.

[stevedark]

I totally get the fact that Expressions in the Repository are supposed to

take the place of variables. However, when I had created an expression for

This Month and Last Month and I wanted to get the variance by using the two

existing expressions, and I couldn't, I did wish that variables were

implemented a bit nicer.

Hopefully this is something we will see in a future version. For now SET

statements in the load script it is.