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Joe,
1. You just blew my mind! Thanks for pointing that out! A right-click option for chart-type changing would be nice for new users who haven't discovered such tricks yet.
2. Cool extensions! I will try those out. When you said, "Small-multiples are certainly possible in Qlik Sense," did you mean that QS can do something regarding chart arrays right out of the box? If so, how? Or is it necessary to get one of those two extensions?
3.That brings up another, broader point: that the number of object types built into Qlik Sense is pretty limited, forcing users to rely on extensions a lot. Some extensions cover very basic features that really should have been there to begin with, like filtering based on a date range or setting a variable's value from a sheet (both are built into Tableau). In the brief sampling I did of extensions, it seemed like there was a high chance that a given extension would be buggy, awkward/difficult to use, or styled in a way that doesn't match built-in objects. Buggy extensions were sometimes catastrophically buggy (the grid-size-changing one corrupted my app) and sometimes abandoned long ago by the original developer, with no one else having picked up the torch in the meantime. I'm glad that extensions exist in general, but the more that is built-in and robust, the better.
4. Another problem I thought of with Qlik as compared to the others is that Qlik can't show multiple hierarchy levels at once on a single axis of a graph (as far as I know - maybe I'm wrong again). For example, look at the Excel pivot chart below. In Qlik, I could make a Region > State > Category drill-down dimension to drill into the data, but what if I wanted to see sums by Category (and Size) for the Categories inside multiple States/Regions at the same time (instead of having to drill into just one State inside just one Region)? Qlik's pivot table does this just fine, but I don't think any of the graphs do. I couldn't find an extension for it either. I imagine I'd have to create a dual dimension that concatenated Region, State, and Category into a single string while also maintaining the correct sort order? I think that's basically what Power BI is doing automatically behind the scenes. And Tableau just shows something similar to what Excel shows in the picture below, which is both nicer-looking and easier to understand.
HI Michael
3. I mostly agree. But things are improving on the free extensions front. For example the variables input extension is excellent. And hopefully it will continue working for future releases
But I don't have an issue with the built in date filtering. Its personal preference but I clearly prefer the way Qlik Sense does it. It provides more options
- I often prefer one calendar for all the various dates, This can be done using canonical dates or a date Island. It stops users filtering using the wrong date eg order date when sales date is required
- Alternatively the new derived dates enables calendars for dates to be easily set up
or the traditional calendars can be set up
What I've moved to now is a lot more date filtering in charts. Just drag the mouse for the months required (in yellow)
But its personal preference. I don't like the for example the new Power BI Timeline Slicer. But it was highly requested
From the Power BI web Site
"This week, I am thrilled to introduce the newest member of the custom visuals family – Timeline Slicer. This Slicer was the top request visual on our community’s User Voice. Ain’t it great to scratch this one off?!?"
"4. Another problem I thought of with Qlik as compared to the others is that Qlik can't show multiple hierarchy levels at once on a single axis of a graph (as far as I know - maybe I'm wrong again)."
As far as I know this is correct. Sense allows either
Option A. Only one or two dimensions and one measure only or
Option B. One dimension with many measures
I tend to prefer Option B with a dimension drill down (or around) if required.
I'm unsure why this restriction was built in. As Qlik View allowed any number of dimensions and measures. Although I always used drill down or drill around using Qlik View except for a pivot table
after drill down (different layout)
