Is Qlikview Desktop (Developer) an ETL tool?

[Anonymous]

I am using Qlikview Desktop as I am learning this BI tool. So i do not use any RDBMS. My only data source has been Excel file. So as I am working with Excel to create a dashboard in Qlikview, am I also doing the ETL process? techinically, it seems so:

1) extract: I fetch data from excel files that are saved in my computer

2) Transform: the data is transformed while I am scripting using several Qlikview functions and mechanisms. the result of data model is due to transformation, it seems.

3) Load: when I execute, and follow certain steps I get the sheet objects in the form of list boxes and charts.

Am I off or on the track. Thanks in advance.

[#2]

QlikView is a data visualisation tool which has ETL like capabilities, generally ETL happens at the DW

/DB Layer.  This is where your business logic should exist to ensure you as a company are platform agnostic.

[Peter_Cammaert]

Answer to the question in the title: YES. And a very powerful one as well.

[Peter_Cammaert]

The LOAD in ETL is more the act of storing the resulting data after transformation in internal tables, e.g. your data model.

Typically the QlikView user interface isn't part of the ETL process.

[datanibbler · Accepted solution]

Hi John,

I define ETL_tasks just the same way as you do. That is certainly something you can do with QlikView. You are not limited to Excel files of course - the E part might mean data from any possible source that QlikView can read.

ETL, like many others, is a big buzzword - in hightech_companies it is possible that everyone knows an exact definition (maybe even the same one ;-), so you might be asked that. In other companies - like mine - when you mention that, no one will understand you ... so don't be nervous if anyone asks you about the definition of ETL_tasks - the odds are about 50/50 they don't know themselves ...

Best regards,

DataNibbler

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone

[#7]

Hi john,

please make it as appopriate answer ,because it will be helpful for others

[deepakahirwar]

We can say Its Light ETL or Bad ETL tool and you should not do any bulky ETL process with it.

It is visualization tool, if you try to do ETL tasks here it will hamper the performance of your project for sure.
It follow's up In-Memory process for loading data.
Memory is limited to some extend.
It will not load the bulky amount of data.Even if its loaded it will consume huge amount of time.

The best terminology for it would be :Its the wonderful BI /Reporting tool.

Thanks & Regards,

Deepak Ahirwar

[shekhar_analyti]

Its not THE ETL tool , but its has good ETL capabilities . 

I have just seen a project (budget crunchED) where entire ETL work load was based on Python Scripts .

Whole of the Python script were replaced by Qlikview scripts using its ETL capabilities .
With 32 GB RAM , we process around 15000000 rows almost daily .

ADVANTAGE         :  POOR MAN'S ETL TOOL 
DISADVANTAGE  :  Memory Uses 
                                     POST ETL output QVDs can not be used directly by  R , PYTHON , or any other tools  for further analysis 
                                     Not sure if QVD to Table (sqlserver , oracle etc ) insert , projects are out there . 


WISH QLIK WOULD HAVE BEEN EQUIPPED WITH CAPABILITY LIKE QVD TO TABLE INSERT 😀😀😀😀 

[shekhar_analyti]

And yes like , Datanibbler  said ... definition of ETL is very different for different working group and often used very loosely even in cases where there in no DWH is involved . 

In one the the mid Tier organisation i have seen , qlikview being in use  for 

1) Data getting captured from different sources  msaccess , jason , excel , web tables 
2) Data getting cleaned ( each sources )
3) Data Integration 
4) HISTORICAL Data aggregation and stored in QVD ..

And my manager used to tell above whole cycle as ETL   ...