Changing Excel data

[#1]

Hello,

Suppose we receive a weekly excel file to a certain location. I understand QV can import this data into its engine and run the report from there, but

1. what happens next week when the file is fresh and brand new?

2. Is the refresh a manual step or can it be setup automatically?

3. Does the source xls file have to only have the same name as the last xls file for QV to read it?

4. Does this Xls file need to be on the QV server?

5. Why use a QVD if you can just import the data into a QVW and have your dashboard there as well?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Hello, Faisal.

1. That depends on your load strategy. In the simplest scenario, the old data of your qvw wold be lost and you would only get the data from the new Excel file upon reload. In a scenario with incremental load, you would get all your data even it the Excel file was overwritten every week (see #5).

2. You can schedule the refresh on QlikView Server so it would be automatic. You could also use a batch file an Windows Scheduler to make the refresh automatic with QlikView Desktop.

3. That depends on your load statement in the script. For example, something like Load * From *.xlsx would load every field from every Excel file in the folder, while Load Field1, Field2 From ExcelFile.xlsx would load two specific fields from a specific file.

4. It doesn't have to be. If it's not on the server, QlikView Server can access it using an UNC path.

5. There are several scenarios where using QVDs is a good strategy. In this particular case, using QVDs would allow an incremental load with the Excel file being overwritten every week. Each reload would read the data from the Excel file and an existing QVD with old data. Then everything would be saved over the old QVD and the data would be available to be read again along with a new Excel file next week. Alternatively, one different QVD could be saved for each Excel file read. There are several documents about this subject on the community.

Regards.

[#3]

Thanks Bruno for a thorough answer. Just a follow up question.

When you start working on a new application you use the store function to create a QVD  so does that mean the script is also contained in the QVD file for that table?

[Anonymous]

You're welcome, Faisal.

The load statement that created the table saved with the store command is saved with the QVD, but as metada only. It is not executable. You will always need the QVW to create or read QVDs.

[#5]

Ah ok, so that means when you schedule your batch to load on a constant basis you are really scheduling the qvw?

On a side note, when you are done creating the app and need to share with business users, do you have to save to server or is any folder on UNC can be used to share with users on access point?

[Anonymous]

Yes, you schedule the QVW.

I don't know if you can use UNC paths on QMC to configure the QV Server, but even if you can, it's better to save the QVW to the server for performance reasons.

Edit: I've done a little research and you do can mount an UNC path to be used by Access Point.