Notes in QlikView

[vgutkovsky]

I'm very excited to announce that we just launched a revolutionary new tool for QlikView called "iinsight" that will enable users to collaborate like never before. iinsight allows users to create notes that then become associated to QlikView data. When another users accesses the application and makes a similar data selection, he/she will see that someone has entered a note about the data. With a single click, users can see note and restore an automatically-created bookmark. The tool also includes some other cool features, like:

• Search capabilities
• The ability to send instant notifications to users about notes
• Note security
• A full management console

Check out a video of how it works here: Infinity Insight - iinsight for QlikView™

Cheers,

Vlad

[Anonymous]

Vlad:

Is this tool free ?

CB.

[vgutkovsky]

Hi, Car. It's not free, although a free evaluation is available through the link above.

Best regards,

Vlad

[Alexander_Thor]

Nice one!

Just out curiosity, since we deployed some similar solutions before, how did you guys handle the "changing data problem"? As just attaching notes/comments to a data point became quite a hassle as soon as the data itself changed.

We took a few different approaches but ended up caching the png for charts and storing away current selection values and in the case of straight- and pivot the actual data itself which in conjunction with having to replicate section access rules became quite cumbersome quickly. And don't even get me started on syncing notes on global objects over looped and reduced documents

Anyways, awesome to see someone building a product out of the concept as it's immensely valuable for the users!

[vgutkovsky]

Hi, Alexander. Thanks for the kind words! That's a great question, and there are a few answers. I'm attaching the reference manual which should help illustrate the below anwers.

First, the software comes with a tool called "iinsight Recap" which provides a looser association to the data. Specifically, it associates notes to each data field value instead of to the combination of all data field values. For example, if you select Country = USA / Month = August / Year = 2013 and create a note, Recap will associate the note with (1) USA, (2) August, and (3) 2013 (and to any combination thereof, of course). By contrast, the main tool in the application, "iinsight Notes", will associate the note to the combination of the field values only. The idea behind Recap is to make sure you don't miss a note if either your current selections are not exactly what the note's selection state is, or the data changes slightly. Take a look at page 30 of the manual for a more in-depth explanation of how Recap works.

Another aspect of the tool is that you can modify the field values associated with notes. So if you create a note associated with Country = USA / Month = August / Year = 2013, you can remove August, or change it to a different month (or months). This is a useful feature that can come in handy when data changes. User don't have to make changes themselves, of course; admins can view all notes, search for incorrect values, and make the fixes for them. Page 39 of the manual explains how field values can be modified, and page 32 talks about the search capabilities available in the software.

Note security is a complicated question. Take a look at pages 44 - 45 of the manual for a discussion on the security features built into the software.

Regards,

Vlad

[IAMDV]

Nice work Vlad. Great functionality and I assume it's only AJAX functionality? Also, it would be great if you provide write-back functionality. Anyway I wanted to check the evaluation version.

Thanks,

DV

[vgutkovsky]

Thanks, Deepak. Yes, it's AJAX only. You can fill out an evaluation request form at the link above. Not sure what you mean by write-back functionality...?

Regards,

Vlad

[IAMDV]

Thank you Vlad. I meant by writing back to database through a web service.

Thanks,

DV

[vgutkovsky]

Thanks for the clarification, Deepak, but which DB do you mean? The software uses its own DB for notes, so those are permanent of course. And since it's a note-taking and collaboration tool, writing back to the QlikView app's source DB (i.e. modifying data) is not really what it's meant for.

Regards,

Vlad