Talk to Experts Tuesday - Qlik Sense FAQ from January 27, 2021

[Jamie_Gregory]

This is the FAQ for the January 27, 2021 Talk to Experts Tuesday session on Qlik Sense.

The recording and transcript of the session can be found here.

Environment:

• Qlik Sense Enterprise
• Qlik Sense SaaS
• Qlik Sense Business

How and why to update the version of Qlik Sense? For what price?

I assume this is talking about Qlik Sense for Windows since if you’re using the Cloud, we handle updates. The reason to update is to take advantage of new features (you can check the release notes and videos to talk), take advantage of bug fixes that are included in releases and patches. As to charge, as long as you have a current license for the product, there is no charge. It is part of the maintenance fee you are paying us. If you have an old perpetual license, if you’re not paying maintenance, then I don’t believe you’re able to continue to upgrade. Otherwise, you’re already paying for it.

You may also want to reach out to your Account Manager to start the conversation about what you’re paying for and what that includes.

Information about licenses

I’m just going to talk about very general things but know that you can talk to your Account Manager or talk to your Sales Rep. Know that a lot of these things can be adjusted. When it comes to Qlik Sense, there are three different levels of licenses in terms of usage. There is a professional user. These people build applications. You have to have at least one professional user because how else are you going to get the apps on your system?  There are analyzer users and these can consume apps. They can build sheets and their own visualizations but they cannot create new apps. Then there is analyzer capacity. Like analyzer, except you’re not buying it for a specific person. You’re buying a specific amount of time. It lets you cover situations where you’re not actively collecting individual information. You’re trying to allow a certain portion of the public or a large pool people occasional access to the system.

You can check out pricing here for SaaS. For Enterprise, you will want to discuss with your Sales rep or Account Manager.

What is the recommended approach to deal with the QRS notification API? We are rolling out DevOps automation with automated testing of QS apps on the Publish event. I understand the notification registration will get lost on restart of an engine. We could not find extended documentation on the matter and wonder which engine nodes we have to monitor in order to re-register the notification request with the QRS, or if the central node is enough. How is that achieved with Qlik Alerting, not to miss notification events?

If you’re going to an engine for a notification, is there a load balance rule that you need to be aware of where that particular application you want to monitor is available on that node. I would be concerned about the load balance rule if you have one applied.

I would like to ask on which platform is best to run QLIK (Hyper-V, WMVare, OpenStack). We are solving the virtualization of the servers and their optimal settings for Qlik Sense. Do you have some recommendations and maybe comparisons of these three platforms - what Qlik customers usually prefer and how this comparison looks like from a performance point of view?

Many of our customers use VM because that gives them the ability to spin up machines much quicker, resiliency in the platform. Any of the three are going to perform relatively the same. However, what you’re going to do need to is understand what is the anticipated usage of the platform and you’re going to want to understand user concurrency. We typically call it a three-legged monster – what are the applications, what is the user concurrency, and what are the resources to be able to support that. It’s more an exercise to understand that information, what’s coming to the environment and what you anticipate to have in the next 6 to 12 months and then be able to size that. If you have concerns about that, you’re looking at most likely a multi-node solution but it all depends upon what your requirements are for scaling it, for redundancy, and for utilization of the platform. So, it’s not really a straight answer we can provide you there. I would think any of those would work. Most of our customers use VMWare or a virtualized environment but you need to understand what is coming, how you need to size for that and how to deliver performance with that.

If you’re an existing customer and are looking to migrate, you may want to reach out to your Account Manager as they can discuss this more with you and find you a resource to work with. If you’re a new customer, this should be a part of the conversations you will be having with Account Manager/Pre Sales.

Are there any tips for migrating from QlikView to Qlik Sense for Customers that will not be using SaaS services in the near future?

We did have a session last year that may help with that, you can find the recording, transcript and link to the FAQ here: TTET Migrating from QlikView to Qlik Sense on September 22, 2020.

We do have a converter tool. The help gives detailed instructions how you can utilize the tool to convert from QVW to QVF and will also give you the limitations.

There is also the Governance Dashboard that you can run through your documents prior to using the converter tool. It is an amazing tool that will show you how many documents are being used on a regular basis. It will also give you a conversion score that will tell you how likely are you able to convert this properly to Qlik Sense.

Our Professional Services team can also help with the migration along with helping plan the environment. So I would recommend reaching out to your Account Manager.

Also, we will be having another Migrating from QlikView to Qlik Sense session on April 6^th, 2021. We will also be having another session on June 29^th, 2021 about I used to do this in QlikView, now how do I do it in Qlik Sense? Registration for these two sessions are not available yet, but should be added soon.

Can a mapped drive be used as a data source in Qlik Sense?

Yes, it can be. The service account should own it and should have direct access to it to make sure tasks do not fail. You’re going to want to use UNC to get access to that. In a multi-node Qlik Sense environment, a D:/ map is not going to work on one machine, it’s going to fail on another. So, you will have to use UNC notation for the data connection.

How can we add few value fields in pivot to get YTD value (average and sum)? Value fields are non-date field.

You’re going to have to transform your non-date data into date fields in the load script or add additional fields to be able to calculate YTD.

We would recommend posting this question to the New to Qlik Sense forum or the Qlik Sense App Development forum. Provide as much detail as possible along with a screenshot, a Qlik Sense app (so long as there is not any sensitive data), dummy data or a mock up to help users assist you.

How to use the 'On-demand rapport' chart with Qlik Sense?

I was able to find this information on the Qlik Help: Installing Qlik Sense On-Demand reporting control and Generating On-Demand reports in Qlik Sense. I am not sure if that is what you are looking for. We do have a Talk to Experts Tuesday session for NPrinting on March 9^th, 2021. Your question might be better suited for that session, if you can join. Registration will be available soon.

Is there a way to dynamically generate a Master Item (Dim/Measure) and assign it to visualization via code?

I reached out to some of the team for this and this is a response from a Senior Solutions Architect:

The way I construct application is using a table for the Dimensions and a table for the Measures and then the end users can choose from a filter and the charts dollar sign expand what is needed for the dimensions, measures and the definitions of them.

If they are looking for flexibility then that solves the problem.

If they really want to build master items, Rob Wunderlich released an SSE to do that 2 years ago. https://qlikviewcookbook.com/2019/10/load-master-items-in-script/

They are built in the load script.

There is definitely an API for building Master Items and for assigning them in charts. The Governed Metrics Services extension available in our Garden and does it so that they are built on the fly from a spreadsheet (like Robs) but it uses the API that they could then view the code for it.

https://developer.qlik.com/garden/57655702febb2ca54e7149d2

I hope this information helps. I would also suggest posting in the Qlik Community to the Qlik Sense App Development forum. If you could provide more information what you are looking for exactly and anything you have tried to accomplish this in the past, other developers may have some suggestions.

Do you have info about the new NPrinting version for SaaS deployments?

When you think about NPrinting, you think about enterprise reporting. Today, NPrinting is a standalone product that allows you to have enterprise reporting use cases handled with Qlik Sense for Windows. One of the common asks within the Community, “Can’t we just get NPrinting to use with my SaaS product?”. We are looking at a number enterprise reporting uses cases. They are likely to be a standalone to the SaaS product. I can’t speak to if NPrinting will ever be able but there are issues with taking this On-Prem product that is designed for Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows and making sure it could punch a hole through your firewall to make sure it can talk to Qlik Sense SaaS. As we talk more about these enterprise reporting use cases, I think you should expect to hear more about that this year.

If there is a use case you would like to let Product Management know about, please search through the current Ideas and/or submit your own idea.

Can you please recommend how to manage on which server (manager/worker) a task reloads in clusters?

You’re going to want to use a load balance rule to say you can only open this app on this particular machine or engine. You would include both the consumer nodes and the worker node you want the app to load on.

The limitation to be aware of is load balancing rules determine what an engine is able to open. Engines are used for both the schedulers and the hub. There is no way of limiting what that node will reload. All apps are always available to the central node. There is no supported way to disable that. If you let your central node reload applications, it will reload any application. There is no way to stop it. That’s one of the reasons for setting the central node to Master Only in a live multi-node environment.

I would like to know if is possible to loading data from Microsoft Planner into QlikSense or QlikView? and How I do it?

If you want to find out if you can load data from a product into Qlik Sense or any Qlik product, you want to look at what connectors we have available and how you can get data out of that product.

Qlik Sense has a REST connector. REST API’s are really common on web products. So I googled “Microsoft Planner API” and the REST API showed up right at the start. We have ODBC for databases and connectors for specific products. If you don’t see the specific product listed, then it’s a good idea to look up some of the more generic protocols. As long as the Planner API has the details you are after, you would be able to use our REST connector. I’m not saying this is something that you can do in an afternoon. I have no idea how complicated it will be. But I am saying you can do it.

For more information about using the REST Connector, please see this video.

Is there a difference between Qlik Sense app and hub in a tab or a smartphone?

There are a couple of different ways we can take this question. Is there a difference between using Qlik Sense on my phone or Qlik Sense on my desktop? In a browser, yes. If you have a smaller screen, the presentation will change to make apps more useable. You can actually emulate this by making your browser really small.

If you’re asking what’s the difference between using Qlik Sense in a browser vs the mobile app, you get certain capabilities in the mobile app that you don’t get in a browser. Most notably, the ability to use an app offline. So, the ability to download an app and then use it. The Qlik Sense mobile app allows you to run a version of the Qlik Sense Engine on your phone. There are limitations because the resources available on the server vs the phone are quite different. Depending on the size of the app, you can download and use offline.

You can’t build apps on the phone. You can use them, but you can’t build them or make changes.

I received information that SaaS Add-on for Client-managed will be discontinued, is it true? We can continue use the multi-cloud function or will have some changes to this feature?

It is still on the price sheet. We have no information on it being discontinued. Hybrid is still a huge part and there are lots of clients that use Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows every day. Any use case that we can use our SaaS platform and take over that compute for you, we want to do that.

The Qlik Sense February21 version brings a Sheet Visualization Condition. Will it be possible to use this to separate the access by device? How to do it?

To my knowledge, this shouldn’t be used for access or authorization, I don’t think. The tried and true method of having an access list in the data load script is still there. What this feature really intends is the ability to enable app developers to write for different target user audiences. This is about tailoring the experience for your users, not necessarily about access control. The data is still the same, you’re not blocking of the data, your showing a different visualization.

If you’re looking for device control, please use submit your own idea on the Ideas Board.

We want to clean up our extensions as there are too many extensions that are broken/outdated/not in use. Is there a way to identify these extensions that needs to be removed? I tried using @stefanwalther  "sense-extension-governance" but it is not working - may be it is outdated. Also we can cannot close all the apps since we are big organization.

Unfortunately, you cannot get that information by scraping the database for example. There are some limitations that might make it more difficult.

It looks like the Presales organization created this dashboard that might help. It looks like it is sourced from the Telemetry dashboard.

Let's assume that I have some QVD files on Qlik Sense SaaS. They have been created as a result of script execution or were transmitted to Qlik Sense SaaS via Qlik Data Transfer. Is there a way to download those files back to my local computer? The only option I see in QMC is to delete those files.

When it comes to transform, it’s to transform it into an analytics use case. Also, I would be concerned about access controls and who can download that. We do allow you to export the applications programmatically.

If you’re questioning the quality of the data, you can use Qlik Sense to read the QVD and do some quality checks of the data.

You could try to use the Store function in the script and have the QVD saved to a storage connector (Google Drive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc).

If you have another use case you would like to see considered, please use submit your own idea on the Ideas Board.

Is there a way to know which fields are in use in Qlik Sense App UI other than Document Analyzer?

Here is a way using API’s to get a list of fields in the app, though that does not mean they are being used. The best way seems to be the Document Analyzer. If there is something that you think is lacking that could add value, please submit your idea on the Ideas Board.

I have an environment in Qlik Sense SaaS that has Mexico City's time zone. Mexico's time zone with the corresponding time in the lower right corner But when I create a test app and apply the now(1) function after a reload, I get 15:00 and not 9:00am (my current time).

Now() from a systems perspective is going to refer to the region your server is in. You could pull the UTC time then convert that UTC time to your timezone. Please see Date and time functions in the Help.

Can we add multiple objects (KPI, Table, Chart) in same sheet (or tab) in the Container?

The container chart only allows one chart in each tab. If there is something else you are looking for or another use case you would to be considered, please submit your idea on the Ideas Board.

[markadavies]

Thank you, I found this session (on catch up via the video) very useful, and I appreciate the full responses in the Q&A

[Jamie_Gregory]

@markadavies You are so welcome! So glad you found value out of this Q&A and the recording. Hopefully you can join a future session!