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QlikView Essentials

By Chandraish Sinha
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About this book
This guide demonstrates just how easy it is to get started with QlikView and create your own BI application. Featuring an introduction to its core features before exploring how to load data and model it, you’ll soon become more confident that you can take full advantage of QlikView’s capabilities.. You will also learn how to use QVD files with QlikView – and how they offer a simpler way of handling data. After digging deeper into data handling, as you learn how to use mapping tables and create a master calendar, you’ll then find out how to get the most from QlikView’s visualization features – vital if you are to use your data insights effectively. From accessible and user friendly dashboards to strategies and best practices for subjecting data to further analysis, you can be confident that you’ll be prepared to get the most out of your data with QlikView. With details on how to finally secure your application and deploy it for a successful integration in your organization, QlikView Essentials underlines exactly why QlikView is becoming more and more popular for businesses that understand the value of data.
Publication date:
January 2016
Publisher
Packt
Pages
166
ISBN
9781784397289

 

Chapter 1. QlikView Fundamentals

If you are reading this book, then you are already familiar with the power of QlikView. You are on your way to utilize the in-memory and associative power of QlikView to build better insights for your organization. Business intelligence applications developed in QlikView are helping organizations worldwide in transforming their raw data into useful information.

Before jumping into creating data transformations and visualization in QlikView, we will cover the basics of this book. This book will cover all the essentials of QlikView designer and developer concepts. It will start with basics of QlikView, and then dive into loading data, performing transformations, creating visualizations, and deployment of the application. In each chapter, you will understand the key concepts and follow step-by-step exercises.

The first chapter will cover the development life cycle of QlikView, an introduction to a fictitious company Adventure works Inc., and an introduction to the adventure works data model.

In this chapter, we will learn about:

  • QlikView components and installation

  • QlikView basics

  • Problem definition of a fictitious company

  • Understanding existing data model and tables

  • Development environment setup

 

QlikView components


QlikView has three main components: QlikView Desktop, QlikView Server (QVS), and QlikView Publisher.

In this book, we will use QlikView desktop to create data model and visualizations.

 

QlikView installation


To explore the power of QlikView, you need to install QlikView desktop. A personal edition of QlikView desktop can be downloaded from http://www.qlik.com/us/explore/products/free-download?ga-link=navbtn.

You will be asked to register, or login if you are already a registered user.

The installation file comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. Install the version based on your computer's specification. Installation is very straightforward. You need to just follow the default options. The personal edition has the full capability of QlikView desktop. The Personal edition works with local files only; you cannot share your application design file (qvw) with another unregistered user, or load a design file from another user.

Installation comes with an Examples folder that contains QlikView documents. You can review this folder to learn more about QlikView. This folder is located in your installation path under C:\Program Files\QlikView.

Before moving further, we will learn the basics of QlikView:

  • Technology: QlikView uses an in-memory data model. It stores all the data in RAM instead of disk. RAM storage results in faster response time.

  • Associative experience: In QlikView, data is always associated. Association is automatically created between two tables having common field names. The associative technology results in an enhanced data discovery experience. Traditional BI solutions follow a predefined path to navigate and explore the data. QlikView allows users to take any data path of their choice.

  • Power of green, white, and grey: In a QlikView application, selected data elements are displayed in green, associated data is displayed in white, and non-associated data is shown in grey.

    All the data is always present.

  • A QlikView application development utilizes QlikView desktop. It involves, connecting to any format of data, extracting and transforming data by writing scripts, designing interactive dashboards by creating different visualization objects, and deploying applications on the server. Users access this application via access point.

  • A QlikView design file has the extension .qvw. Qvw is also used to create QVD (QlikView data file). QVD stores the data extracted from the data source. You will learn about the power of QVDs in the subsequent chapters. A QlikView design file is referred to as qvw, document, or application, but they all mean the same.

 

Getting started


This book uses a data model based on Adventure works 2012 database.

Joe Smith is being hired as a QlikView consultant by Adventure Works Inc.. Adventure works has recently purchased QlikView. Their employees got an overview of QlikView, but they need help in enhancing their QlikView knowledge and implementing the QlikView dashboarding application.

This book will take you on a wonderful journey with Joe Smith and will provide you with QlikView essentials, which you will require as a successful QlikView consultant.

 

The development life cycle of QlikView implementations


Joe Smith, being a seasoned QlikView consultant, knows that for successful implementation he needs to follow the development life cycle of QlikView. At a high level, he will do the following:

  • Gain an understanding of Adventure works' business

  • Gather user requirements

  • Analyze data model/data sources

  • Follow data modeling best practices

  • Load data

  • Follow visualization/dashboarding best practices

  • Create dashboard

  • Deployment

About Adventure Works

Adventure Works Cycles, is a large, multinational manufacturing company. The company manufactures and sells metal and composite bicycles to North American, European, and Asian commercial markets.

Coming off a successful fiscal year, Adventure Works Cycles is looking to broaden its market share by targeting their sales to their best customers, extending their product availability through an external website, and reducing their cost of sales through lower production costs.

User requirements

At Adventure works, executive management wants to utilize QlikView to address the following:

  • Create an enterprise wide, scalable Business Analytics platform where the information is easily available, shared, and collaborated

  • Integrate data from different data sources

  • Gain visibility into the company's key performance indicators

  • Comparative analysis of data by different time periods

  • Access relevant information quickly and efficiently

  • Gain business insights to make better business decisions

Analyze data model/data sources

After understanding the business and business requirements, it's time to analyze the underlying data.

Adventure works is a relational database.

Management is interested in utilizing the data elements stored in the following tables. Tables are sourced from relational database, Excel files, and text files.

  • Product

  • ProductSubcategory

  • Product Category

  • Order Header

  • Order Detail

  • Customers

  • Territory

  • Employees

  • Shippers

At high level, the tables from the source system have the following relationships:

Star schema and snow flake schema

QlikView can handle Star schema and Snow flake schemas effectively. Star schema is simple to understand. It is good for reporting as number of joins are reduced.

Star schema consists of dimensions and facts. It has a fact in the middle and dimensions surrounding the fact. The schema shapes like a star and hence the name star schema.

  • Facts: A fact table contains numeric value. It contains a quantitative value such as sales, revenue, or profit.

  • Dimensions: A dimension table contains textual description. Dimensions provide context to the facts, for example, sales by product.

Fact tables contain foreign keys of dimension tables. The following schematic represents the relationship between the fact and dimension tables:

In a snow flake schema, a dimension is not connected directly to the fact. It is connected to another dimension.

In Adventure works source data model, the dimension tables are:

  • Customers

  • Product

  • ProductSubcategory

  • Product Category

  • Territory

  • Employees

The fact tables are:

  • Order Header

  • Order Detail

 

QlikView development setup


To set up the QlikView development environment, download the code bundle for this book from Packt Publishing's website (http://www.packtpub.com/support) and then unzip the downloaded file in your C drive within a folder with the same name as the ZIP file (QlikViewEssentials). The unzipped folder (C:\QlikViewEssentials) should now contain the following folder structure in it:

  • Apps: This folder contains the .qvw files. Any design file created in QlikView has .qvw extension. These files are referred as document, app, or qvw.

  • Data: This folder contains data files required by the application. It includes the access database .mdb file. Also, it contains excel and text files. This folder also contains a subfolder Qvds to store QVDs.

  • Images: This folder contains the images required by the application.

  • Includes: This folder contains any files to be included in the application, for example, data connection.

 

Summary


This chapter familiarizes us with QlikView. You learned about the different components of QlikView and QlikView installation. You are now equipped to learn subsequent chapters by gaining knowledge about the fictitious data model of Adventure Works Inc. and learning about data modeling best practices.

In the next chapter, you will dive more into data modeling by loading data from disparate datasources. You will also learn about resolving synthetic keys. You will learn about various data transformation techniques. It will help you in becoming an expert QlikView developer.

About the Author
  • Chandraish Sinha

    Chandraish Sinha is a Business Intelligence enthusiast from Ohio. He brings 17 years of experience in providing cost-effective BI solutions. He is responsible for many QlikView implementations in various industries, namely financial, insurance, pharmaceuticals, and event management. He currently holds QlikView Designer and QlikView Developer certifications. He shares his knowledge and passion through his QlikView blog (http://www.learnallbi.com/). He currently works as an independent BI consultant and helps organizations in implementing BI solutions.

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