Chapter 7. Enhance Your QlikView Experience

Even though dashboard design is not exactly a one fits all kind of thing, having a library of useful components to reuse in your new dashboards can save you a lot of time. After all, there's no need to reinvent the wheel every time you start a new project.

Though most developers already have some sort of base file to work with, it is a good idea to invest some time in creating a robust set of templates for your apps. This effort can be as general or specific as your context requires. If you are a member of a well-established QlikView team, it can be as simple as copying some files from a server onto your computer. In contrast, if you are a consultant or need to be prepared to face difficult situations, this toolkit will surely need to be "harder, better, faster, and stronger". The main elements to take into account in this regard are:

• The folder structure

• QVD generators and auxiliary files

• Variables

• Images and backgrounds

• Objects and expressions

This...

Folder structure

Once you get used to QlikView's development style, it is easy to create new applications from the scratch disregarding its folder structure, the location of its data sources, or the overall portability of the environment. However, these elements are not to be ignored as building unstructured apps usually leads to inefficiencies and rework.

Having a robust yet simple folder structure available to start new dashboards will ensure that all your endeavors can be easily integrated with the current QlikView environment or moved around on different computers.

This structure will greatly vary from environment to environment, and it depends on the number of developers involved, the workload distribution, the complexity of the data sources, and even the personal/organizational styles. Nonetheless, it should be able to handle several applications (not only different modules, but also different versions of each one of them), a layered QVD structure (files and generators), general files...

Opening and closing scripts

Chances are that most of your dashboards share some features such as variables, colors, and even some visual cues. To ensure that all the apps in the QlikView environment are consistent, and to save some valuable time, you can create standard text files to use them as opening and closing scripts. These files can collect shared functionality, such as:

• Environmental and format variables

• Connection strings

• Frequently used variables such as vToday or vCurrentYear

• Standard color variables (RGB codes)

• Subroutines

• Section access

• Commonly used statements such as HidePrefix or NullAsValue

You can easily import these files in all your apps by going to Insert | Include Statement.

Subroutines

Subroutines are small chunks of code that you can easily include in your apps to automate common actions. As they are built using QlikView script, they can perform a wide variety of actions, and their ability to receive parameters makes them very flexible.

In this chapter's material, you can find an example that includes three bonus subroutines:

• StoreQVD: This subroutine stores a table in QVD. Afterwards, it drops the table and keeps some useful metadata, such as the number of records and the time spent loading each element.

• ImageBundleLoad: Instead of creating an inline table with all the images you need in your dashboard, arrange them in a single folder (it can contain several subfolders), and load them automagically with this subroutine (no, that's not a typo).

• LoadVariables: Using the Variable Overview window to create all the variables in the document can be troublesome and sometimes give you nasty surprises (if you are a seasoned QlikView developer, you have surely erased...

Variables – making your life easier

Variables are one of the most flexible elements in the QlikView realm. As we have seen throughout the book, you can use them as part of your script, the navigation schema or as a mechanism for the user to interact with the app. Likewise, they can help you standardize your dashboards by creating consistent color palettes or speed up your development by making it easier to create new calculations.

Formulas and Set Analysis

Stunning dashboards are not only functional, user friendly, and eye catching, but also robust and easy to maintain. One of the benefits of using variables in a QlikView app is that you can encapsulate common calculations. For example, imagine that you are dealing with an expression such as this one:

=sum({$<Category={'A', 'B', 'C'}, Cancelled={0}>} Sales)

Instead of copying and pasting it onto several charts time and again, you can create a variable called vSales to store it. Now, whenever you need to use it, you just have to type the...

Backgrounds

Using an adequate background can improve the aesthetics, quadrature, and style of a dashboard. In this regard, having some designs ready beforehand can save you valuable development time.

Building a background doesn't necessarily require spending hours on specialized tools such as Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. You can start your background collection by borrowing some of the images used in Qlik's demos and making small adjustments.

Start by downloading a demo from http://us-b.demo.qlik.com/, remove all the objects, and print the screen in order to create a base image:

After this, you can modify bits and pieces, such as the headers, panels, or shadows. For instance, you could Google deep blue wallpaper to get a good-looking texture, crop a rectangle, and paste it over the color stripe of the base image in order to change its look and feel to match your organization's corporate colors (Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo would be jealous of such talent for the visual arts!)

Also,...

Icons, symbols, and buttons

Once again, the QlikView Developer Toolkit (available on Qlik Community) can be a good starting point to assemble an image collection for your dashboards. However, chances are that after a few weeks you will need more specific icons, symbols, and buttons to enhance your applications. If that is the case, there are several websites such as http://dryicons.com/ and https://www.iconfinder.com/ where you can download amazing packs with a freeware license.

Color palettes

For those who come from a graphic design background, mixing and matching colors is a straightforward activity. However, if you are more familiarized with programming or databases, creating a simple palette can be a titanic task. However, even if you have an awful sense of fashion, you can still be a great QlikView designer by relying on the experts. As we discussed in Chapter 2, All about Dashboard Design Best Practices, there are many amazing websites that can help you create an adequate color palette, so don't hesitate to visit them! From specialized graphic design websites to fashion or interior design resources, there is no excuse for not having a friendly color scheme.

Once you find the perfect mix of colors, be sure to add it to your library. You can use text objects to easily copy and paste the RGB formula or simple charts to move the palette as a whole with the Format Painter tool. In the end, these resources not only give consistency to your apps, but also endow them...

The object repository

Having a single QlikView file that contains several commonly used visualizations can also save you a great amount of time while building new apps. Even though you can copy and paste objects from multiple documents, compiling them in just one place (an application that will surely deserve a place in your Favorites side bar) is better than opening and closing dozens of applications to find that awesome gauge you created months ago.

This repository can contain specific tabs for each chart type, common buttons, maps color palettes, or even small chunks of code that might come in handy afterwards (for... each statements, set analysis, ad hoc conditions, calendars, and so on.)

Keeping in shape

A great designer must always be at the top of his game, and one of the best ways to achieve this is to stay in touch with the global community of QlikView enthusiasts. In this regard, I recommend you to frequently refer to these resources:

• Qlik Community: Qlik's official portal offers a wide variety of options to stay updated, such as forums, tutorials, blogs, and demos. This website is definitely a bookmark you should have in your web browser.

• Independent blogs: There's a lot going on in the QlikView world outside of Qlik Community. Scattered around the globe, there are several renowned experts sharing their knowledge about scripting, design, and best practices in their personal blogs.

  Tip

  Visit Steve Dark's website, http://www.askqv.com/, to find the cream of the crop of QlikView blogs.

• Other Resources: You can also benefit from joining the discussions regarding QlikView on LinkedIn, following some Qlik-personalities in Twitter or attending to specialized events such as...

Summary

In this chapter, we reviewed the main components of a QlikView library, a comprehensive repository that can standardize and speed up all your QlikView developments. In the next and final chapter, we will discuss some recommendations you might take into account before deploying an application in order to ensure that it gets the best results possible.