A little while ago, I was asked to change an existing QlikView Application. While scanning the application, I found that it used Alternate States. I had already heard about Alternate States, and that they could store different user selections, but didn’t have any hands-on experience yet. I decided to dig a bit deeper into the subject before continuing. I wrote down what I learned in this post
The multibox is a QlikView object that I find extremely useful because it allows you to fit selection fields into a much smaller space. At the same time, I also find it extremely annoying; the gradient looks dated and if you want your field names and values to be readable you will often have to make both columns quite wide. For these reasons I tend to not use the multibox in my applications, using a conditionally hidden drop-down filter panel instead.
Recently, I was hired to perform a health check on an application. The application made extensive use of a multibox (in a very nice and flexible way, I should add). One of the challenges my client was facing was that not every field was relevant to every user. Besides a general technical review of the application, the developers wanted to know if it was possible to create a dynamic multibox. A multibox where users could select which fields they want to show.
As I started digging in to this question, I realized there’s a much nicer way to create a multibox. After experimenting with it for a bit, I actually like this solution so much that I will probably be using it in some of my future projects.
As someone who often has to look at/modify QlikView script written by others, I have come to appreciate the value of readable script. Rather than taking an “if it works, it works” attitude, I always try to write my script with readability and consistency in mind. Somewhere down the line someone else (or worse, you) might have to decipher what a specific script is doing in order to modify or extend it.
Today I want to ask your opinion on the readability of a specific part of the QlikView script, indentation of aliases within LOAD statements. To this end, I’ve taken a piece of script from the QlikView System Monitor and formatted the aliases in three different ways. (note: I don’t agree with the absence of white space in functions and between operators, but have left that as is)
Have a look at the three options, and then please answer the two multiple choice questions below.
A very short tip on writing QlikView expressions that might save you a lot of headaches. In my last online training on Set Analysis (another one coming up this week) I showed a simple technique that I use when writing expressions in QlikView, especially when they contain nested functions. Based on the feedback, it seemed to resonate quite well with the attendees and not everybody was aware of this technique, so I thought I might share it with you as well.
It can simply be summarized as: Always Be Closing.
Whenever I write an expression that contains a parenthesis (or curly bracket/chevron/whatever) that also needs to be closed, I immediately close it and place the cursor one step back. Or, to show it visually (in slow mo):
This way, you’ll never need to think about how many parentheses/etc. you need to close your expression. Of course, this technique also works for Excel, SQL or any programming language.
As a follow-on tip, whenever I have to ‘decipher’ a nested expression within QlikView, I work inside-out. Start with the inner-most function, figure out what it does and what value(s) it returns, then move on to the function that uses the output of the first function, figure out what that does, and so on.
Just a quick heads-up about a new online training that Miguel García and I are offering: Set Analysis. We delivered our first training on May 2nd and received excellent ratings and feedback. We are now scheduling new sessions, the first one being held May 23rd 2014. This is a live, instructor-led, 4 hour online training. We have multiple sessions (both in English and Spanish), so you should be able to find one that fits your time zone. More information can be found on the website, or after the break.
At the Masters Summit for QlikView in London we ended the second day with an informal ‘stump the geek’ session. In this session participants could submit technically challenging questions to a panel. Besides the four presenters, this panel also consisted of Steve Dark, Stephen Redmond and Henric Cronström. You can imagine that I found myself surrounded by an awesome amount of QlikView knowledge.
While challenging, most of the questions could either be answered on the spot or a conceptual solution could be described. There was however one question that didn’t really yield an, in my opinion, satisfactory answer. The consensus almost seemed to drift towards ‘it cannot be done’ or ‘that is not how QlikView works’. The question was:
Can we make “or” selections between list boxes, instead of the standard “and” selections?
When using variables in QlikView, a common best practice is to store them outside your QlikView application, or to define them in the script. However, there’s one thing about this approach that often annoys me. When defining a new variable during development, you either have to:
define the variable twice: once in the variable editor and then again in your external file/script to ensure that it is persisted;
or, define it once in your external file/script and then reload the application to make it available in the front-end, potentially leading to a lot of unnecessary downtime.
Fortunately, there is a solution that lets you define your variables once in an external file -and- have it available in the front-end (almost) immediately without reloading. read more »
Coming to London from October 9 to 11 and to Barcelona from 14 to 16 October, the Masters Summit brings you 3 days of hands on sessions where we will discuss advanced techniques in building complex solutions with QlikView. The goal of this event is to take your QlikView skills to the next level and help you become a QlikView master.
For the early birds, there is an attractive discount of US$ 300 (around 225 Euro’s) until August 16th, which, for example, should be enough to cover air fare from most locations within Europe. Make sure you do not miss out on this great offer and:
Christmas time is coming near and I’m in a festive mood, so today I have a short post to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Of course, it wouldn’t be a QlikFix Christmas if I hadn’t whipped up a little visual effect in QlikView. Without further ado, here is my QlikView Christmas card to you:
But wait, there’s more! Inspired by the Christmas theme over at Matt Fryer’s QlikView Addict blog (a recommended read, by the way), I decided to create a small document extension that lets you add a little Christmas spirit to your own QlikView documents. Amaze (or annoy) your clients, co-workers and users! For example, how about adding a little snow to the golf course? read more »
After many months of hard work, today I am proud and excited to announce the upcoming release of the new QlikView book that Mike García and I wrote together:
QlikView 11 for Developers
With 500 pages of original content and an extensive collection of code samples, we believe this book contains everything new (and seasoned) QlikView developers should know in order to put QlikView 11 to productive use.
The book will be published by Packt Publishing and is scheduled for release on November 15th. If you want to secure a copy for yourself, pre-orders can be placed via this page.
Of course, writing a book is not a solo (or in our case, duo) exercise. Mike and I could not have done it without the great contributions of:
In the coming weeks, we will be giving you insights into the book and will also be giving away a few copies, so be sure to watch this space. You can get notified of new posts by entering your email address in the input box in the top right corner of this page.
Update 2012/11/20: yesterday we were informed by the publisher that both the print version and the e-book will be released on November 23rd.
Update 2012/11/29: for those that are unable to download the code bundle from the publisher’s website, you can also download it from this link: http://bit.ly/CodeBundle
A little while ago, I was asked to change an existing QlikView Application. While scanning the application, I found that it used Alternate States. I had already heard about Alternate States, and that they could store different user selections, but didn’t have any hands-on experience yet. I decided to dig a bit deeper into the subject before continuing. I wrote down what I learned in this post
The multibox is a QlikView object that I find extremely useful because it allows you to fit selection fields into a much smaller space. At the same time, I also find it extremely annoying; the gradient looks dated and if you want your field names and values to be readable you will often have to make both columns quite wide. For these reasons I tend to not use the multibox in my applications, using a conditionally hidden drop-down filter panel instead.
A very short tip on writing QlikView expressions that might save you a lot of headaches. In my last online training on Set Analysis (
At the 
When using variables in QlikView, a common best practice is to 
After many months of hard work, today I am proud and excited to announce the upcoming release of the new QlikView book that 
