Thursday, October 21, 2010

QlikVIew 10 Highlights

There are many great new features in the latest release of QlikView.  This release focused on some key improvements in the area of development and usability as well as the enterprise manageability.


I thought I would highlight just a few of the improvements in this post.


Syntax Checking
I have been using QlikView a long time (I think my first experience was with version 4). But those who know me understand that I come from the operations side of IT and those roots were not based in software development.  So, you can imagine my delight when QlikTech added syntax checking in QV 10!


The red underline that highlights misspellings has become ubiquitous in just about all programs (Word, Web based editors, etc...).  QlikView now takes advantage of the common red underline metaphor to help identify syntax mishaps.  This saves developers a lot of time by alerting them to problems prior to an attempted reload or debug load.  (As I typed this I saw that friendly red line about 3 or 4 times)!


Old Method (before v10):                                       New Method (v10):
                                                
You can see above that in V10 everything after my syntax error (missing comma) is underlined in red.  This is a slightly different than Microsoft Word underling the actual misspelling.  In this case the culprit is something that is missing so I think the logic of showing an red line after the syntax error is good approach.  (I am thankful for any help I can get)  :-)


Linked Objects
When it comes to QlikView I enjoy the graphical dashboard design process the most (you probably guessed that based on my love for syntax checking - coding is not my favorite). Another great improvement for the developer and some power usesr is the concept of object linking.


Consider objects that are displayed consistently on multiple sheets within a dashboard (Current Selections Box, High Level Dimensions such as Region or Division come to mind).  Prior to v10 if you changed an attribute on one of these objects you would have to repeat that across all sheets.  The includes moving an object a pixel or two in any direction, color, caption settings, fonts, etc...  If you are a perfectionist this can be tedious or you do a lot of cut / copy / past each time you make a significant change on one sheet.


With Linked Objects you can link common objects across sheets so that a change in an object on one sheet replicates to all other linked objects!


Sample Sheet:
Consider the List Boxes on the left of Sheet 1 in my Sample Sheet to the left.  I can now copy (using CTRL-SHIFT and drag) to another sheet and link the 2 objects together.  When you copy you will see the link icon represented during the process 
Now when you right click on the List Box a new Linked Object menu is available.  After you make a change to the object you can select the option to carry that change across all linked objects.  This will prove to be a real time saver during the design process.

Container Object
One of the new object types in v10 is the container object.  It is a very generic component that allows you to 'group' objects together.  They can be any type of objects, charts, list boxes, multi-boxes, text boxes, etc...  This can be very useful in grouping common objects together and maximizing real estate on your dashboard.

Consider the sample sheet to the left.  This is a pretty basic example because there are only 2 charts open and 2 additional chart minimized.  If I wanted to maximize real estate I can use some traditional methods (auto-minimize, actions, macros, etc...). In v10 have a new option to group like charts or objects in a common container making it easier for the user to scroll through the objects within the container.  
Instead of double-clicking on the minimized charts to view them I can simply single click through my container by selecting the objects down the left margin of my container (this is configurable).  I have 4 charts sharing the same real estate without a lot of over engineering of the layout of each chart.
There are many more exciting features in Qlikview 10.  I will highlight more in future postings.

-emb



6 comments:

  1. QlikVlew? Flew? Ah, QlikView.

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  2. Good one... Thanks...!!!

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  3. If we create objects using same object ID they are automatically linked............!!!

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  4. Thanks emb! i think this blog is very useful!

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