Overview of a Qlik Sense Application's Life Cycle - Learning Qlik Sense The Official Guide (2015)

Learning Qlik Sense The Official Guide (2015)

Chapter 4. Overview of a Qlik Sense Application's Life Cycle

In the previous chapters, we outlined the evolving requirements driven by the market, and more importantly by business users seeking to help make better decisions within their organization. This chapter's goal is to highlight key features and benefits of Qlik Sense in meeting these requirements. There are thousands of features in the initial release of the software, and this chapter will serve as a guide to the major components, features, and benefits of Qlik Sense as you start exploring it.

In this chapter, we'll be covering the following topics:

· Overview of the hub

· Starting application authoring

· Components of a Qlik Sense application

· Sharing an application

Overview of an application's life cycle

As we begin our overview of a Qlik Sense application life cycle, it is best to start at the center of a Qlik Sense community collaboration, which is called the hub. The hub is made up of a number of streams that contain applications that are published by authors as well as users who can extend these applications by adding personal sheets and data stories. The Qlik Sense Management Console (QMC) governs this publishing through streams that have security rules. This approach provides the highly governed system that IT needs, while granting users the ability to explore information and share and collaborate on their findings.

Let's dig a bit deeper in each of these areas.

Overview of an application's life cycle

Overview of the Qlik Sense hub

Starting application authoring

The need for a Qlik Sense application often starts with simple questions, such as these: why are sales down in my region? What products are not selling well? Are there opportunities to sell additional products to existing customers? When a customer buys a product, do they also purchase a companion product? These types of questions lead to the identification of the place to find this data. Qlik Sense provides two starting points that can be from either the Personal (Desktop) or Enterprise Edition. This chapter will focus primarily on the Qlik Sense Enterprise Edition and mention the differences in the Desktop Edition.

The hub is made up of two main parts. The first is My Workspace, which enables users to create new Qlik Sense applications. The second part comprises defined Streams, which contain published applications to be used and extended by users. Streams are defined in the QMC, which provides a broad range of security rules to meet organization requirements. The Desktop Edition contains only a hub for the creation of Qlik Sense applications. Once an application is completed, it can be published to an authorized stream by the author. When published, the application cannot be altered without republishing by the author. For the Desktop Edition, the application author must send all artifacts of the application, which must include at least the Qlik Sense document (QVF) and any images and extensions used in the development of the application. Once received by the administrator, these artifacts are imported through the QMC and then published.

What makes up a Qlik Sense application?

Now let's turn our attention to what components make up a Qlik Sense application. They are shown in the following diagram:

What makes up a Qlik Sense application?

A Qlik Sense application components

Qlik Sense applications are made up of a number of components. Starting from the data source, these components include the following:

· Global Defined Data Sources are defined and managed by QMC.

· Based on these governed data sources, a Load Script is generated or written, which transforms this data into an Associative Model.

· Once the Qlik Sense data model is defined, the developer can determine which fields will have the most value for users in the creation of private sheets for personal analysis. These fields will be used to create dimensions and real-time calculation expressions for measures.

· Additionally, fully defined charts for the most common views of information can be stored in the Library.

· Once the Library is defined, sheets (collections of objects), data stories, and bookmarks can be created.

All these components combine to create a dynamic baseline application to be explored by users.

Sharing an application

Let's turn our attention to how an application is shared with the Qlik Sense community.

Sharing an application

Qlik Sense application publication

Once a Qlik Sense application is complete, the author can share it by publishing it to a stream in the Qlik Sense hub. The publishing process can be accomplished by an administrator who is responsible for a stream and has publishing rights in the QMC. A Qlik Sense developer notifies a stream administrator that a Qlik Sense application is ready for publishing. The stream administrator logs in to the QMC, identifies the Qlik Sense application by name and author, and publishes the application in a stream. This is also the method for applications that are developed on Qlik Sense Desktop.

Note

This method moves the application from the personal workspace, so a copy of the application should be made prior to publishing. Publishing and best practices for delegating publishing rights to a developer in the QMC will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 8, Administering Qlik Sense.

Once an application is published to a stream, it is ready to be explored by users.

Sharing an application

Qlik Sense application consumption

Continuing the application life cycle

One of the key features of a Qlik Sense application is its dynamic nature, which helps meet the broad requirements of data discovery. Users can explore the published sheets and data stories as well as create and share private sheets and stories based on the application library. The library allows for the creation of personal sheets and data stories in a controlled manner. As mentioned earlier, the library is a collection of dimensions, measures, and charts that are defined by the application author and cannot be modified once they are published to a stream. It allows a user to extend an application and share findings through personal sheets and data stories, while keeping consistent definitions across an organization.

Taking a step back, let's look at this new application model. A published Qlik Sense application is just at the beginning of its life cycle. Once published, the application can be expanded by the contributor within the stream using additional published sheets and stories based on the original application.

Continuing the application life cycle

Qlik Sense application life cycle

Summary

A Qlik Sense application is built based on governed data sources defined in the QMC. These data sources are transformed into an associative model. Once the model is defined, key dimensions and measures are created within the library. This library will be used to create sheets. Next, the application is published to a stream within the hub for consumption. The application is then explored by users, and key findings can then be shared through bookmarks, private sheets, and data stories. These artifacts enrich the application and can be published back in the stream for collaboration between other members of the stream.

The next chapter will explore each of these capabilities in more detail and how they meet the needs of key stakeholders within your organization.