Today, one of the most used Business Intelligence products is undoubtedly QlikView. This Swedish product is one of the best positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms matrix and has been for a number of years.

BI-Gartner-201502.png

To make Business Intelligence even more accessible to Business users, the Qlik Company decided to add an additional product in its range. This product should be more accessible and easier to use to create analytics reports. That’s why QlikSense was created.

1.Build a report in a few mouse clicks

One of the great strengths of QlikView is that the use of an analytical report has become very simple. The user of a QlikView report need only to select the various criteria they wish to apply to these tables and graphs so that they are automatically adapted to the application.

report_qlikview.png

In this case, the user has just clicked on the criteria “Argentina” and all report data has been filtered to show only the data for this country.
However, the construction of a QlikView’s report is not so simple. The multitude of options available for creating each artifact can quickly become quite complex. This makes the end user still dependent on the developer’s report both for its construction than for any changes they would make.
To make the creation of these reports more accessible to the majority, Qlik decided to launch Qlik Sence. This product brings simplicity in building reports because it’s using the Drag and Drop technology. The user can now create his tables and charts using only the mouse, making the creation of a report as easy as in Excel.
To create a new report in QlikSense, click “Create a new App”

1.png

Give the new application a name and click « Create »

2_20150331-072751_1.png

Click on « Open»

3.png

As in any QlikView report, the first thing to do is to retrieve data. There are two options to do that:
“Quick Data Load” or ” Load Data Editor.”

  • “Quick Data Load” allows you to select any data coming from a flat file or located in a XLS sheet.
  • “Data Load Editor” allows you to create more complex data sources based on SQL -type queries

4_20150331-073800_1.png

For our example, we are using « Data Load Editor ». After opening the application, you should only select the data source connector you want to use and set up your connection to your data source.

5.png

I will created later a new blog focused on the creation and the setup of data connection in QlikView and QlikSense.
In this case, we will use a .qvx file type. Such files are created through the QlikView ETL application called “QlikView Expressor “.
The load script is then displayed on the screen in SQL format.

6.png

You just have to launch the data load.

7.png

When it’s done, you should activate the « App Overview » mode.

8.png

Then, the user can create a new sheet:

9.png

He gives it a name and click on it.

10.png

To display the « Edit » mode, you just have to click on this icon:

11.png

At this point, the user can create his graphic using the Drag and drop mode

drag_drop.png

After chosen the chart type, select your dimensions and measures

select_dim.png

And that’s the result.

graph.png

Despite its simplicity, Qlik Sence retains the power of creating and setting chart from QlikView. But the bulk of operations is now made via selection of options, making much easier to create different artifacts.

2.Type “Map” chart

Qlik has not only added the notion of Drag and Drop. One of the great innovations in QlikSense regards the possibility to create very easily a type “Map” chart, that is to say containing geographical information. It was quite difficult to do it in QlikView because it required the use of fairly complex calculated variables. With QlikSense, you just have to use the type “Map” object specially created for this purpose and complete the requested information.
To create a chart “Map”, select the chart type “Map”

geo_graph_1.png

The only constraint to achieve this kind of graph is to have a GeoMakePoint type object. It is created by combining two geolocation information type objects (latitude and longitude).
In the example below, the object GeoMakePoint “Location” is the location of cities.

makepoint.png

Click in the ” Layers ” menu. In the “Add Layers ” box, insert the GeoMakePoint object you just have created. And in the “Expression” box, add an aggregate expression.

geo_graph_7.png

Then, go to the “Background” menu, select the Slippy map server you want to use and copy the URL and the duties of the selected server
geo_graph_8.png
Small comment: All Slippy Map servers can be used by QlikSense. They are listed on the website of QlikView. To access it, simply click on the hyperlink “URL and Allocation”.

geo_graph_4.png

To activate the different colors from your dimensions on the map, go in the menu « Apparence » and choose the following options:

geo_graph_9.png

Final result will be displayed on a map. Points are the dimension “city” and the size of the point will be the measure (Sum(Profit)).

map.png

This chart is as interactive as the other, it will also apply the filters selected by the user.

3.The mode “Story”

QlikSense also offers the possibility to create “Stories”, a kind of Microsoft Powerpoint presentation. A “Story” is simply a result of various reports that have been fixed with the values that the user wishes to highlight. These presentations can also contain some kind of animation options from those used in Microsoft Powerpoint. These Stories are built from existing QlikSense reports on which the user takes a snapshot after having applied the desired filter.
To create a “Story” , simply activate the “App Overview” mode.

8.png

Then select the « story » mode and click on « new story ».

12_20150331-081429_1.png

Give it a name, push « Enter » and click on the story.

13.png

Before creating the story, you should have taken snapshots from other sheets.
Warning : You can’t insert snapshots located in some other QlikSense applications.
To create a snapshot, open a Qliksense sheet located in your application.

14.png

Open the story you have made and insert the snapshots you need.

15.png

You can add some text zones, Microsoft Powerpoint animations, special forms and media objects.

16.png

And that’s the final result.

17.png

In conclusion, we can say that QlikView and QlikSense are complementary products that are not reserved to the same type of user.

  • QlikSense is easier to handle and is designed especially for use as a dashboarding tool
  • Using HTML 5 technology, it allows you to create reports for any kind of devices
  • Map type graphs are easier to create
  • You can create Stories

So we can say that QlikSense will be more easily used by the Business than QlikView because of its friendliness to use.