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 structure will help you respond to those not-so-rare situations where the business requires a prototype or a demo app in a matter of hours. Albeit that you can find some frameworks that address several of these elements, most of them are built to fit all kinds of requirements. Therefore, they include quite a few features that don't necessarily match your style or needs and add unnecessary complexity to the documents. So, don't hesitate to invest some time in creating these templates, for you will surely benefit from them afterwards.
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 (xls, txt, html, csv), images (backgrounds, cover pages, icons, visual cues), and documentation in the simplest manner possible.