This is a book about mastery. But what does this mean? What does being a QlikView master mean?
When I wrote QlikView for Developers Cookbook, Packt Publishing, I started the preface with the sentence:
"There is no substitute for experience."
When it comes to QlikView, experience is the thing that makes a difference. Experience is the difference between the developers who can create good applications and the consultants who can create real business solutions that solve real business problems.
I have been working with QlikView since 2006, and in this time, I have created some fantastic solutions. I also created applications that I cringe to look at today. I like to think that I have mastered the subject, even though I am still learning.
At CapricornVentis, I work with one of the brightest bunch of consultants; it has ever been my pleasure to work with them. I get to teach a lot but I also get to learn a tremendous amount from these guys. We are constantly pushing the boundaries of the product to get to the right solution. As a beginner in this area, I would have wanted to work for an organization like CapricornVentis, where I could really learn and grow as a consultant.
Let's be clear; I do not know every little detail about QlikView, but I do know most of them. What I think I know, and know really well, are the important things to know about when creating QlikView solutions. This knowledge is what I have tried to distil down into this book.
You won't be a master by just reading this book. As Alfred Korzybski famously stated:
"The map is not the territory."
This book is not an ultimate mastering guide, rather is a like a map that guides us towards our common destination—to become a QlikView master. Study the map well and you will get there.
During the development of this book, Qlik released their next generation product, Qlik Sense. Qlik Sense is not, currently, a replacement product for QlikView, and Qlik has announced that they will have a two-product strategy and sell QlikView for guided BI applications and Qlik Sense for self-service BI applications. A new version, QlikView 12.0, is slated for release in the second half of 2015.
While Qlik Sense is a new product, it is built on the same heritage as QlikView. There is a new data engine, QIX, that stores the data in a format more columnar than that of QlikView. However, the inference engine is still the same (green, white, and gray). The script syntax is still the same; in fact, we can use QlikView scripts in Qlik Sense. The frontend is very different because it is based on a new web design, but the expression syntax is still the same.
Therefore, much of what is written in this book about QlikView will still apply to Qlik Sense. Anyone who masters QlikView will be well on their way to mastering Qlik Sense.