Since the publication of the previous version of this book in 2012, the Qlik product suite has changed and expanded significantly, both through acquisitions and the introduction of new products. In this section, we will look at some of the most important changes and we will look at how these fit into the bigger picture.
Initially billed as QlikView.Next and anticipated to be an update of QlikView, Qlik Sense was launched as a new, separate product in September 2014. Regular users of QlikView will immediately notice that the frontend of Qlik Sense looks very different from QlikView:
With the introduction of Qlik Sense, Qlik suddenly had two similar products out in the market, which they dubbed the two product strategy. This strategy positions Qlik Sense not as an updated version of QlikView, but rather as a separate self-service visualization solution that co-exists with QlikView. At the same time, QlikView was repositioned as the tool for 'guided analytics'.
The full Qlik marketing mantra is "Qlik Sense is for Self-Service BI, QlikView is for Guided Analytics".
As the two product strategy is a major aspect of the Qlik product portfolio and knowing when to apply which product is important, we will have a closer look at the similarities and differences between QlikView and Qlik Sense.
Both QlikView 12 and Qlik Sense share the same underlying QIX Engine. They both use the same scripting and expression language. Skills that you have gained (or will gain, using this book) in these areas in QlikView can be directly transferred to Qlik Sense.
The main technical differences between QlikView and Qlik Sense are in the frontend presentation and server implementation or, simply put, the things sitting on top of and around the QIX Engine.
Qlik Sense is based on the latest technologies and it employs a web-first approach. It has responsive design, which means that objects automatically adjust to your screen size and device type. This makes it work very well on mobile devices. Qlik Sense also has extensive API's that can be used to automate, extend, or embed the product. All of the development in Qlik Sense takes place on the Qlik Sense Server. As with QlikView, a desktop version, called Qlik Sense Desktop, is available. In contrast to QlikView, this desktop version is mainly used as a trial version instead of a development environment. Qlik Sense also has a cloud version, called Qlik Sense Cloud.
QlikView is based on proven, but older, technologies. It is Windows-centric and uses a desktop-first approach, with a more pixel-perfect oriented design (that is, if you define a chart to be 500 pixels wide, it will always be 500 pixels wide). Compared to Qlik Sense, a developer can quite easily build very sophisticated, custom-styled applications without any additional programming. For example, QlikView applications can perform specific actions (such as showing or hiding an object, making a selection, selecting a sheet, and so on) when certain conditions are met or events are triggered. QlikView applications are developed in the QlikView Desktop application and deployed to the QlikView Server for consumption by users.
Note
Although Qlik Sense does not have many options for customization or advanced application design out of the box, those who possess web development skills will be able to build very sophisticated applications using the Qlik Sense APIs and the Mashup, Widget, and/or Extension functionalities. The barrier to entry is higher, but a developer who is both skilled in QlikView/Qlik Sense and web development will be able to get far more out of Qlik Sense than they will out of QlikView.
As mentioned before, the distinction between the products, according to Qlik, is that "Qlik Sense is for Self-Service BI, and QlikView is for Guided Analytics". What this means from a user-perspective is that Qlik Sense is more geared towards situations where you do not want to, or cannot, predefine everything upfront. This gives more space to the user to build their own charts, sheets and presentations, and so on, to answer their own questions. Questions that you could possibly not have anticipated. This exploration can be done on either centrally managed, governed data models, or on data that the user adds into Qlik Sense. Building charts and other objects is mainly a drag and drop affair, with very little coding or expression writing. Qlik Sense is an ideal environment for engaged users who want to explore, but have limited technical abilities.
In situations where you need predefined business applications, that is, applications with a thought-out data model, sheets, charts, and calculations that are consumed by end users then QlikView is the preferred option. Qlik refers to this as "Guided analytics". Users can still explore, filter, slice, and dice the data and use it to answer their questions, but adding new visualizations is decidedly less smooth than it is in Qlik Sense.
It is important to keep in mind that the two scenarios described previously mainly relate to the casual user experience. An experienced Qlik developer will just as easily answer a new question with QlikView as with Qlik Sense. In fact, many experienced Qlik developers still say that they prefer QlikView if they want to get something done fast.
The Qlik Analytics Platform (QAP) can be considered a 'headless' version of Qlik Sense Enterprise. Or, more accurately, Qlik Sense Enterprise is the QAP with some additions, such as the Qlik Sense Client.
The QAP contains the QIX Engine and API's, but lacks a frontend. From a licensing perspective, it is quite attractively priced compared to Qlik Sense Enterprise. This makes the QAP ideal for (OEM) companies that want to embed the software and create their own frontend.
Qlik NPrinting used to be offered as a third-party add-on to QlikView, but it was acquired by Qlik in February 2015.
NPrinting is an add-on product that can be used to create and distribute static reports based on data and visualizations from QlikView and Qlik Sense. In contrast to many other report writers, which usually only output to PDF, NPrinting can output to many popular file formats, for example, Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Word, but also HTML and PDF. Reports can be scheduled and automatically distributed through multiple channels. Users can also subscribe to reports using the Newsstand portal.
NPrinting received an extensive overhaul in version 17. QlikView 12 is only supported from version 17 and up.
Over the past few years, cloud-based data sources have steadily increased in popularity. In order to easily load (some of) these data sources into QlikView or Qlik Sense, Qlik offers the Web Connectors as a separate add-on. The Qlik Web Connectors were sold as a third-party add-on under the name QVSource by Industrial CodeBox, until Qlik acquired the company in May 2016.
The Qlik Web Connectors provide preconfigured connectors to load data from sources such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, MailChimp, or SugarCRM.
Besides the paid Web Connectors, Qlik also offers a free, generic REST Connector. We will learn more about this connector in Chapter 4, Data Sources.
Qlik GeoAnalytics is Qlik's most recent acquisition. It was previously known as IdevioMaps and was added to the portfolio in January 2017 when Qlik purchased parent company Idevio. Qlik GeoAnalytics is a separate add-on that adds geospatial visualization capabilities to QlikView and Qlik Sense.
Acquired by Qlik in November 2014, and relaunched as a Qlik branded product in April 2015, Qlik DataMarket offers data as a service. With Qlik DataMarket, you can easily import external reference data into QlikView (and Qlik Sense) and combine it with internal data. Available data ranges from weather and demographics to exchange rates and financial information.
DataMarket is a subscription-based service, but it also has a free tier. Data from DataMarket is loaded into QlikView using the DataMarket Connector. We will look into this connector in more detail in Chapter 4, Data Sources.