Ten things you should know about QlikView 10

By Kristen A. QlikView Developer

QlikTech, makers of QlikView, recently announced the public beta release of the latest version of their business intelligence reporting and analysis tool. Scheduled for this summer, with the full release this autumn, a lot is going into QlikView 10 with list boxes and metadata. New features like improved object movement and new charts like the Mekko will bring a lot to the table as well.

Here are some highlights:

1. Container object. A new object enabling multiple objects in one area with a tab menu to toggle – a nice substitute to creating list box menus. Users can easily switch between a pie chart of different categories in sales to a bar chart displaying sales over years.

Container Object

2. Mekko chart. This chart analyzes multiple data series against two variables. One variable, the width of the columns, is proportional to data represented by the columns. The other variable is the individual segment height; it is a percentage of the respective bar total value. This chart is great for strategy and marketing.

Mekko Chart

3. Moving an object without a caption. Before version 10, if an object didn’t have a caption in order to move it you would either need to go into the caption properties and move the object by x and y position or add the caption, move it, and hide the caption. Now when the ALT button is pressed and the curser is over the object it can be moved. This just makes it a lot easier when the user wants to drag object quickly.

4. Field tags. Users can add system and custom meta-tags to fields. The tags can be viewed in the table viewer with the hover tool-tip. In the future, the tags will be used for intelligent sorting.

5. Expression comments. Chart expressions now have a place for comments. This allows the user to add more documentation on what they are doing in that expression.

Expression Comments

6. Current selections. Users can now add a dropdown to fields in the current selections box. This allows fast changes for selections.

Current Selections

7. Linked objects. It is now possible for several sheet objects to share a common set of properties.  When two or more objects are linked they share all properties with the exception of size, position, and display state. When a user changes the properties of one object the change is reflected in the linked objects. The objects just need to share the same objectID.

Linked Objects

8. List box expressions. Before version 10, list boxes could only display frequency of that item, but now they can show any number calculated in the expression. The expression is the same as chart expressions. For instance, the user can display a list of all clients and the total sales for that client.

9. Sheet objects backgrounds. Backgrounds are now available in additional sheet objects like list boxes, current selections, bookmark objects and search objects.

Sheet Objects Backgrounds

10. Selection styles. New list box styles. LED checkboxes display a new look with the LED style and checkbox behaviors.

Selection Styles

Bonus! Menu caption icon. A new icon to show the user the context menu instead of right clicking an object.

Menu Caption Icon