November 11, 2013

FastStart: tiny package to speed up creating new QlikView apps

FastStart is a tiny bundle consisting of an empty QlikView application with a couple of useful subroutines packed with empty configuration .xls file and portable QViewer for inspecting resident tables. I made it for myself for the cases when I need to quickly create a new app from scratch but you're welcome to download and use it. It was made suitable for rapid debugging and dealing with large datasets.

I'm sure there are other similar bundles, here is my approach:

Changes to default Document Settings:
  • Compression -- None
  • Generate Logfile -- Yes
  • Default font -- Calibri, 9pt
Changes to default Load Script:
  • Added Subroutines tab that contains two subroutines -- LoadVars (loads variables from external configuration file) and Inspect (calls QViewer for inspecting contents of a resident table);
  • Added Partial Load tab -- calls LoadVars so that variables can be updated without full reload (by simply pressing Ctrl + Shift + R), also can hold additional script commands for execution during Partial Reload which is convenient for modifying data model;
  • Default tab Main renamed to Variables  -- intended for setting up variables and runtime parameters;
  • Added Main tab -- blank tab, here we start manipulating with data.
Two additional folders
  • Config -- contains config.xlsx
  • Tools -- contains QViewer.exe
I intentionally tried to keep it minimalist and not overload it with pre-built stuff like UI layout framework, calendar scripts, predefined color variables, etc. Although, external configuration file for storing variables and subroutine for inspecting resident tables -- these two features I use in almost every application.