CREATING AN APPLICATION

CONFERENCE MANUAL
Qlik Enablement Workshop
CONTENTS

Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Installing Qlik Sense ............................................................................................................................................. 2
Sales Solution App Step-by-Step Guide ............................................................................................................ 2
Creating The App ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Loading Data ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Managing Sheets ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Creating Dimensions .......................................................................................................................................... 9
Creating Measures ........................................................................................................................................... 10
Creating Visualizations ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Modifying Visualizations .................................................................................................................................. 12
Completing The Sheet ..................................................................................................................................... 14
The Dashboard Sheet ........................................................................................................................................17
Qlik Enablement Workshop
INTRODUCTION

This manual will get you started with Qlik Sense and help you create your very first app. Well begin with how to
install and set-up Sense for the very first time. Afterwards, well make an example app using a step-by-step guide,
by the end of which you should have a good grasp of how Sense works.

Lets start by installing Qlik Sense.

INSTALLING QLIK SENSE

Setting up Qlik Sense for the first time is fairly

easy. Run the setup and choose a file path to
where you want to install Qlik Sense. Simply
follow the on-screen wizard to complete the
installation.

Once the installation is complete, run the

executable for Sense and youre all set to start
working on your first app.

You can find the setup in the same folder where

this manual is located. Open the folder and run the
file titled Qlik_Sense_Desktop_setup.exe.

SALES SOLUTION APP STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

Follow the steps to create an example app and learn the basics of Qlik Sense while doing so. A finished version of
the app youll be making can be found in the same folder as this manual. Use it as a reference when needed.

CREATING THE APP

Whenever you run Qlik Sense for the first time, youll be greeted with the following pop-up box:
Qlik Enablement Workshop
This is the default starting screen for Sense and will open up whenever you run it as long as the checkbox at the
bottom remains ticked. Clicking on the Create a new app button will prompt you to name your new app.

1
2

Name the app Sales Solution. Once youve named it, click on create at the bottom right. Next, youll get a
prompt (2nd picture above) telling you that the app has been created successfully. Click on Open App on this
prompt and it will take you to the data load manager (which well cover next).

Alternately, you can click on the Create new app

button (pictured right) close to the top right of your
main hub to create a new app. It can be found next
to the sorting options for your apps.

The app itself can also be opened from the Qlik Sense Desktop Hub (pictured above) once it is created. This can
be done by finding your app from the list of apps and clicking on it. With a fresh installation of Qlik Sense, you
should only see a handful of pre-existing apps provided as samples.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
LOADING DATA

When you open your app for the

first time, youll be asked to add your data
to it. Data can be loaded using either the
Quick Data Load Wizard or the Data Load
1
Editor. This guide will only cover adding
data through the wizard.

Clicking on Add data will prompt you to

select a data source. For the purposes of
this guide, well stick to Excel files but Qlik
Sense supports a number of different data
sources.

Once a data source is selected, Sense will open a file browser

for you to select your data files from. You can also drag and
3 drop supported files to open the quick data load wizard. Select
the files you wish to load on this screen. Additional data can be
loaded at a later time.

Follow these steps to select the files to load data from for our
Sales Solution app:
4

1. Click on Add data to open the Data Load Wizard

2. Select Excel Files as your data source.
3. Browse to the folder this manual is in and click on the folder
QuickDataLoad.
4. Select SalesData_MultiTabs.xlsx from the list.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
Once a data file is selected, youll find yourself on the data load wizard screen pictured below:

Using the wizard, you can choose exactly what data to load. Choose which fields to load by ticking the checkbox
next to the field names. You can also rename fields by clicking on their column header. On the left, you can see all
the tables in the data file you loaded. Clicking on them will open their data in the view-panel. Once youve
selected all the data you want to load, click on Load data and finish at the bottom to successfully load it into your
app. The SalesData_MultiTabs.xlsx file has five tables. Select all of them and load all the fields as they are.

After data is selected and the Load data and

finish button is pressed, youll find yourself
on the data load prompt. This can be near-
instantaneous or it can take a while
depending on the size of the data being
loaded. Since the file were loading has five
tables and a relatively small number of
entries, it should only take a few minutes at
best on even the most modest machines. Wait for the data load to finish. When its completed, the prompt will
start displaying a Data was loaded successfully message at the top like the picture above. Qlik Sense will also
create a sheet by itself if its the first time data is loaded in an app. Click on the Edit the sheet button marked
above and proceed to the next section of this document.

Additional data can be added at any time by opening the Menu

drop-down (pictured left; top-left side in Qlik Sense) and clicking Add data.
This will open the data source selection screen.

Folders and servers that data has been loaded from previously will show up
in the Connections tab for quick access. Connections can also be made
manually so data can be added quickly from a source.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
MANAGING SHEETS

Now that weve learned how to add and load data, its time to learn the basics of Qlik Senses frond-end.
The first element well be covering are sheets. Sheets are like your apps pages. Each of these pages can be
designed uniquely to serve a different purpose or to complement one another. There are a few aspects regarding
sheets that well be covering in this section: creating, renaming, copying, deleting and reordering them as per
your needs.

Creating

1. Open the Sheets drop-down by clicking on it close to the top-right of the Qlik Sense quick access menu
bar.
2. In the drop-down menu that opens, click on either of the two buttons marked in the picture above to
create a new sheet.

Renaming
Hovering over a sheets thumbnail or name in the Sheets
drop-down menu will display the Information
icon next to the sheets name. Clicking on it opens a
panel where you can change the name of the sheet. You
can also add a description for the sheet here. Click on it
now.
Qlik Enablement Workshop

2
4

The Information panel will look like the picture at the top. It will show you the sheets current title and its
description and thumbnail; if there is one. Follow the steps below and rename your first sheet:

1. Click on the Edit at the top-right of the panel.

2. Change the title of your sheet to Sheet # 1.
3. This is where you write a description for your sheet. Skip adding a description for now.
4. Click on the Stop editing tick-mark button to confirm your changes.

Sheets can also be renamed when a sheet is in Edit

mode. Open Sheet # 1 and use the steps below to
rename it this way: 1

1. Click on the Edit button next to the Sheets

drop-down to enter Edit mode.
2. With nothing selected in Edit mode, click on
the Properties button at the bottom right of
the screen to open the Sheet Properties
panel.
3. Change the title for the sheet to Sales 2
Analysis.

3
Qlik Enablement Workshop

You can add any image as a thumbnail for your sheets. This can be done by clicking
on the Change thumbnail button (pictured left) from the Sheet Information Edit
panel or the Sheet Properties panel. This opens a screen showing all the images
available to you.

A number of images are available by default, and more can be added. Sense
supports several image formats, but only shows image files that are in its Content
folder. Add any images you wish to use in your apps to the following location:
*C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Documents\Qlik\Sense\Content

*Default location. Replace <YourUsername> with your own admin accounts name.

Copying & Deleting

When you right-click a sheet in the Sheets panel, a context menu
like the one on the right will open up. From here, you can click on
Duplicate and a copy of the sheet you clicked on will be created.
This is useful for carrying over whatever visualizations youve made
so far on one sheet to the next. Particularly so if the next sheet you
plan on making only has a few differences, or if youve created a
template thats consistent throughout the app and do not want to
make it every time you create a new sheet.

You can also remove a sheet by clicking on Delete from that menu.
Use this to remove excess sheets or temporary ones you create
when working on an app.

Sheets can also be deleted from the Sheet Information Edit panel by clicking on the Delete button
(pictured left).

Reordering
Setting up the order in which
sheets are shown is relatively
simple. In the Sheets panel, drag
sheets around and drop them to
reposition them. The order in
which they show up is the order in
which youll change sheets when
you use the next or previous
buttons at the top right.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
CREATING DIMENSIONS

With our data loaded and a sheet ready to make visualizations in, its time to start working on the things
well need for making one. First, well need to create dimensions. Open up the Sales Analysis sheet in Edit mode
and do these steps to create your first dimension:

1. Click on the Master items button in the bar on the left.

2. Click on Dimensions.
3. Click on the Create new button.
4. Click on Customer from the list of fields to select it.
2 5. Name the dimension Customer.
6. Click on Add dimension to create the master dimension.
7. Click Done to close the window.

You should now be able to see the Customer dimension in the list of master
dimensions. Repeat the above steps and create master dimensions for all of
1 3
the fields that are currently loaded. Make sure all are named properly
because their name will be the label displayed in the visualizations well be
making later.

7
Qlik Enablement Workshop
Next, well create a Drill-down dimension. From the Master items panel, create a new dimension. At the top of
the Create new dimension screen, you can change the dimension from single to drill-down. Follow the steps
below to create a product drill-down dimension:

1. Select Drill-down as
the type of
dimension. 1
2. Click on the
CategoryName
field to add it as the
first dimension.
3. Click on the
Product field to add
it as the second
dimension. 4

4. Name the drill-down

dimension Product 3
Drill-Down.
5. Click on Add
dimension to create 2
the master
dimension.
6. Click Done to close 5
the window

Dimensions alone wont be

enough to make our
6
visualizations. Lets move on
to measures.

CREATING MEASURES

Creating measures is quite similar to making master dimensions. Instead of opening the Dimensions tab in the
Master items panel, click on the Measures tab. From here, click on the Create new button to open up the Create
new measure screen. Once here, do the following to create a measure:

1. In the expression window, type

sum(Quantity).
2. Name the measure Total Quantity.
3. Click on Create at the bottom-right. 1

The expression window can be expanded by clicking

on the Expression icon.
2
Now that weve learnt how to create a measure, its
time to create some more that well be using in this
app. On the following page is a list of measures and the expression you need to 3
use to make them. Create them all.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
The measures below first have their measure name and are then followed by their expression. Make these master
measures accordingly.

Unit Price sum(UnitPrice)

Discount sum(Discount)
Quantity Per Unit sum(QuantityPerUnit)
Unit Cost sum(UnitCost)
Sales Amount sum(Quantity * UnitPrice)
Cost of Goods Sold sum(Quantity * UnitCost)
Margin % (sum(Quantity * UnitPrice) - sum(Quantity * UnitCost))
/ sum(Quantity * UnitPrice)

Once these measures are created, we can move on to creating our first visualization.

CREATING VISUALIZATIONS

Before we begin, make sure youre on the Sales Analysis sheet and in Edit mode. If youve been following
all the instructions so far, you should have everything you need to make a functional chart. Well first make a bar
chart that shows products by their sales amount. Do as instructed below to create the bar chart:

1. Click on the Charts button in the bar on the left.

2. Drag the Bar Chart option and drop it on to the sheets edit area to create it.
3. Click on Add dimension and select Product Drill-Down.
4. Click on Add measure and select Sales Amount.

You can also add dimensions and measures to charts by dragging and dropping them on to a visualization from the
Master items panel. This will give you a context menu in most cases, giving you options on how to use the dimension
or measure.

1
2

4
Qlik Enablement Workshop
MODIFYING VISUALIZAT IONS

Since weve learned how to create visualizations, its time to

learn how to change and modify them.
1
Your bar chart should look somewhat like the picture on the
left at this point. There are plenty of things you can do to
different visualizations to change their appearance. This
can be done using the options available in a charts
Properties panel.

While the bar chart is selected, you should see a few

headers on the right in the Properties panel. If the panel
isnt visible, just click on the Properties button at the
bottom right to open it. Once there, just play around with
the options youve got. Thats the best way for getting
familiar with all the customizations options for every chart
type.

For now though, lets stick to a more directed approach of

learning. Lets begin by adding a title to the bar chart. Use
the instructions below to make some changes to the first
visualization youve made:

1. Click on the Click to add title message at the very top of

the chart (or the + sign next to it) and name it Sales by
Product.

Another way to do this is through the Appearance tab in the charts

Properties panel. In the Appearance tab, expand the General sub-
group and make sure Show titles is on, then type the title in the
field below. If the Click to add title button isnt visible unlike the
image above, then you probably have to turn on titles from here
first.

After adding a title, change the size and

position of the chart. You can hold and drag
the borders of a chart to alter its size.
Shorten the length of the visualization until it
fits in the top half of the sheet and increase
or decrease width until it looks like the bar
chart is neatly tucked in the top-left quarter
of the overall area of the sheet. Your sheet
should look like the picture on the left by this
point.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
Now select the bar chart again, open its Properties panel and follow
the steps below:

1. Click on Appearance.
2. Click on Presentation to expand the sub-group.
3. Select Horizontal as the layout for the bar chart.
4. Scroll down; if needed, and click on Colors and legend to
expand it.
5. Change Colors from Auto to Custom. 1
6. Select By dimension.

Your bar chart will now look like the picture above. There 4
are still plenty of changes that can be made such as 5
showing the value of each bar in front of it, or changing
how X axis or Y axis values are displayed. You can
6
experiment around and make changes as you see fit. We
dont need to do anything more for this chart however.

Next, well create a chart by copying our bar chart. We

can do this by right-clicking the chart and opening a
context menu (pictured below). From there, click on
Copy, right-click elsewhere and press Paste. This can
also be done using your computers Copy and Paste
hotkeys when a chart is selected. The Delete menu entry
and your keyboard key works the same way and can be
used to remove visualizations.

Visualizations can also be added to the Master items list

and then dragged-and-dropped to instantly recreate the
visualization anywhere in the app. You can edit it from the
Master items list and changes will automatically be made
on every instance of the visualization in the app.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
COMPLETING THE SHEET

With all the basics covered, we can now work towards making the remaining visualizations and finish our
sheet. First, lets convert the copy of the bar chart that we made at the end of the last section.
1

1. Drag and drop a Pie Chart (on the copy of the bar chart) from the Charts panel.
2. Click on Convert to: Pie chart in the context menu that opens up.
3. Go to the Appearance tab in chart Properties.
a. Click on Presentation to expand the sub-group.
b. Change from Pie to Donut.

Align your new pie chart to be right next to the bar chart you made in the previous section. Change its length and
width so it covers the same height from
the top of the sheet as the bar chart and
covers the remaining width of the sheet.
By this point, the top half of the sheet
should look like the picture on the left,
with space remaining at the bottom half
for more visualizations.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
Currently, our pie chart has the same title, dimension and measure as our bar chart since we directly converted it.
Lets differentiate it a bit and turn into a pie chart that shows us the sales share of countries.

1 2

1. Drag and drop the Country master dimension on the pie chart.
2. Select Replace Product Drill-Down in the context menu that opens up.
3. Go to the Appearance tab in chart Properties.
a. Click on General to expand the sub-group.
b. Change the charts title to Sales Share by Country
4. Scroll down; if needed, and click on Colors and legend to expand it.
a. Change Colors from Auto to Custom.

Continued on next page

Qlik Enablement Workshop
For the last half of the sheet, well add a line chart that shows us the sales trend over a period of time. Follow the
steps below to create the final visualization on this sheet:

1. Drag and drop a Line chart from the Charts panel to the empty space at the bottom of the sheet.
2. Click on Add dimension and add the field MonthYear.
3. Click on Add measure and select Sales Amount.
4. Go to the Appearance tab in chart Properties.
a. Click on General to expand the sub-group.
b. Set the charts title to Sales Trend
5. Scroll down; if needed, and click on Presentation to expand it.
a. Change the chart display from Line to Area.
b. Enable Show data points.

5
4
Qlik Enablement Workshop
THE DASHBOARD SHEET

You should be fairly well acquainted with the Qlik Sense interface by now. For the second sheet, well
take a more hands-off approach and let you make the charts yourself with slightly less guidance. Start by creating
a sheet titled Dashboard.

The first visualization well be making is a

gauge chart. For this, were going to need
the Margin % measure we made earlier on.

Below is a complete list of steps necessary

to create the chart to look like the image to
the right:

1. Drag and drop a Gauge chart from the Charts panel anywhere on the sheet.
2. Click on Add measure and select Margin %.
3. Go to the Data tab in chart Properties.
a. Click on Number formatting and select Number.
b. Set the format to percentage and show digits up to one decimal place.
4. Click on the Appearance tab.
a. Click on General to expand it.
b. Set Margin % as the title for the chart (make sure Show title is On).
5. In the Appearance tab, expand the Presentation sub-group.
a. Set Range limits minimum value to zero.
b. Set Range limits maximum value to one.
c. Change the charts display from Radial to Bar.
d. Enable Use segments
e. Add two limits. Set them at 0.33 and 0.66 respectively and turn on Gradient for both.
f. Set the color for the first area to red, second orange and third green.
6. In the Appearance tab, expand the Measure axis: Margin % sub-group.
a. Set Labels and titles to Labels only.

By the end of these steps, you should have a chart that is identical to the picture above. Move the chart to the top
left of the sheet and lets begin working on the next one.

For the next chart, were going to need a new drill-down

dimension. If you need a refresher on creating a drill-
down dimension, refer to the section above. Youll find
the list of dimensions you need to add below, and in the
order they need to be:

1. MonthYear.autoCalendar.Year.
2. MonthYear.autoCalendar.Quarter.
3. MonthYear.autoCalendar.Month.

Name the drill-down dimension Date Drill-Down.

Qlik Enablement Workshop
The next chart well make is a bar chart that shows us
sales by year and can be drilled-down to quarters and
then months. The chart itself is simple to make once
the drill-down dimension has been created.

Once done with that, do as instructed below to create

a chart like the one on the right.

1. Drag and drop a Bar chart from the Charts

panel anywhere on the sheet.
2. Click on Add dimension and select Date
Drill-Down.
3. Click on Add measure and select Sales Amount.
4. Go to the Sorting tab in chart Properties.
a. Reposition Date Drill-Down to be above Sales Amount.
5. Click on the Appearance tab.
a. Click on General to expand it.
b. Set Sales by year/quarter/month as the title for the chart (make sure Show title is On).
6. In the Appearance tab, expand the Colors and legend sub-group.
a. Set Colors to Custom from Auto.
b. Select By dimension.

Place the completed bar chart next to the Margin % gauge chart. Leave space for a chart of about the same width
to its right.

The next chart well make is a pie chart similar to the one
we made before. This time though, well add alternative
dimensions and measures that can be changed to alter the
display of the visualization on the fly. Follow these steps to
make the pie chart on the left:

1. Drag and drop a Pie chart from the Charts panel anywhere on the sheet.
2. Click on Add dimension and select Product Category.
3. Click on Add measure and select Sales Amount.
4. Go to the Data tab in chart Properties.
a. Add the following dimensions as alternative dimensions:
i. Product
ii. Country
iii. Customer
b. Add the following measures as alternative measures:
Qlik Enablement Workshop
i. Total Quantity
ii. Margin %
5. Click on the Appearance tab.
a. Click on General to expand it.
b. Set Sales Mix as the title for the chart (make sure Show title is On).
6. In the Appearance tab, expand the Presentation sub-group.
a. Change the charts display from Pie to Donut.
7. In the Appearance tab, expand the Colors and legend sub-group.
a. Set Colors to Custom from Auto.
b. Select By measure.

Put the finished Sales Mix pie chart beside the bar chart. Leave the lower half of the sheet empty for our apps
final visualization.

For the next chart, well need to create two new measures.
You can refer to Creating Measures if you need to review how
to make measures. Make the following two measures

Number of Orders count(DISTINCT OrderID)

Avg. Deal Size avg(Quantity)

After making these measures, well begin working on our last

chart.

The last visualization well create (pictured above) is a combo chart that shows the trend of the number of orders
and the average size of each deal over a period of time. The steps below will guide you on how to make the whole
chart.

1. Drag and drop the Combo chart from the Charts panel on to the empty space in the bottom half of the
sheet.
2. Click on Add dimension and select the field MonthYear.
3. Click on Add measure and select Number of Orders.
4. Drag and drop the Avg. Deal Size measure from the Master items panel on to the chart.
a. Select Add Avg. Deal Size from the context menu.
i. Select As line.
5. Click on the Appearance tab.
a. Click on General to expand it.
b. Set Order Trend as the title for the chart (make sure Show title is On).
6. In the Appearance tab, expand the Presentation sub-group.
a. Enable Show data points.
Qlik Enablement Workshop
With that, weve finished our app. You can see snapshots of the completed sheets below and compare them with
the sheets youve made. Make sure you reorder your sheets and put Dashboard before Sales Analysis.

Dashboard Snapshot

Sales Analysis Snapshot