Preface

The need for business intelligence (BI) solutions and data analysis has always existed, and so have different approaches to fulfill this need. Traditional BI software has heavily relied on techniques that have been around and persisted through the decades, but newer technologies have emerged in recent times that have been proven to be more flexible and, therefore, more adequate for the evolving environment in which they are used. QlikView is an example of these disruptive technologies, a kind of software that changes the rules of the game.

QlikView is different; that's a fact. It's different in an advantageous way. If you have worked with traditional BI software before, it might be necessary to let go of some of the preconceptions you may have regarding how BI solutions are built. If, on the other hand, you are a newcomer to the BI landscape, we will help you get the basics in order so that you get up-to-speed. In any case, rest assured that you are on the right track by having picked QlikView as your tool and this book as your guide.

The good news is, the material between these covers has been written in such a way that newcomers, BI professionals experienced in other tools, and even seasoned QlikView practitioners will find useful. This book will provide you with the knowledge required to understand how QlikView works, and the skills needed to build QlikView documents from start to finish—from loading data to building charts. Even if you have worked with QlikView before, you will find that the exercises presented in each chapter, and the recommended practices we discuss, will help you extend your knowledge and become more proficient with QlikView.

Among other features you will find on this book, some of the most important are as follows:

• The book is practical and hands-on. It is filled with examples that will let you take the theory into practice right away. We support this hands-on experience by providing a full dataset used across the entire book, and around which we build a fully-functional QlikView document that contains a dashboard, various analyses (both basic and complex to build), and reports using the Dashboard-Analysis-Reports (DAR) approach.
• In every chapter, a piece of a final QlikView document is built, which allows you to follow its evolution from start to finish. It also enables us to cover different development challenges that you may encounter in a real-world QlikView project.
• We made sure to cover both backend and frontend development, so you will find that all 15 chapters cover different topics, from scripting and data extraction to data modeling, design, charts and expressions, as well as security, and everything in between. We also talk about various best practices related to each of these topics.

All of the examples discussed in the book are complemented with solution files for the reader to follow the exercises and compare your work. The QlikView files we provide are Personal Edition enabled, which means that a purchased QlikView license is not required to open them.

Although the case and story used in the book are built around a fictional company, the data we use in our examples and final application is real. Thanks to the Open Government initiative and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the United States, which compiles and maintains a complete dataset about airline operations in the US, you will be able to work with real data and build a QlikView application to analyze flights, enplaned passengers, cargo, and many others across multiple dimensions, such as carriers, airports, cities, and aircraft types.

Congratulations on taking a step towards learning to develop BI applications with QlikView. Are you ready for take off? Qlik on!