Working with Qlik script in VSCode

I'm a big fan of Microsoft's free code editor Visual Studio Code (VSCode). For some time now I've been using it for various non-Qlik projects including Arduino based ones. Recently I decided to make the leap to working with Qlik script files in VSCode rather than Notepad++ (NPP) which had been my go-to editor for many years.

Although Notepad++ is a perfectly capable text and code editor, there has been a large increase in competition in recent years and NPP has gotten left a little behind. One very relevant example is NPP's syntax highlighting engine which only supports very basic highlighting whilst the majority of the competition have moved to RegEx based engines that can provide much more accurate highlighting.

Having been using VSCode for several months now, I thought I'd share some of the extensions and tools I have begun to find very valuable when working with Qlik script files.

Qlik for Notepad++ v2.6 Released

Version 2.6 contains the following functionality improvements and bug fixes:

• Added the missing keyword DETAIL
• Corrected issue that was preventing "GROUP BY" being correctly highlighted
• Made normal brackets "( and )" a delimited pair to support auto bracket closing and prevent issue with opening brackets preventing function highlighting

This release contains the following known issues:

• The if() function is highlighted in bold. This is because Notepad++ can't differentiate between the if() function and the IF statement. No known solution is available for this issue.

It is recommended that this release be used with Notepad++ version 6.6.9 and later.

Qlik Sense WordPress Plugin v1.3.1

A new release of the Qlik Sense WordPress Plugin is out. Version 1.3.1 brings the following tweaks and changes:

• Fixed a bug where clicking cancel on the shortcode insert popups still inserts the shortcode
• Made the plugin clean up all its settings uninstalled
• Made the plugin translation ready and included en_US and en_GB translations

If you'd like to help translate the plugin into other languages, please get in touch.

If you have the plugin installed already, the update should become available in the WordPress admin control panel of your site. Full details of how to install and use can be found here.

Qlik for WordPress Plugin v2.0

Qlik for WordPress v2.0 has just been released. This release provides the biggest improvements to date, bringing a large number of new features as well as the usual tweaks and bug fixes.

If you've tried the plugin before and found it stopped other features and plugins from working, give it another try as hopefully this issue has now be resolved.

Plugin Settings Page

The plugin now has its own settings page where you can turn on or off the otional features.

Qlik Web Syntax Highlighter v2.0

Qlik Web Syntax Highlighter v2.0 has just been released. This release provides the biggest improvements to date, bringing a large number of new features as well as the usual tweaks and bug fixes and follows:

• Added Qlik Sense connection string support
• Added the missing keywords DERIVE and FLUSHLOG
• Added support for DIRECT QUERY statements
• Fixed issue with REM comments not supporting whitespace before them
• Fixed issue with clicking cancel on shortcode prompts results in shortcode still being entered
• Fixed issue with variable declarations containing a full stop (AKA period) not highlighting correctly
• Fixed issue with backslash incorrectly operating as an escape character in strings
• Other minor highlighting improvements
• Significant speed improvements
• Added custom vector font to allow insertion of some Qlik icons
• Added the LUIicons vector font from LeonardoUI to allow insertion of all Qlik Sense UI icons
• Added optional extra line numbers to code block (should be used with caution as can prevent correct highlighting of code than spans multiple lines eg. /* */ block comments)

Qlik for Visual Studio Code v0.4.0

After my recent post regarding text editors for working with QlikView and Qlik Sense script files, Visual Studio Code was top of the wish list. There was already a Qlik VS Code extension available in the VS Marketplace, that whilst not perfect was a great start. So I reached out to it's author Xavier Hanh with an offer to collaborate on improving the syntax highlighting it offers.

I'm pleased to announce the first fruits of the collaboration, a new release of the Qlik for Visual Studio Code extension.

The Vanishing Addict

I've received a number of similar questions lately regarding the absence of any new posts over the last year or more and my sudden return. So I thought I'd address them all out in the open. Here goes....

Am I still alive? Yes, thankfully I am.

Have I given up Qlik? Are you kidding? Until they develop an effective treatment I'll remain an addict.

Text Editors for Qlik Developers

As you will no doubt have seen, I've recently been making some updates to the various Qlik syntax highlighting tools, plugins and extensions I've produced. These updates are long overdue and have added support for some of the changes and additions to QlikView and Qlik Sense over the last couple of years. Support for Direct Query statements, Qlik Sense connection strings and a small number of missing keywords are most notable.

Whilst making the updates I noticed that the language definition for UltraEdit hasn't been download anywhere near as many times as the others. It was originally produced at the request of a customer who used UltraEdit and so I never really knew how popular it was these days. This got me wondering what text editors people were using to edit Qlik script files. So curiosity get the better of me and I tweeted a quick poll to find out what people's preferences were. After 24 hours the results were in and the tweets I received were read. A huge thanks to everyone who responded!

Qlik Sense WordPress Plugin

Whilst updating the Qlik for WordPress plugin recently, I noticed that it was no longer the only Qlik related WordPress plugin available. The newcomer, produced by Yianni Ververis of Qlik, allows you to easily embed Qlik Sense charts, tables and other objects into posts and pages on a WordPress powered website.

You can find full details and instructions on how to install and use this plugin here or alternatively, below is a quick video from Qlik:

I've been working with Yianni over the last week to offer some improvements to make the plugin even more simple to use. The new release 1.3.0 is available to download now!

Qlik Notepad++ Language Definition v2.5

A new version of the Qlik Notepad++ Language Definition has been released. Version 2.5 contains the following functionality improvements and bug fixes:

• Added Qlik Sense connection string support
• Added the missing keywords DERIVE and FLUSHLOG
• Added support for DIRECT QUERY statements
• Corrected issue with some keywords not highlighting when touching a semi-colon
• Added support for QlikView Components variables and sub routines
• Other minor improvements

This release contains the following known issues:

• The if() function is highlighted in bold. This is because Notepad++ can't differentiate between the if() function and the IF statement. No known solution is available for this issue.

It is recommended that this release be used with Notepad++ version 6.6.9 and later.

As always, head over to the Notepad++ Language Definition page (or Branch) for the download link and instructions.

A surprising data visualisation pioneer: Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale is famous across the world for being the founder of modern nursing. You may well be familiar with stories of "The Lady with the Lamp" and her contributions to treating the sick and injured during the Crimean War. But what you may not know is that Florence was also a pioneer in using Data Visualisation to tell a story.

Born on 12th May 1820 into a rich upper-class British family, Florence spent most of her early years growing up at their lavish family estate in the South of England. She was highly educated by her father, something that was unusual for a girl at that time. From an early age, she demonstrated a gift for mathematics which would become extremely significant in later life.

At that time, young women from affluent English families were expected to dedicate their lives to becoming wives and mothers. Florence, however, felt that her future lay in helping others and in 1844 she announced to her family that she wished to become a nurse. Despite the anger and protests of her mother, she set about training herself in the art and science of nursing.

Qlik for WordPress Plugin v1.2

Qlik for WordPress Plugin version 1.2 has been released and included the following updates:

• Minor bug fixes
• Update to the Highlight.js core

If you installed the plugin from the WordPress Plugins Directory then you will be prompted to install the update next time you log in to your site's WordPress Admin portal. Alternatively, downloads and full instructions for installation and use can be found on the QlikView for WordPress page, or alternatively on the WordPress.org website.

Qlik Web Syntax Highlighter v1.2

Qlik Web Syntax Highlighter version 1.2 has been released and included the following updates:

• Minor bug fixes
• Update to the Highlight.js core

As always, grab the download link and full instructions from the QlikView Web Syntax Highlighter page. If you find any issues or have any suggestions, please leave me a comment below.

A new version of the Qlik for WordPress Plugin based on the Web Syntax Highlighter is planned for release shortly.

QlikViewAddict.com gets a face lift

As you can see, QlikViewAddict.com has started to go through a redesign. It's been something I've been planning for a while now and it isn't yet complete. Over the next few days I'll be rolling out the rest of the redesign and I'll do my best to keep any disruption to the site to a minimum. If you do find the site is down at any time, please call back a little later.

It still astonishes me the volume of traffic this site gets and I feel guilty for not finding the time to blog more than I do. This redesign will hopefully be the start of a few changes to the site which I hope will reignite my enthusiasm.

- Matt

WordPress XSS Vulnerability

A vulnerability has recently been found which affects a huge number of WordPress plugins and themes. In simple terms, it allows malicious code to be executed on any site using a theme or plugin which contains the vulnerability.

For those using my QlikView for WordPress plugin, the good news is that it isn't affected by this XSS vulnerability and so you don't need to worry. However many of the most commonly used plugins have been found to contain the vulnerability including:

The origins of data visualisation: Michael van Langren

The Chinese philosopher Confucius is thought to have said "Study the past if you would define the future". Whilst I have no intention of defining the future of data visualisation, I certainly believe that looking at its origins, successes and failures can help us to better visualise data today.

It is fairly widely accepted that the first true data visualisation was made by the Dutch cartographer, mathematician and engineer Michael van Langren. Langren served as royal mathematician to King Philip IV of Spain, and became interested in one of the most important mathematical problems of the day - how to accurately determine longitude. Being able to determine longitude was hugely important for navigation, especially at sea. There were various methods used at the time but most were known to be estimations at best.

To demonstrate the wide difference in the estimations, in 1644 Langren published a simple, single dimensional chart to demonstrate the significance of the problem to the Spanish court.

Langren drawing for the Spanish court of 1644

QlikView Components v10.1 Released

A new version of QlikView Components (QVC) is now available. Version 10.1 brings bug fixes and improvements to additional functionality. This new release can be downloaded from: https://github.com/RobWunderlich/Qlikview-Components/releases/tag/v10.1

Changes for V10.1:

• Closed issue 23. Non-English characters not supported in log file. (Thanks to Alkopfer)
• Qvc.Log -- New variable Qvc.Log.v.WriteToQvLog, indicated if the logging should also be written to the QlikView/Sense application log file and script progress window.
• Closed issue 24. Qvc.IncrementalSetup failing when QVD exists but is empty. (Thanks for Luca Jonathan Panetta)
• Qvc.SegmentedStore -- New segment type of 'day' added to create daily QVDs.

You can read the full release notes here.
-Matt

Populate QlikView variables from an external file

When building multiple tiered QlikView solutions, it is often handy to be able to define global variables that are then used across all QVWs within the solution. For example, having a single variable that defines where QVDs are to be stored and loaded from, can make moving the app from a development environment to a production server a little quicker and simpler.

I'm starting to feel like a broken record saying this, but there are of course multiple ways to achieve this in QlikView. One method, and probably the most commonly used, would be to define the variables in a QlikView script file as follows:

SET vQVDPath = C:\QlikView\Data\QVDs\;

The script file can then be included in multiple QVWs by added the following line towards the start of each script:

$(Include=..\config\variables.qvs);

QlikView Components v10 Released

A new version of QlikView Components (QVC) is now available. Version 10 brings many new features and big fixes, most notably, the first additions from the merger of QVC with QlikView Addict CodeBox (QVACB). This new release can be downloaded from: https://github.com/RobWunderlich/Qlikview-Components/releases/tag/v10

Changes for V10:
- QVC Documentation and Examples are Personal Edition enabled.
- Merged QVACB library with QVC.
    - Migrated Sub from QVACB, Qvc.Icons. Bundle loads image files into a QVW.
    - Migrated sub from QVACB, Qvc.QvdEmpty. Empties data from a QVD.
    - Migrated sub from QVACB, Qvc.SegmentedStore. STOREs table into segmented QVDs by date range.
    - Migrated function from QVACB, Qvc.DateDiff.
    - Migrated function from QVACB, Qvc.Days360.
    - Migrated function from QVACB, Qvc.NVL.
    - Migrated function from QVACB, Qvc.InRange.
- Closed Issue 12. Qvc.ExpandInterval script error when field name contains comma.
- Closed Issue 5. Qvc.DbExtract Initial extraction proceeds even when KeyField has typo in it.
- Closed Issue 4. Qvc. DbExtract Provide table specific BaseValue.

You can read the full release notes here.

-Matt

QlikView Addict CodeBox merging with QlikView Components

The QlikView Addict CodeBox (QVACB) isn't a thing most people will be familiar with; the reason why will become clear as you read on. Several years ago now, I had some time on my hands and so I set about collating into a single package, all the reusable and useful bits of QlikView code I had lying around. The end result was QVACB. My intention was that at some point I would release it so that other QlikView developers could make use it, but maintaining my other released tools (such as the syntax highlighting) kept getting in the way. And so QVACB has been sat on the virtual shelf, only ever getting as far as being released to a handful of QlikView consultants/developers in something loosely resembling an alpha trial. I'm sad to say it hasn't even been updated in well over a year.

Recently I started to receive a few messages from people asking me to fix issues or add features to QVACB. After a little digging, it transpired that QVACB was being used by more people than I had thought and in some cases even in production solutions. This made me consider what the best way would be to go about releasing it properly. However, the last thing I wanted to do was release something which I never got the time to maintain properly.