23 March 2023 Basics of Alternate States in Qlik Sense Share this message Every Friday at Bitmetric weβre posting a new Qlik certification practice question to our LinkedIn company page. Last Friday we asked the following Qlik Data Architect certification practice question about creating an Alternate State in Qlik Sense. We tried to make the wrong answers look plausible, but fooled nobody: The correct answer is D Alternate states are created in the Master Items section of the sheet editor. Let’s have a closer look at what Alternate States are, and how we can create and apply them in our Qlik Sense apps. What are Alternate States? By default, user selections in Qlik Sense are stored in the default selection state, which is referred to by the $ symbol. See our earlier article on Qlik Set Identifiers for some more in-depth info on this. Alternate States, introduced way back in QlikView 11, is a functionality that lets you create additional selection states besides the default selection state. This means you’re able to show two (or more) different sets of selections in a single view. Why are Alternate States useful? With Alternate States, you can perform comparative analysis. Without Alternate States, you’d have to switch back and forth between two different selections in order to compare them. This isn’t very user-friendly. With Alternate States, you can show the results of two (or more) selections in a single view – which makes it much easier to compare them. Consider the example below, comparing sales for Audi in Finland with BMW sales in The Netherlands: How to create Alternate States Alternate States are created by going to Master Items, selecting Alternate states and clicking the Create new button. Next, you are asked to provide a name for the new state. Some things to keep in mind here are: Don’t use $ or 1 as a state name. These refer to the default selections and all selections. Don’t use a state name starting with $ or $_ followed by a number. These refer to previous and next selections. Don’t use a state name that’s already used as a bookmark name. Note that Qlik Sense will happily let you create some of these ‘forbidden’ state names. This can have strange results. It’s a matter of taste, but at Bitmetric we avoid spaces in state names. So StateA instead of [State A]. Set Analysis is already complex enough without adding extra square brackets π Applying Alternate States Alternate States can be applied at different levels within a Qlik Sense application: Sheet: all objects within the sheet will be placed in the selected alternate state, unless configured otherwise. The state can be selected under Sheet properties | Alternate states; Object: all expressions within the object will be place in the selected alternate state, unless configured otherwise. For objects that contain other objects, for example the container object, all nested objects will also be placed in the selected state, unless configured otherwise.The state can be selected under the Object properties | Appearance | Alternate states Alternate State inheritance By default, if no state is explicitly selected, Qlik uses the <inherited> state. This means that the object inherits the state of its parent object or document. Unless an alternate state is selected, an object inherits its state from a sheet, which inherits its state from the entire document. If a sheet is placed in an alternate state, by default all of the objects in that worksheet (which are set to the Inherited state) will be placed into the same alternate state. Another example is when objects are placed in a container, unless explicitly overridden at the object level these objects will inherit the state of the container. To override the inherited state, you can select a different alternate state from the State drop-down menu. Using Alternate States in expressions We’ve now come to the part where we’re ready to apply Alternate States in our expressions. We’ll cover this subject in more depth in a future question and blog post. Stay tuned π That’s it for this week. See you next Friday? Mail and Deploy webinar Join our upcoming webinar and learn how Mail & Deploy helps you develop and deliver data-driven, high-impact reports from Qlik Cloud, Qlik Sense and QlikView. Test your Qlik knowledge! Check out the Friday Qlik Test Prep archive for Qlik certification questions and answers. Friday Qlik Test Prep Solution How can we help? Feel free to contact us if you have any comments or questions. Call us Mail us 30 November 2023 Qlik Sense exploited in Cactus ransomware campaign We previously reported on patches for two critical vulnerabilities in Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows. If you haven’t upgraded already, now is the time to take heed: these vulnerabilities are actively being exploited in the Cactus ransomware campaign. 26 October 2023 TimeXtender Job Scheduling with Qlik Application Automation Unlock the power of Qlik Application Automation to schedule TimeXtender jobs efficiently. Discover automation tips for seamless data workflows. Download the template and boost your productivity today! API Automation Qlik TimeXtender 21 September 2023 Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows – Critical Security Fix #2 A new security issue in Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows has been identified. This resolves an incomplete fix for the vulnerability that was reported earlier this month. Patches are available and it is recommended to update your Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows environment at the earliest possibility. New Release Qlik Security
30 November 2023 Qlik Sense exploited in Cactus ransomware campaign We previously reported on patches for two critical vulnerabilities in Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows. If you haven’t upgraded already, now is the time to take heed: these vulnerabilities are actively being exploited in the Cactus ransomware campaign.
26 October 2023 TimeXtender Job Scheduling with Qlik Application Automation Unlock the power of Qlik Application Automation to schedule TimeXtender jobs efficiently. Discover automation tips for seamless data workflows. Download the template and boost your productivity today! API Automation Qlik TimeXtender
21 September 2023 Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows – Critical Security Fix #2 A new security issue in Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows has been identified. This resolves an incomplete fix for the vulnerability that was reported earlier this month. Patches are available and it is recommended to update your Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows environment at the earliest possibility. New Release Qlik Security