This article will cover the Qlik Sense app data manager interface. Note that some features of the interface may look slightly different depending on the product and version you are using.
The data manager is where you can add data to the app and visually connect and transform it. To get to the data manager, use the ‘Data manager’ button in the top bar of the app overview.
The screen will vary slightly given the product you’re using. In addition, it will look different when the app has no data, has data loaded through the data load editor or has data loaded and managed in the data manager.
The app data manager consists of 5 areas:
- The app top bar
- The data manager top bar
- The main screen
- The table menu
- The associations helper (only visible when the app has data)
The app top bar
The app top bar is the top bar visible on every page of the app. See ‘App Overview Interface’ for further information on the top bar.
The data manager top bar
The data manager top bar is always visible, regardless of whether there is data in the app. The leftmost ‘Add data’ button allows you to add data to the app. You can choose to do so via the ‘Data catalog’ (Qlik Cloud only) or via ‘Files and other sources’.
The next button along is a ‘Concatenate or join’ button. This button is greyed out when there is no data being managed in the data manager. When there is data in the app, you can use this button to launch a tool which will help you concatenate or join multiple data tables together.
Next along are undo and redo buttons which will become useable after you made changes to the data in the data manager.
The next button is a toggle between viewing the data on the main screen through associations or tables (see ‘The main screen’ below).
The final button in the data manager top bar is the ‘Load data’ button. Clicking this will reload your data. When you make a change to your data in the data manager, you will need to re-load your data to see the changes in your sheets.
The main screen
When a new app is created, the main screen is blank with an option to ‘Add data’.
If there is data but it has been loaded using the data load editor, you will still see the ‘Add data’ button but there will also be an option to run the load script. Clicking this button will bring the data into the data manager view so you can prepare it as needed. Note that if you synchronise your load editor data with the data manager, the data manager will insert ‘auto-generated’ script sections into your data load editor script to perform the changes you make.
When your app has data that is being managed in the data load editor, the main screen shows the data tables in the app or the associations between them.
Associations are ways that data tables link together via a common key. Think of a standard relational database with 2 tables. Each table has a primary key and one of the tables also has a foreign key to the other table. These 2 tables are therefore associated on the foreign key. The associations concept in Qlik is similar – it tells Qlik how to show the data in a table when its associated table has a filter applied.
This associations view shows you the tables in the app and if any of them are associated, there will be a connection visible between them. In this example, we have 2 tables: PINTEREST and SITE_VISITORS that are associated. Note that you can’t see which field the association has been made on.
The tables view simply lists the tables loaded into the app. You have some options here to interact with the tables such as the pencil icon to edit and the bin icon to delete.
Note that you cannot see whether the tables are associated from this view.
You can click on a table in any view type, associations or tables, to bring up a preview of the data at the bottom of the main screen.
The table menu
The table menu shows you the various actions you can perform on a table. They are greyed out unless you click on a table.
The pencil icon brings up the table editor. This is where you can transpose a table, add new fields, rename columns, change the column data type and much more.
The circular arrows reload the table you selected. That’s a good way to reload data in only a single table instead of having to reload the whole app.
The bin icon deletes the selected table.
The funnel icon clears filters applied to loaded tables.
Finally, the ‘…’ icon brings up a further 3 options.
- Concatenate or join: this option launches a window to help you perform a concatenate or join operation on 2 tables
- Synchronize scripted tables: this option will transfer any tables loaded in via the data load editor into the data manager
- View details: this will bring up details of the table such as the name and source
The associations helper
This sidebar is only available in the associations view. When you have multiple tables loaded, it can recommend associations between them which you can preview and apply if correct. You can toggle this on and off using the magic wand icon on the main screen of the associations view.
