Live Overview

This topic contains the following sections:

Vizlib Live - the Power of Cloud

Vizlib Live! allows users to view and interact with live data without leaving Qlik Sense.

We'll show you how to use the live query data engine of Astrato, also built by Vizlib, to deliver the power of now for Qlik Sense Enterprise and Qlik SaaS users where speed to insight and decision-making are paramount.

Vizlib Live! delivers:

  • A no-code way for Qlik Sense Enterprise and Qlik SaaS users to view and interact with live data held in a data cloud (like Snowflake).

  • Real-time access to your live data without the need for ETL processes.

  • The ability to explore REALLY BIG data sources with Qlik’s in-memory analytics and Astrato’s powerful live query data engine.

  • A familiar method for Qlik users to produce the pixel-perfect data stories you need to share.

High-level Requirements

In addition to your Qlik account, your checklist for success includes:

  1. An account to access your live data in a Snowflake, Google BigQuery, PostgreSQL, or Dremio Cloud.

  2. An Astrato Account to create your pixel- perfect live data story to view and share in Qlik. You can sign up for Astrato here if you have not signed up already.

  3. The Vizlib Live! extension from the Vizlib User Portal.

Note: Trial accounts and free plans are available for all the products required.

Getting Started with Vizlib Live!

Vizlib Live! How to video

Or open the Vizlib Live! getting started video in a new window.

Checklist for using Vizlib Live!

This checklist takes you through all the steps required, including where role permissions in Qlik Sense, your chosen data source, and Astrato may affect your initial setup.

Note: Role permissions in Vizlib are linked to Qlik, and Astrato permissions can be managed directly or use enterprise authentication.

You must have a role that has permission to:

  1. Access to the QMC that can modify whitelisted domains.

  2. Download Vizlib Live! from the User Portal.

  3. Create and use data in the cloud. Astrato can create connections to data in: Snowflake, Google BigQuery, PostgreSQL, or Dremio Cloud.

  4. Create an Astrato Account.

  5. Whitelist domains in Astrato. All users of Astrato that are Owners have Administration rights.

  6. Connect their data to use in Astrato.

  7. Create a Workbook in Astrato and publish it.

  8. Create the Embed link in Astrato and click the option to Copy Link to just use the URL.

Setting up Astrato

Connecting your Qlik Domain Securely in Astrato

Once your accounts are created, you can add links for the content you want to share in Vizlib Live!:

  1. Start in Astrato by allowing the connection to your Qlik domain.

  2. From the lobby sidebar, click Administration.

  3. Click View in the Embed section.

  4. Click the Allow list tab.

  5. Click Add and enter the URL for your Qlik domain. If you're using Qlik Desktop, you must add http://localhost:4848.

  6. Click Save to add the domain.

Figure 1: Allow connection to your Qlik Sense or Qlik SaaS domain in Astrato

Creating your Data Connection in Astrato

  1. In Astrato, connect to your live data source.

  2. From the lobby sidebar, click Data.

  3. Click (+) New connection and select the cloud data source type. The steps for each source type are slightly different, with options for user/password or enterprise SSO. Please see the article in Astrato on setting up data  connections. We recommend using Snowflake with Vizlib Live!

Note: The schema, view and field name can also be identified when creating the embed link in Astrato. Apply a filter before creating an embed link, and the name of the schema, view and field name will be included in the URL when including the filter in the embed link.

Viewing your Data Model Details in Astrato

Now that you’ve connected your data, the data model details as they display in Astrato will need to be added in Vizlib Live!

You can copy and paste them from Astrato into the fields in Vizlib Live! to ensure that the field names match, including any spaces.

  1. Data View/ Table name

  2. Schema name

  3. Field name

Note: The content in these fields must be the same - the fields are case-sensitive, and they must match any spaces in the names.

Figure 2: Showing the location of the View (1), Schema (2), and Field (3)

Creating and Publishing your Workbook in Astrato

Now that you're connected to your data, the next steps are to:

  1. Create your workbook. There's also a tutorial for learning Astrato in our VizLab. We hope you'll enjoy creating your workbook while exploring how working with live data could benefit your business.

  2. Publish your workbook to a collection. You'll select the embedded object, groups, or sheets from your published workbook to link to in Vizlib Live!

  3. Use the Embed process to generate the link to view and interact with your data story in Qlik Sense. You can select a single data object, a group, or the whole sheet to share in Qlik Sense. Click the option to Copy Link to just use the URL.

Qlik Enterprise Setup

Setting up Vizlib Live! in Qlik SaaS has two set-up prerequisites, but the rest of the steps are the same for Qlik Sense Enterprise and Qlik SaaS.

Qlik SaaS setup for Vizlib Live!

  1. In your Qlik SaaS Management Console, navigate to the Content Security Policy, click Add and paste the web address for your Astrato workbook in the Origin field.

  2. Click Directive, and from the options displayed, click the box beside frame-src, and click Add, to complete the setup.

Figure 3: Adding the origin URL for Astrato in Qlik SaaS

Vizlib Live! Set up in Qlik Sense and Qlik SaaS

  1. Download the Vizlib Live! extension.

  2. Decide whether you want your users to interact with the live data in a new Qlik App or use an existing one.

  3. In your Qlik sheet, click Edit, drag, and drop the Vizlib Live! extension onto the sheet.

  4. Paste the embed link in the field Astrato Embed URL in the left toolbar. Your live data story built in Astrato begins to render in Vizlib Live!

Setting a Data Refresh Rate in Qlik

You can use the property panel to set the data refresh interval for your embedded content. You can create a custom interval using an expression or select from the following options:

  • Off

  • 5 seconds

  • 10 seconds

  • 30 seconds

  • minute

  • minutes

  • 5 minutes

  • 15 minutes

  • 30 minutes

  • Custom using an expression

Selecting a Data Refresh Rate

  1. Select your embedded object.

  2. From the properties panel, click the option Interactivity.

  3. Just below the Information bar toggle, the drop-down list of Data refresh intervals displays with its default set to Off.

  4. Select a data refresh rate from the list.

Adding a Custom Interval Using an Expression

  1. Select Custom from the drop-down.

  2. An expression input field appears.

  3. Enter your expression that returns the intervals to set the data refresh intervals to.

Please see the page on Embeds in Astrato for more details.

Using Vizlib Live!

Before using Vizlib Live! ensure that the:

  • Domains are whitelisted in Astrato and Qlik Sense.

  • You’ve copied the embed link into the Astrato embed URL section.

Adding your Data Model Details to Vizlib Live!

  1. Open Qlik Sense, and click Vizlib Live!

  2. Click the Data tab.

  3. In the first box, Field, enter the name of the field in Qlik Sense (1) that you want to pass the selection to in Vizlib Live! The field name entered for Qlik must match the field you selected in Astrato, including any spaces.

  4. Enter the Schema (2), View (3), and Field (4) names from Astrato. Your embedded content should display.

  5. The field name is visible in the bottom left corner of the extension.

Figure 4: Entering the details of your data model in Vizlib Live! Qlik Field (1), View (2), Schema (3), and Field (4)

Note: The schema, view, and field name can also be identified when creating the embed link in Astrato. Apply a filter before creating an embed link, and the name of the schema, view and field name will be included in the URL when including the filter in the embed link.

Viewing your Embedded Astrato Visualization

When a field is connected in the extension, it appears in the lower-left corner, indicating the field from Qlik Sense that has been connected through the extension (1).

Figure 5: Shows the field connection (1), the cloud icon to disconnect the data connection (2), and the icon to refresh your data (3).

Refreshing the Data Displayed

Click the refresh button in the lower right corner (3).

Disabling the Data Connection

To disable the Live connection in the extension, click on the cloud in the lower right corner of the extension (2). This may be useful if you want to restrict the consumption of data from your data cloud or, if you are going to add many selections/filters; as this stops visualisation from loading/recalculating with each filter applied.

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