By Kristen A., QlikView Developer

Looking for a chart to use in QlikView but it isn’t listed? QV Extensions are there to open a new world of charts.

What exactly are extensions? A new feature for version 10 that makes it possible to write plugin objects.

Huh? Essentially, it’s great way to use other developers’ APIs to create sheet objects like Google charts. However, there’s a trick – extensions only work on the desktop client when you have WebView on. To do this, go to View > Turn on/off WebView.

When you download version 10 desktop, there is an extensions example that comes with it. Go to the getting started > examples. Some examples they show here are gantt chart, stream chart and icon chart.

Best Practices & Tips

1. Don’t just pull in a chart because it is cool. Make sure there is a real business value for it.
2. Press F5 to refresh extensions in QV

Why use QlikView?

Great question. I have one word for this: Open. With the extensions, QlikView now gives more flexibility by allowing 3^rd party APIs. I believe this is a huge step in the right direction and look forward to seeing what the community does with this capability.

How it is done?

Instead of giving you a step-by-step guide I am going to show you where to go. You will need to have QlikView SDK installed from the server installation. On my machine, I downloaded Server 10 and did a custom installation and only had SDK install. Then go to the video recordings > QlikView Extension folder. Inside that folder is a great video on how to create an extension. If you don’t have the means to download server there is also an API guide that comes with the desktop version.

Where are the extensions located?

Windows 7

• Desktop: C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\QlikTech\QlikView\Extensions\Objects
• Server: C:\ProgramData\QlikTech\QlikViewServer\Extensions\Objects

Windows XP