The visual exploration capability introduced in Qlik Sense 2.1 strengthens the concept of self-service Business Intelligence. It puts more power in the hands of business users or users who are not the original authors of the application. It allows users to change properties of certain objects such as bar charts, scatter charts, and trendline charts without entering the Edit mode or changing the underlying content of the application. The feature works in all versions of Qlik Sense, namely Qlik Sense Desktop, Qlik Sense Enterprise, and Qlik Sense Cloud.
This recipe will make use of the Automotive.qvf
application available on the Qlik Sense hub. This application usually comes with the default installation of Qlik Sense Desktop. If you don't get the application with the installation, you can download the same from the source material for this chapter available on the Packt Publishing website.
Automotive.qvf
application from the hub.Sales overview
sheet.The visual exploration feature allows the business user to change the properties of the onscreen objects without entering the Edit mode. If the user himself is the author of the application, then they can keep the changes and make them a part of the original application.
An end user who is accessing a published application on Qlik Sense Cloud or Qlik Sense Enterprise can make the changes to the properties using visual exploration techniques but can't keep them. In other words, the changes remain only in the users' session.
The visual exploration capability can be used only with certain Qlik Sense objects. It cannot be used with gauge charts, table objects, or pivot charts. It cannot be used with extension objects either.