The property panel is a key part of your Qlik Sense extension. The aibility to set extension properties is what makes your extension both reusable and flexible. At the same time your options are much more limited than in the rendering part of the extension. And since this is Qlik Sense specific all of it, there is not so much information and examples available on the internet. So here are some patterns and techniques I find useful in extension development.
1. Use expressions always
Strings in the property panel can allow Qlik Sense expression by setting “expression: ‘optional’ “. Use that – always. This allows the app developer to use expressions for the property and thereby make the property dynamic. It also allows the app developer to reference a variable and use a variable extension to allow the end user to switch values for the property (horizontal/vertical for example).
It allows the app developer to use an expression, but doesn’t force her. Still a fixed string can be used, and probably will be used. And the good thing thing is you don’t have to bother about that in your extension code, you get this flexibility for free.
2. Dropdown with custom alternative
Sometimes you have just a few possible values for a property, or you want to help the app developer with a list of common values for a property. The dropdown component is a good choice for that. But you risk loosing the flexibility of the expression: the dropdown will only make it possible to select a value at design time, no possibility to make it dynamic or affected by a variable. Or the list is really not a complete list, there are alternatives for the more advanced app developer.
In those scenarios you can combine a dropdown with a separate field that allows expressions like this:
- create a dropdown with your alternatives
- add a ‘custom’ alternative to the dropdown
- add a field with expression: ‘optional’ for the custom value
- give the field a show function, that returns true if the selected value is ‘custom’
In your extension code you will need to check for custom values, something like this:
var width = layout.width === ‘custom’ ? layout.customwidth : layout.width;
3. Add properties to dimensions and measures
Sometimes you need a property for every dimension or measure. In that case you can extend the built-in dimensions and measures objects by adding new properties. You do this simply by setting the items property to the properties you want to add, and Qlik Sense will merge the default properties with the ones you hav defined. An example:
Note that the ref should begin with ‘qDef.’. That will mean it will be part of the measures property. To the app developer your roperty will look just like the built-in ones. You can do the same thing with dimensions.
