Files in Qlik Sense extensions

Qlik Sense allows you to add extensions to your installation. In a server environment you do this by importing a zip file, containing one or several extensions. In Qlik Sense Desktop you can unzip (the same) zip file to a directory under Documents/Qlik/Sense/Extensions.

The qext file

The qext file is what defines the extension. It’s a JSON file, it has to be valid JSON, but very few properties are mandatory. The qext file defines the extension root, Qlik Sense will make files the directory where the qext file and all directories under it available for HTTP calls to the server. So if you add an extension with the file xxxx.qext, you can fetch the file from the server with:

HTTP GET /extensions/xxxx/xxxx.qext

And all other files in the extension can also be fetched the same way:

HTTP GET /extensions/xxxx/xxxx.js

Sub-directories can also be used:

HTTP GET /extensions/xxxx/lib/jquery.js

Not that the directory name on disk is not relevant. On Qlik Sense Desktop you can build your own directory structure. Extensions in Dashbord bundle and Visualization bundle are kept in their own sub-directory, which doesn’t affect the URL used to load them. But if you do build a structure for your extensions, be careful that you do not keep duplicates of the same extensions. If you do you will not know which copy is actually loaded.

Multiple qext files

You can also have multiple qext files in the same zip file, which will mean that several extensions, and their files, are made available. Qlik Sense Enterprise will not allow you to have more than one qext file in the same directory, you can do this in Qlik Sense Desktop, but it is confusing, so you probably shouldn’t.

Multiple qext files is useful when you want to use the same files in more than one extension, like some library, CSS files etc. You can then put common files in one directory and add a qext file in it to make it available for all extensions. By putting them in the same zip file you make sure that they are updated at the same time as the extensions using the library. Another effect is that if the user is using two different extensions that use the same library, files will only be downloaded once. If every extension has it’s own copy of a library, it will be downloaded multiple times.

For Qlik Sense Enterprise you have no control over how the extension files are stored. It is not hard to find the files on disk, but the repository is responsible for storing them and serving to the client.

The extension type

One of the fields you always should have in the qext file is the type. In a visualization extension, that you should be able to use in the Qlik Sense client, it should be set to ‘visualization’:

"type": "visualization",

If you set it to something else, the Qlik Sense client will not load it and your users will not be able to create visualizations using it.

For mashups it is usually set to ‘mashup’:

"type": "mashup",    

This is not absolutely necessary, your mashup will still work even if you set the type to something else, but if you want to manage it and possibly edit the file in Qlik Sense dev-hub you need to set the type to ‘mashup’. That also means that if you want to hide your mashup in dev-hub, set the type to something else (perhaps ‘webapp’ ?).

There are also a few other types used by Qlik Sense: ‘visualization-template’ and ‘mashup-template’. These types are used for the templates used in dev-hub when you create a new visualization or mashup.

If you plan to build several mashups creating a good mashup template with the look-and-feel you want might be a good choice.

The wbfolder.wbl file

One of the most misunderstood file in extensions is the wbfolder.wbl file. It is simply a list of files in the extension, with one line for every file, terminated by semicolon:

com-qliktech-horizlist.js;
com-qliktech-horizlist.qext;
horizlist.css;

The wbfolder.wbl file is not mandatory. It is not needed for your extension for work, if you do have one it does not need to contain all files. It is only used by the dev-hub editors. Without it you cannot open or duplicate the extension in dev-hub.

If you do have it, only the files listed in wbfolder.wbl will be available in the editors. Also only the files in wbfolder.wbl will be copied if you make a copy of the extension or mashup. The other files will stil be available over HTTP, Qlik Sense will serve them.

A scenario I have seen used, is that a web developer buiilds a mashup, but then users (super-users ??) can modify files in it, like HTML, CSS or configuration files. In that case you can add a wbfolder.wbl to the extension containing just the files users should be able modify, but not other stuff, like libraries, possibly some JavaScript etc.

2 thoughts on “Files in Qlik Sense extensions”

  1. For all non-english users out there, be wary using letters outside the strict A-Z alphabet.
    Qlik Sense is incorrectly exporting .qext files as ISO-Latin-1 (aka ANSI).

    And when you import the extension in another Sense server (e.g. test -> production) Sense is assuming that all files are UTF-8.

    Ref: https://support.qlik.com/articles/000051788

Comments are closed.