Using enigmajs in your Qlik Sense extension

Sometimes in your extension you need to acces the QIX Engine API. You might need to make or clear selections, apply a bookmark or something else. Traditionally you would use the Capabilities APIs for this. You would load the qlik module, get hold of the app with the help of the currApp() method, and call whatever function you needed.

But there is another way. You could do it the way the built-in client does, and use enigmajs instead. Enigmajs creates a javascript wrapper around the QIX api, a wrapper that includes all methods defined in the version of QIX your system is using. Qlik actually has open-sourced enigmajs, you can read more, and download it from the Github repository.

Enigmajs features

Important features of enigmajs:

  • it includes the complete QIX API for the actual version of QIX, while the capabilities API just includes a subset
  • it only includes the QIX Engine API, while the capabilities APIs wraps some client-side functionality too
  • methods calls return a Promise, that resolves when there is a response available
  • it handles the invalidation of objects as the selection state changes so it works well from inside an extension

Unlike the Capabilities APIs, enigmajs does not come with a lot of dependencies on requirejs, angularjs and Qlik Sense client code. This makes it well suited for use in envorinments where you use other frameworks, like react or future frameworks we have not heard of yet. Of course if you’re using it inside an extension, you already have all of these dependencies, so that is not so important.

Note that Qlik flags enigmajs as experimental in the current release. I would be very surprised if it goes away any time soon, but details in the implementation might change, you need to be aware of that.

Finding enigmajs in an extension

Qlik Sense creates a server side Generic Object for each instance of your extension (for all built-in charts too, actually). Around that Generic Object will be a javascript wrapper that exposes all the methods available. In the extension you can find it at:

this.backendApi.model.enigmaModel

It will expose all the methods defined in the Generic Object QIX engine API. As you can see, there are a lot of methods. It also has an app property, that exposes QIX Engine API app object. And the app has a global property, that is a wrapper around QIX Engine Global. This gives you access to the complete QIX Engine API.

An example

I have converted my Variable extension for Qlik Sense to use enigmajs instead of the Capabilities API, as versions before 4.0 did. The key call of the extension is after the conversion like this:

function setVariableValue(ext, name, value) {
        return ext.backendApi.model.enigmaModel.app.getVariableByName(name).then(function (v) {
            return v.setStringValue(value);
        });
    }
The parameter ext is a reference to the extension itself. Since methods return a Promise, I can use the then method to run an additional command after the first command resolves. The getVariableByName reurn an enigmajs wrapper aroud a QIX Engine Variable

Conclusion

If you need access to QIX Engine API from within your extension, enigmajs can help you with that. Unlike the Capabilities API it provides wrappers for all methods. But you should be aware that it only wraps engine api, not client-side functionality. It however works nicely within the client and invalidation and refresh of objects will work as expected.

One thought on “Using enigmajs in your Qlik Sense extension”

  1. Thanks for this post Erik. Previously we were using qsocks engine API wrapper.

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