Nebula sense

Generate a nebula visualization to be used as an extension in Qlik Sense.

Usage

nebula sense

Example

Generate a visualization with an extension definition

nebula sense --ext def.js

Generate a visualization with a meta info

nebula sense --meta meta.json

Generate a visualization no need of minifying and uglifying code

nebula sense --minify false

Generate a visualization setting destination directory as sn-table-ext

nebula sense --output sn-table-ext

Generate a visualization with generating source maps - .js.map files

nebula sense --sourcemap

Generate a legacy extension to run in Qlik Sense before 2020

nebula sense --legacy

Options

Parameter	Description	Default
—version	Show version number
—ext string	Set extension definition
—meta string	Set extension meta information
—output string	Set Destination directory	”<name>-ext”
—minify	Minify and uglify code	true
—sourcemap	Generate sourcemaps	false
—legacy	Generate legacy extension	false
-h, —help	Show help for command

Details

Meta information

You can improve meta info about the extension, such as extension name, extension icon, and description by providing a .json formatted file and supply that filename as an argument to the nebula sense command with --meta option.

Create a file called meta.json and add the following code demonstrating an example to set the extension meta information:

{
  "name": "My tasty banana extension",
  "icon": "barchart",
  "description": "Nebula test table wrapped in a Qlik Sense extension"
}

Run the command:

nebula sense --meta meta.json

The meta data is ended up in the QEXT file, which is detailed next section.

Copy the updated your-chart-ext directory to your Extension directory, overwriting the old version. Then the meta data of the extension has been changed.

The rest of the required information is populated automatically based on the content in package.json.

Metadata file

Running nebula sense generates an extension metadata file (QEXT - short for Qlik Extension) for you, which is required for loading the visualization into sense as it is used by Qlik Sense to identify the visualization extension.

The QEXT file can also be manually created by yourself.

Create a file called your-extension-name.qext and add the following code as an example:

{
  "name": "your-extension-name",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "",
  "author": {
    "name": "",
    "email": ""
  },
  "icon": "extension",
  "type": "visualization",
  "supernova": true
}

The "supernova": true attribute should not be added when building with the —legacy option below.

When creating your QEXT file, making sure that:

• The file is a valid JSON file
• The filename extension of the QEXT file (.qext) is in lower case letters.
• Each visualization contains at least one QEXT file and one JavaScript file.
• The JavaScript file and the QEXT file have the same name, including matching case.
• The name is unique in the Qlik Sense so prefixing of the name should be considered.

To know more about the meaning of properties in the QEXT file, refer to Work with the meta data

Extension definition

You can set property panel definition and feature support by creating a separate file for the extension definition and providing its filename as an argument to --ext.

Create a file called def.js and add the following code demonstrating an example to set the extension definition:

export default {
  definition: {
    // Property panel definition
  },
  support: {
    export: true,
    exportData: true,
    snapshot: true,
    viewData: true,
  },
  importProperties: null,
  exportProperties: null,
};

Run the command:

nebula sense --ext def.js

Note: Using the --ext option overwrites any ext definition already presented on the chart, its main purpose is to support legacy option below.

Output

Generate all required files into the specified --output folder called sn-table-ext:

nebula sense --output sn-table-ext

You upload that folder as an extension. See Qlik Cloud.