Loading data into QlikView from public APIs has always been something of a challenge, often requiring complex macros, load scripts or external executables to do the work (I have even posted various macro based solutions on this blog before here, here and here).
I was never happy with the solutions I saw or that I came up with personally but the requirement for better API connectivity kept growing - we even started using more and more online systems for our own business (particularly for CRM online and accounting and we also make heavy use of Google Spreadsheets) so getting all this great data into QlikView became a personal pain point.
QVSource, our latest product, aims to address this and in doing so we hope will make QlikView the best connected BI tool. There is a great deal of information over on the website (specifically the documentation wiki) where you can also request a free download and start playing with the beta, so I don't need to repeat it here - but in simple terms the goal is to allow QlikView users to start downloading data from their favourite APIs in minutes and with minimum technical ability (usually you just need to punch in a username/password or API key and start selecting the tables you are interested in).
Connectors are already available for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google Analytics, Google Spreadsheets, OData, MongoDB, Sentiment Analysis, Twitter trust and other influence metrics and more.
For .NET developers we also working an an SDK which allows QlikView connectors to be built in hours rather than days (or weeks) - The SDK takes care of a number of common tasks such as authentication (including OAuth), caching, settings management, converting from xml/json to DataTables, password encryption, distribution/updating and more. The Twitter connector was actually built by a partner using the SDK.
QVSource is currently a functional beta so please give it a go and let us know what you think and what APIs you would like to see connectors for.
