At Industrial CodeBox we are currently developing a number of QlikView powered 'web widgets' (or 'Qliklets' as we have come to call them).
Widgets seem to have many definitions, but for our purposes I see them as having these two key qualities:
1) They are 'mini applications' which provide a relatively simple function (such as searching a product catalogue). Often they might provide a subset of features of a main website to which they relate.
2) They are easy to embed/share in other platforms. For example websites, standard blogging platforms (e.g. WordPress, Blogger), 'ajax home pages' (e.g. igoogle, Netvibes, PageFlakes) and social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Bebo).
(They should also be trackable, so that you can see who is using the widget and how they are interacting with it - but this really applies to any application so I don't list is explicitly).
I think QlikView makes an ideal backend for widgets for two main reasons. Firstly, QlikView provides fast 'faceted' search and navigation across very large datasets (e.g. catalogues). Secondly, the qvpx protocol lends itself well to an Ajax client - Ajax seems to me to be a requirement for web widgets because you cannot really perform postbacks from your widget not knowing what other widgets and functionality might be embedded alongside your own which this might disrupt.
So I'm presenting here our first 'Qliklet'. As the Desirabelles site we developed was the first public site built to illustrate QlikView's ability to power non 'BI' (e.g. ecommerce) websites, it seemed only appropriate that the first Qliklet should be the 'Desirabelles' Qliklet.
BTW - This isn't a screen shot, you can interact with it and grab it using the button at the very bottom.
(NOTE: If there is nothing displayed above it might be that your feed reader software does not allow JavaScript - If this is the case please view the original post in your browser.)
At the moment the site (www.desirabelles.com) and the widget are not linked but in a future release we plan to 'close the loop' between the two so that the widget can be grabbed from the main website and, likewise, the widget can lead the user back to the site.
If you would like to try embedding the Qliklet in your own website, blog or ajax home page you can click the 'Get Widget' button at the bottom which should take you here. (We are using the Widget Box platform to provide a clean user friendly interface for grabbing the Qliklet. This does not seem like something worth reinventing at this stage.)
After solving a number of technical problems, the main challenge now seems to be making best use of the very limited widget area to provide a clean, intuitive experience for the user (who has likely never heard of QlikView and might be confused by the different selection states). I don't think we have cracked this yet, but it's something we are considering quite carefully. Tracking of how the Qliklet is used plays an important role here - as if you discover that certain fields or controls are rarely used, they can probably be removed or replaced. One thing this version is probably currently missing is a search box and this should be in the next version.
Stay tuned if lingerie and apparel is not your thing! - We are working on another Qliklet which illustrates search across a much larger catalogue (approx 225,000 items) of electronic and entertainment goods.